The other day I was talking with my husband about going to goodwill to look for pants. He felt strongly that goodwill is for people who don’t have much money. Then I explained to him some of the things I have been learning and I think with time he will warm up to what I’m talking about. Reprogramming can be challenging. Thanks Emma💖
we NEED to ALL support thrift stores, they have too muCH inventory but highly recommend supporting local thrift stores. Watch the whole video as to why I don't like chains like goodwill
Friendcycling works pretty well (I’ve passed along (and received) hangers, furniture, clothes, cardboard boxes(when I had a garage I saved collapsed medium sized boxes that I got from moving & my workplace, and so when friends were moving I passed them along) books, backpacks, etc.)
Thanks for this video. I can’t imagine working in a thrift store. Over a period of several years I collected hundreds of bags of clothing as well as furniture and household items to help newcomer (mostly refugee) families in my city. It was an absolute joy to interact with the people who were donating as well as to help the new families get started in their new country. However, I cannot begin to tell you how much time and effort it took to sort through the donated items and remove the things that were completely unsuitable to give to anyone else. There were clothing items that were dirty as well as items that were so damaged that they could not possibly be used. For example, jeans that had absolutely not backside left in them. Mattresses with blood on them. There were dirty and broken dishes and small appliances. Furniture that was extensively damaged by cats. (I love cats. I have three). At the end of the day I concluded that many people don’t want to take the time to clean items before they donate them. They just want the stuff out of their space. As for stuff they should have never been donated because it was unusable I concluded that some people just don’t have the guts to dispose of it properly and would rather leave that dirty job to someone else. I also found that a lot of people wanted to feel like they were doing something really virtuous and needed to be profusely thanked for dumping their sh*t at my door. All in all it was an experience that offered some valuable insights into human nature. Bless the people (many of them are volunteers) who work in the thrift stores I say.
I used to volunteer at a thrift store, we had so many used cookbooks that we tried selling them for a nickel but that hardly moved them. Used stuffed toys too. We just over produce so many things.
Great video! It touches on a very important topic that I will be talking about soon as well: Waste Colonialism! I am in Ghana and used clothing is so ubiquitous. We just can't keep up with the amount of clothes that are coming in and the quality keeps getting worse. So many of these clothes are landing up in our environment and beaches. You should watch the documentary on ABC I think called Dead Mens Clothes. It's available on RUclips. These imports are overburdening our already inefficient waste disposal systems. It's really frustrating to witness...sighhhh
Most of my clothes are hand me downs from family members- and anytime I get rid of clothes my little sister takes them. She's constantly asking me to give her specific items as well so if I don't wear them a lot then I give them to her.
@@TheSimpleEnvironmentalist I'm glad my comments made you happy 💖 I have a playlist I've been binge Watching videos in and I have a lot of your videos in there
Late to the party here but as an eco obsessed online reseller I wanted to mention that many appliances and electronics can be sold for repair or parted out so look into that before throwing them out.
never too late! I think I put my videeo in the description, I made one last year about allllll the different avenues for selling old and even broken tech to keep it out of the landfill! thank you :)
I’m all for shopping on resale site like ebay, fb marketplace, depop, etc. i feel like I’m supporting an individual rather than a large company like Goodwill
Another problem with sending used/donated clothing to other countries is that the people shiping them of don't have the time to sort them properly and often times clothes will end up in places where they are completely useless. Like winter jackets being sent to countries with a tropical climate. Those winter jackets can be in the best of conditions and they will still end up in landfill.
I can very much relate to all pf what your saying. I have personally decided to donate to smaller and locally based charity shops and check if they are taking donations and what they accept / decline before dropping off.
Loving this content, so thanks for posting! There was ONE Good Will that had a rack of pants with stains and paint on them, for laborers to buy so they didn’t have to destroy perfectly good pants. So cool! I’ve been buying my clothes 2nd hand for yrs and in the past few yrs been doing my best to avoid blends & synthetics. Blends tend to pill and deteriorate faster. The synthetics tend to hold odors and static more. Most don’t even make good rags - depending on the amount of plastics in them - and they are less likely to resell. Some of my old blend purchases probably wouldn’t even work for one of your cool DIY rugs. 😞
For stuff that doesn't have much monetary value but still good (towels, sheets, blankets, office/cleaing stuff, toiletries (qtips etc)) you can donate alot of stuff to dog shelters
Thank you for looking into this. I have a tendency to "rent" clothes from my local thrift stores (buy stuff to wear until it doesn't fit well anymore, then redonate), but I'm starting to do more upcycling. Any more info you can provide on textile recycling would be awesome. Also, any thoughts on the carbon impact of buying second-hand online and shipping?
