Taking Action
In my last blog post I shared about a wonderful book I’ve read called, “The Conscious Closet: The Revolutionary Art of Looking Good While Doing Good” and it is truly revolutionizing my own personal closet. So, I thought I’d share just a few ways that I am implementing some new things I learned from the book. This is The Conscious Closet in action!
Closet Cleanse
According to the author, Elizabeth L. Cline, “A third of our wardrobes are dedicated to clothes we’ve never worn or haven’t worn in a year.” True? Yes. In fact for some people it might be a little more. For others a little less. After reading this statistic, I realized that I still have a LOT of my work wardrobe from my corporate career. I don’t need that stuff anymore. Even when there wasn’t a pandemic, I still only attended a couple of conferences a year where I may want to have something a little professional. So, I put the Conscious Closet in action and decided to get rid of my old work clothes.
Interestingly, my daughter decided to do her own closet cleanse. The result? Lots of clothes to somehow repurpose.
Responsible Disposal
Okay great, so what to do with all those clothes? I broke it down into 3-ish categories:
1. Resell: All the items that are excellent condition and of desirable quality are getting listed in my Poshmark and Mercari closets. A few are on Depop too!
2. Donate: Items that have some wear to them and are of lower quality get donated. Sometimes I send items in this category to Threadup. Well, I just checked their website and they are not taking any new kits. Soooo….
3. Responsibly Recycle: Anything that is not in good enough condition to donate (ask yourself, would you buy something heavily damaged or stained?) should be recycled. I did a quick search and found that my city does recycle clothing. It just needs to be placed in a clear plastic bag so that it is identifiable as clothing to recycle. If you’re wondering how to recycle your worn out/stained/damaged clothes, you can check a website like www.earth911.com.
Some Creative Reselling
Remember when I mentioned that my daughter cleaned out her closet? Well, most of her stuff is brands like Forever 21, Wild Fable, etc. These “fast fashion” brands do not tend to bring in a lot of money on the resale market. Although I have successfully sold them before.
So, I posted a question in the Poshmark Sales Accelerator Facebook group. I asked if maybe I should just list everything individually and then run a closet sale for all Forever 21 items. A bundle of 3 for $15 or 5 for $25 or something like that. While that approach could work, it’s a lot of work to take pictures and list each individual item, knowing I might only make $5 per item. Point taken! Then, a couple of people suggested creating a mystery bundle listing. That’s where you creating a listing promising 5 or more of a certain type of clothing – fast fashion, mall brands, designer, etc. – and people buy it without really knowing too much about the individual items. This is obviously also sold a deep discount.
So, right now my office floor is filled with piles for these “mystery bundles” that I age getting ready to list. Someone might buy them to resell or maybe they need clothes for themselves or their family. Anyway, this is my first time doing this so I’ll let you know how it goes!
I’ll keep sharing about my experience as I put what I’ve learned into practice. One of the things I realized though was that I have already been doing a lot of things to have a sustainable wardrobe. I thought I would share my top tips with you. So, I created the Checklist for Creating a Sustainable Wardrobe on a Budget. Check it out and let me know what you think.
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