Your closet is exploding. You’ve run out of hangers. Shoeboxes stack on top of each other precariously. Pieces you love are mysteriously going missing in the abyss. It’s time for a closet clean out. Except, what are you actually supposed to do with the clothes you don’t wear or want?
Well, most people thro them out. The average American throws away 81 pounds (37 kg) of clothes per year and 85% of it is dumped into landfills or burned. Nearly 23 billion (!!!) pounds of textiles are dumped or burned each year in the U.S. alone.
Textile waste poses a significant challenge globally — piles of discarded clothes are literally visible from space — and the environmental repercussions are substantial, with textile production contributing heavily to greenhouse gas emissions and other ecological problems. I’m nauseous over the enormous quantity we throw away so I’ve been investigating ways to declutter my clothes responsibly.
Can you tell I can’t stop thinking about Wasteland: The Secret World of Waste and the Urgent Search for a Cleaner Future? This book truly changed my brain chemistry. I cannot stop thinking about waste and how to consume less.
Below are six ways to responsibly declutter your closet and what to do with the clothes you don’t wear.
How to give your wardrobe a second life
Sell / Consign
Selling or consigning your unused pieces is a great way to extend their lifecycle while making a few bucks! Thanks to the increased demand for secondhand shopping and digital marketplace apps, it’s simple to sell your clothes online. Try Poshmark, ThredUp, Depop, or Facebook Marketplace to start. If you’re in Canada, you can shop my wardrobe on Poshmark.
If you have higher end or luxury items, visit your local consignment store to reach the target clientele and have the store handle the selling. Do you have trendy or contemporary items in great condition? Then visit your local buy/sell/trade shop (think Beacon’s Closet) to have your items assessed and see if they will purchase them.
Swap
Remember in college when you’d swap “going out” shirts with your girlfriends so you’d have something new to wear on Friday night? Bring the swap back! It’s a simple way to extend the lifecycle of your items while getting something new-to-you in return. Before donating or recycling your items, consider swapping them with family and friends or participate in a clothing swap in your area.
Upcycle
Can you upcycle the clothing item in another way? Can you bring it to the tailor to alter it? My tailor has turned long coats into short ones, removed sleeves from dresses, and turned old silk shirts into scarves. Can you dye the garment to cover up stains or simply give it a new lease on life? I recently dyed a stained sweatshirt to make it wearable again. If they’re really in rough shape, can you turn them into cleaning cloths?
Donate
Friends not interested in your items and no bites on the reselling apps? Then consider donating your clothes but research the organization first and what items they are looking for. If you’re in Canada, use The National Association for Charitable Textile Recycling’s donation site locator to help you locate charities that accept donations. NACTR partners with non-profts to mitigate textile waste.
When donating your items, they should be in good to excellent condition (i.e., no holes, no unintentional rips, no discolouration, no broken zippers). Otherwise, it won’t be used or put on the shop floor, which means it will head for a landfill.
Recycle
If your clothes are no longer wearable or very low quality — looking at you old pub crawl t-shirts 🙈 — then it might be time to recycle your clothes. In some cities, throwing away clothes is illegal so there are recycling drop off points around town. Or, you can look into third party organizations like SuperCircle, which is a reverse logistics platform that connects brands and consumers to the waste management facilities. It partners with many retailers, allowing you to mail in clothes for recycling in exchange for credit at your fave stores.
Compost
Did you know you can compost natural fibres?! If your clothing is made up of 100% natural fibres (like organic cotton, linen, wool, and silk), you can collect it in a jar or a bowl and add it to your compost pile.
Any other tips you’d suggest for mindfully decluttering clothes you no longer wear? Let me know in the comments!
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