I have done that before, too. Upcycling is great, but honestly, if the item is still in good condition, donating is just as great of an option! I don't have much insight on that...I'm sure it's much better than buying brand new fast fashion though!
I like triftstores, fleamarkets etc. If we break something like plates or cups, firts we look if it's repairebel. If not it go's to the recycle bin. We have one for paper, one for plastic one for composte and one for 'regular' trash. Glas bottles and pots go to a different contianer that's placed near the supermarkets here in the Netherlands. But I keep some glas pots/ jars for toothpowder in a pil form. It come's in paperbag like in 100 pc. I put theme in the jars to storage theme. You put this in your mouth and make in wet it disolvse in contact with water and you can brush your theeth. It's from the brand Choose. 😃
When considering items for donation I generally try to first sell it and then offer it up on a freecycle group. Selling first because people generally place more value on the things that they are going out of their way to buy from a person. My local freecycle group because I know that the item is staying local. (Shipping items somewhere else has an impact.) Donate as the final resort because I can only hold on to things for so long. An item languishing in my home while waiting to find a new owner is going to result in clutter. We only have so much space in the home.
Love this video! Great video as always ❤️ And I totally agree with the part about how people from other countries just buy Secondhand clothes from other countries rather than from local artists Here in the Philippines I see Thrift shops or ukay-ukay selling clothes from the U.S. and Korea etc. And the but alot of it still doesn't get sold and is just resold on Facebook.
Since having kids for the most part have lived off of donations and hand me downs....I'm so glad I did. I could of done better and still working on being better. I've always been frugal and I am getting better to continue to be that way...I don't like things anyway....it's a battle for me to get me some clothes...last year I found out about some locals selling outside in the street and found so great pieces....I have also found some things in my building complex such as a plant, Halloween costume and some other things....I feel like I found my tribe since I was this way and then as embarrassing as it is to say this I was starting to let others influence me with THE need to have something new... Glad I'm out of that.... I also forgot to mention I found my hubby a tower (pretty much brand new and it's dope) and a 55 inch tv and my in-laws gave us a few pieces of furniture and I'm so grateful. I mean I have a lot to be grateful for and I will continue to thrift and be frugal...it's smart because I save money and I always give stuff away to people I know who would use it!!! So it's a WIN! YAY
Great topic a lot of people do not talk about, I wish I had known you were going to do this video I could have helped. I made a behind the scenes thrift store video not long ago. I actually volunteer and run a thrift store and you would not believe the stuff we get donated. it is just gross sometimes.
@@TheSimpleEnvironmentalist yep, let's see the top of the list would be, used kleenix, used masks, condoms in package, new tampons, new pads, KY jelly and the top 2 was a used covid test and a DILDO!! yep I can not even make this stuff up!!!
My problem with shopping at thrift stores is all of the fabric softeners, laundry detergent scents, plus perfume that is trapped in the fibers. I am Chemically Sensitive. I have tried EVERYTHING to get the fragrance out. Soaking in vinegar, soaking in Oxygen Bleach, washing and rewashing them. Air drying outside between every wash. The smell might lesson but it doesn't get fully removed until weeks to months of rinse and repeat of this cycle.
Great video! I wish we'd start talking about this more in terms of overproduction though rather than overconsumption, as the latter puts the blame on the individual instead of on the actual culprits - big businesses who prioritize profit over everything else. The greatest environmental impact of any item will always be the production process, when the materials are being grown/chemically produced, when fabric is dyed etc, and that has already happened when you as an individual decide to purchase a shirt or couch or whatever it is, and when it just sits in your home it doesn't really affect anything all that much until you decide to get rid of it. It doesn't really matter if you have 5 shirts or 20. So it's really not the buying of said shirt that is the problem, (although we still absolutely need to be buying less) it's the manufacturing process and big corporations exploiting workers and deliberately making massive quantities of low quality items that won't last because they know that's how they 1. cut costs and 2. maximize profit because people will need to buy another shirt or couch in a couple of years since the last one they got broke. So at this point it's not demand that drives production it's production that drives demand. It's capitalism babey! 💰 Also, please check out The OR Foundation on instagram if you want to see and learn more about the horrible inpact imported used clothing from the west has on the local people and environment in Ghana!
I get what you're saying but it's all a circle. And I am blaming people (aka society) as a whole, not just one person. We overconsume because of overproduction and they overproduce because we overconsume. We can't reduce one without the other, they go hand in hand
@@TheSimpleEnvironmentalist Oh for sure! I agree with everything you said, my comment wasn't really meant to be critiquing your video but more of an addition to it, but I see now that it might have come across that way! They do go hand in hand, but also, even if we as a society keep demands up because at this point that's what we're used to, it's the big corporations that created that demand in the first place through marketing and planned obsolecence, and they make enormous sums of money keeping that demand up. Gillette is a great example, they invented disposable razor blades so that instead of every man buying one straight razor and then using that for his entire life he'd instead be buying a new box of razor blades every month which obviously is waaay more profitable for them. Then they wanted to expand their customer base so they could sell even more razor blades, so they made a bunch of ads basically saying "body hair on women is gross, you don't want people to think you're gross do you?", and now decades later here we are, with women expected to shave their body hair and cheap to produce disposable plastic razors being the norm. We as a society should stop consuming disposable plastic razors because they're terrible for the environment but the reason we're using them in the first place is because that's what's most profitable for razor companies. And I think it's important to make that distinction, because environmentalism is incomplete without anticapitalism.
Anyone know what to do with worn out shoes? I maintain them for years and years, but idk what to do when they get to the end of their life. It’s all damage idk how to repair like worn out soles. I can’t donate them but I don’t want them to go to landfill either.
I'd be keen to find out more on clothing recycling. Have just started to sell some of my unwanted clothes. Yes they are perfect and seems like thre most sensible way of offloading them
Goodwill is not what it seems to be…it is for profit for a good amount people. Do a mini deep dive and you will see. I will neither buy from them nor donate to them.
Thanks. One source I discovered recently is Gear Trade. I've ordered a few things from them and am very happy with what I've received. They have a good return policy as well. So If you have outdoor gear and clothing to buy or sell, try them.
lo siento! yo hablo muchos rapido, yo se. puede usar el ícono de ajustes en la parte inferior izquierda de la pantalla para ralentizar el video a la velocidad que mejor se adapte a sus necesidades. Tambien, lo siento para mi espanol, estoy fuera de práctica
The other day I was talking with my husband about going to goodwill to look for pants. He felt strongly that goodwill is for people who don’t have much money. Then I explained to him some of the things I have been learning and I think with time he will warm up to what I’m talking about.
Reprogramming can be challenging. Thanks Emma💖
we NEED to ALL support thrift stores, they have too muCH inventory but highly recommend supporting local thrift stores. Watch the whole video as to why I don't like chains like goodwill
Friendcycling works pretty well (I’ve passed along (and received) hangers, furniture, clothes, cardboard boxes(when I had a garage I saved collapsed medium sized boxes that I got from moving & my workplace, and so when friends were moving I passed them along) books, backpacks, etc.)
I love that idea so much!
Thanks for this video. I can’t imagine working in a thrift store. Over a period of several years I collected hundreds of bags of clothing as well as furniture and household items to help newcomer (mostly refugee) families in my city. It was an absolute joy to interact with the people who were donating as well as to help the new families get started in their new country. However, I cannot begin to tell you how much time and effort it took to sort through the donated items and remove the things that were completely unsuitable to give to anyone else. There were clothing items that were dirty as well as items that were so damaged that they could not possibly be used. For example, jeans that had absolutely not backside left in them. Mattresses with blood on them. There were dirty and broken dishes and small appliances. Furniture that was extensively damaged by cats. (I love cats. I have three). At the end of the day I concluded that many people don’t want to take the time to clean items before they donate them. They just want the stuff out of their space. As for stuff they should have never been donated because it was unusable I concluded that some people just don’t have the guts to dispose of it properly and would rather leave that dirty job to someone else. I also found that a lot of people wanted to feel like they were doing something really virtuous and needed to be profusely thanked for dumping their sh*t at my door. All in all it was an experience that offered some valuable insights into human nature. Bless the people (many of them are volunteers) who work in the thrift stores I say.
I can only imagine what that is like and what working in a thrift store is like it is SO much unnoticed work!
I used to volunteer at a thrift store, we had so many used cookbooks that we tried selling them for a nickel but that hardly moved them. Used stuffed toys too. We just over produce so many things.
that is insane!! i feel they just aren't used anymore
Yep same thing at the thrift shop I worked at.
@@BeccaDoesStuffYT insane!!
Great video! It touches on a very important topic that I will be talking about soon as well: Waste Colonialism! I am in Ghana and used clothing is so ubiquitous. We just can't keep up with the amount of clothes that are coming in and the quality keeps getting worse. So many of these clothes are landing up in our environment and beaches. You should watch the documentary on ABC I think called Dead Mens Clothes. It's available on RUclips. These imports are overburdening our already inefficient waste disposal systems. It's really frustrating to witness...sighhhh
Thanks, Jetta! ooooh love that topic def gunna watch that from you! you're right, we are swimming in our waste
Pleaseeeee I would love to see a video about clothing recycling
ME TOO 🙋🏾♀️
adding it to my brainstorm list now!
Most of my clothes are hand me downs from family members- and anytime I get rid of clothes my little sister takes them. She's constantly asking me to give her specific items as well so if I don't wear them a lot then I give them to her.
Omg thank you for all your comments they made my day opening up my notifications! Tons of my clothes are from family too!
@@TheSimpleEnvironmentalist I'm glad my comments made you happy 💖 I have a playlist I've been binge Watching videos in and I have a lot of your videos in there
@@mk-aka-morgan8386 omggggg that means so much! I appreciate your support :)
Late to the party here but as an eco obsessed online reseller I wanted to mention that many appliances and electronics can be sold for repair or parted out so look into that before throwing them out.
never too late! I think I put my videeo in the description, I made one last year about allllll the different avenues for selling old and even broken tech to keep it out of the landfill! thank you :)
I’m all for shopping on resale site like ebay, fb marketplace, depop, etc. i feel like I’m supporting an individual rather than a large company like Goodwill
love that!
Another problem with sending used/donated clothing to other countries is that the people shiping them of don't have the time to sort them properly and often times clothes will end up in places where they are completely useless. Like winter jackets being sent to countries with a tropical climate. Those winter jackets can be in the best of conditions and they will still end up in landfill.
oh i had no idea!
I can very much relate to all pf what your saying. I have personally decided to donate to smaller and locally based charity shops and check if they are taking donations and what they accept / decline before dropping off.
i'm glad we all agree! good for you!
Loving this content, so thanks for posting! There was ONE Good Will that had a rack of pants with stains and paint on them, for laborers to buy so they didn’t have to destroy perfectly good pants. So cool! I’ve been buying my clothes 2nd hand for yrs and in the past few yrs been doing my best to avoid blends & synthetics. Blends tend to pill and deteriorate faster. The synthetics tend to hold odors and static more. Most don’t even make good rags - depending on the amount of plastics in them - and they are less likely to resell. Some of my old blend purchases probably wouldn’t even work for one of your cool DIY rugs. 😞
Thanks, Becca!! That's not a bad idea, how cool! Right natural fibers all the way!!
For stuff that doesn't have much monetary value but still good (towels, sheets, blankets, office/cleaing stuff, toiletries (qtips etc)) you can donate alot of stuff to dog shelters
love it thank you!
Thank you for looking into this. I have a tendency to "rent" clothes from my local thrift stores (buy stuff to wear until it doesn't fit well anymore, then redonate), but I'm starting to do more upcycling. Any more info you can provide on textile recycling would be awesome. Also, any thoughts on the carbon impact of buying second-hand online and shipping?
I have done that before, too. Upcycling is great, but honestly, if the item is still in good condition, donating is just as great of an option! I don't have much insight on that...I'm sure it's much better than buying brand new fast fashion though!
Love this! I wish thredup sold men's clothes, they must not think there's a market for it. 😔
it's so sad they don't!!!
This is a YES PLEASE for diving further into clothing recycling :D Also I LOVE this video, so well articulated!
researching now!!
I like triftstores, fleamarkets etc. If we break something like plates or cups, firts we look if it's repairebel. If not it go's to the recycle bin. We have one for paper, one for plastic one for composte and one for 'regular' trash. Glas bottles and pots go to a different contianer that's placed near the supermarkets here in the Netherlands. But I keep some glas pots/ jars for toothpowder in a pil form. It come's in paperbag like in 100 pc. I put theme in the jars to storage theme. You put this in your mouth and make in wet it disolvse in contact with water and you can brush your theeth. It's from the brand Choose. 😃
woah that is all so cool!
When considering items for donation I generally try to first sell it and then offer it up on a freecycle group. Selling first because people generally place more value on the things that they are going out of their way to buy from a person. My local freecycle group because I know that the item is staying local. (Shipping items somewhere else has an impact.) Donate as the final resort because I can only hold on to things for so long. An item languishing in my home while waiting to find a new owner is going to result in clutter. We only have so much space in the home.
Yes I think that is a great way to look at things!
I would definitely watch a textile recycling! I didn't even know you should recycle them in different ways
Gunna do it this spring for sure!
Love this video! Great video as always ❤️ And I totally agree with the part about how people from other countries just buy Secondhand clothes from other countries rather than from local artists
Here in the Philippines I see Thrift shops or ukay-ukay selling clothes from the U.S. and Korea etc.
And the but alot of it still doesn't get sold and is just resold on Facebook.
thank you so much! it's so sad this is happening
Since having kids for the most part have lived off of donations and hand me downs....I'm so glad I did. I could of done better and still working on being better. I've always been frugal and I am getting better to continue to be that way...I don't like things anyway....it's a battle for me to get me some clothes...last year I found out about some locals selling outside in the street and found so great pieces....I have also found some things in my building complex such as a plant, Halloween costume and some other things....I feel like I found my tribe since I was this way and then as embarrassing as it is to say this I was starting to let others influence me with THE need to have something new... Glad I'm out of that.... I also forgot to mention I found my hubby a tower (pretty much brand new and it's dope) and a 55 inch tv and my in-laws gave us a few pieces of furniture and I'm so grateful. I mean I have a lot to be grateful for and I will continue to thrift and be frugal...it's smart because I save money and I always give stuff away to people I know who would use it!!! So it's a WIN! YAY
How nice! It defintely helps to be surrounded by like minded ppl!
Yes please on the more in depth look at textile recycling!
definitely going to do it!
Great topic a lot of people do not talk about, I wish I had known you were going to do this video I could have helped. I made a behind the scenes thrift store video not long ago. I actually volunteer and run a thrift store and you would not believe the stuff we get donated. it is just gross sometimes.
I agree! Omg that would have been great! I'm sure it's insane the stuff you receive!
@@TheSimpleEnvironmentalist yep, let's see the top of the list would be, used kleenix, used masks, condoms in package, new tampons, new pads, KY jelly and the top 2 was a used covid test and a DILDO!! yep I can not even make this stuff up!!!
My problem with shopping at thrift stores is all of the fabric softeners, laundry detergent scents, plus perfume that is trapped in the fibers. I am Chemically Sensitive.
I have tried EVERYTHING to get the fragrance out. Soaking in vinegar, soaking in Oxygen Bleach, washing and rewashing them. Air drying outside between every wash. The smell might lesson but it doesn't get fully removed until weeks to months of rinse and repeat of this cycle.
that is a good point!
Are you shopping for clothing with synthetic blends or all natural fibers?
@@audreyschmitt200 To be honest I haven't checked. That's a good point.
Loved the insight that this video gave, I‘d also be interested in hearing more about textile recycling :)
i'm on it!
I have also been buying used DVDs!
oh fun!
Great video! I wish we'd start talking about this more in terms of overproduction though rather than overconsumption, as the latter puts the blame on the individual instead of on the actual culprits - big businesses who prioritize profit over everything else. The greatest environmental impact of any item will always be the production process, when the materials are being grown/chemically produced, when fabric is dyed etc, and that has already happened when you as an individual decide to purchase a shirt or couch or whatever it is, and when it just sits in your home it doesn't really affect anything all that much until you decide to get rid of it. It doesn't really matter if you have 5 shirts or 20. So it's really not the buying of said shirt that is the problem, (although we still absolutely need to be buying less) it's the manufacturing process and big corporations exploiting workers and deliberately making massive quantities of low quality items that won't last because they know that's how they 1. cut costs and 2. maximize profit because people will need to buy another shirt or couch in a couple of years since the last one they got broke. So at this point it's not demand that drives production it's production that drives demand. It's capitalism babey! 💰
Also, please check out The OR Foundation on instagram if you want to see and learn more about the horrible inpact imported used clothing from the west has on the local people and environment in Ghana!
I get what you're saying but it's all a circle. And I am blaming people (aka society) as a whole, not just one person. We overconsume because of overproduction and they overproduce because we overconsume. We can't reduce one without the other, they go hand in hand
@@TheSimpleEnvironmentalist Oh for sure! I agree with everything you said, my comment wasn't really meant to be critiquing your video but more of an addition to it, but I see now that it might have come across that way!
They do go hand in hand, but also, even if we as a society keep demands up because at this point that's what we're used to, it's the big corporations that created that demand in the first place through marketing and planned obsolecence, and they make enormous sums of money keeping that demand up. Gillette is a great example, they invented disposable razor blades so that instead of every man buying one straight razor and then using that for his entire life he'd instead be buying a new box of razor blades every month which obviously is waaay more profitable for them. Then they wanted to expand their customer base so they could sell even more razor blades, so they made a bunch of ads basically saying "body hair on women is gross, you don't want people to think you're gross do you?", and now decades later here we are, with women expected to shave their body hair and cheap to produce disposable plastic razors being the norm. We as a society should stop consuming disposable plastic razors because they're terrible for the environment but the reason we're using them in the first place is because that's what's most profitable for razor companies. And I think it's important to make that distinction, because environmentalism is incomplete without anticapitalism.
@@omedelbart oh haha i didn't say it was...
Thank you so much for this video, and all the others !
i'm so glad it's helpful!
Anyone know what to do with worn out shoes? I maintain them for years and years, but idk what to do when they get to the end of their life. It’s all damage idk how to repair like worn out soles. I can’t donate them but I don’t want them to go to landfill either.
There are some shoe recycling programs!
i also save mine for yard work
What do you think about thred up and their recycling program?
I honestly didn't know about it til now. I am diving into clothing recycling in March though so stay tuned!
I'd be keen to find out more on clothing recycling.
Have just started to sell some of my unwanted clothes. Yes they are perfect and seems like thre most sensible way of offloading them
I will add that to my brainstorm list! I don't know much about it either so i will learn a lot from the research
Goodwill is not what it seems to be…it is for profit for a good amount people. Do a mini deep dive and you will see. I will neither buy from them nor donate to them.
i did do a deep dive....it's this video hahahaah
I’ve been thinking about the word “cheaper”. It has such a negative connotation! I wonder if saying “inexpensive” may be more fun?
ooooh love that idea!
Were a live wi have a free recycle facebook group. Look for that . Ore create one.
that's great! one can always be created for sure!
Loved this point ✅👍🏼 & especially your bloopers 😂❤️💖🇮🇱💝
thanks so much Sharon! hahahah i love the bloopers
Plese help me how can i unsubscribe to amazon emails?
unsubscribing from emails is easy, scroll to the bottom of the email and click unsubscribe :)
It wasn't easy to find at last i unsubscribed they give it in really small text
@@thesmallstepper8740 of course it's the small text haha
Thanks. One source I discovered recently is Gear Trade. I've ordered a few things from them and am very happy with what I've received. They have a good return policy as well. So If you have outdoor gear and clothing to buy or sell, try them.
omg that is so cool! need to check that out for sure!
no mames 😱 apenas puedo leer lo que dices, no entendi quitan muy rapido las letras y aparte hablas super rapido
lo siento! yo hablo muchos rapido, yo se. puede usar el ícono de ajustes en la parte inferior izquierda de la pantalla para ralentizar el video a la velocidad que mejor se adapte a sus necesidades. Tambien, lo siento para mi espanol, estoy fuera de práctica