I worked for a corporate US thrift chain. Between the massive textile & houseware waste, the way we’re underpaid & mistreated, and the “mission” isn’t kept, I’m never donating or purchasing from most corporate thrift stores again. I’ve also got a clothing swap coming up for everyday clothes, & as a drag performer, we also have costume swaps semi-annually so that our costumes, jewelry, wigs, & other accessories still get the love they deserve or are Re-made into other items.

Those images of mountains made of discarded clothes make me shiver. I come from a family of seamstresses and knitters and it is unbelievable that all those creations end up in huge landfills. It takes a lot of time to produce good garments, and once people would hold on to them for as long as possibile because buying new clothing was an investment. It's so sad and infuriating that now we have cheap fast fashion produced with no regard to any value... It's true that our general mindset has changed from it being something of value to a disposable commodity to be discarded on a whim. We need to spread the awareness!

I would love a video on how to repurpose old clothes that cannot be donated!

I belong to a group of women who sort, fix, change clothing to a new purpose re men’s business shirts cut up and little girls dresses made from them. We do this with so much clothing. Any thing that needs a little repair we fix right through to completely new garments. Money made from this goes track to the community. We also collect clothing and good quality clothes ( because there is so many) is given free to groups that need it. International Children’s day is a brilliant example of an opportunity to give good useable clothes away.

I recently learned that in the UK, lots of charity shops will accept donations of unwearable/unsellable clothing if the bag is labelled as "rags". They sell it on to companies that recycle the material for insulation, cushions, etc. The charity makes a bit of money, and the items are properly recycled instead of going to landfill. I know that recycling should be a last resort, but I'm glad this option exists for clothing that's too old or damaged to be worn or repurposed.

Quilting is a great way to repurpose old clothes, bed sheets, blankets, duvet covers, etc.. Quilts can be given to friends or donated to shelters.

I love this topic so much! I have a couple thoughts that are complementary to what you just spoke about: I have an eight-year-old and holy moly kids grow out of clothes so fast! And they are incredibly hard on their clothes too. So what I do now is repair holes with embroidery like adding little hearts to repair knee holes, I sew torn seams, and I pre-treat any stains as best I can before they go into the wash. I’ve also been doing better by buying at least half of my daughter’s school wardrobe from thrift shops. My husband has button up shirts that he wears till they are literally completely worn out so I can’t donate those shirts. But I do turn them into other things, like bags! I’ve made a couple of really cute bulk / catch-all bags from his blow-out button up shirts. I just sew rectangles together and the button hole and button side of his shirts can be turned into straps really easily. I’ve made a couple of these bags so far and they are super simple to put together. As for my clothes, I’ve been trying to repair whatever I possibly can. I have a pair of overalls that I’ve had for six years and the knees got completely blown-out from gardening. I couldn’t repair the knee holes they were just too completely worn, so I just cut the legs off and turned my overalls into “oversomes.” 😅 My overalls now are shorty shorts, like a little too short, but they are great in the 100+ degree Texas weather! Thank you for the reminder to only donate what is actually wearable to thrift shops, to use and repair what you have, be grateful for having clothes, and look at clothing as something that you should try to have for a very long time instead of a disposable item.

I cut appropriate clothing into cleaning rags, but I only need so many of them so I have been researching places to recycle textiles (bedsheets with holes and the like), for example for insulation material. After learning of the disaster that is international clothing donation I stopped putting used clothes in donation containers, many of which are scams here in Berlin in the first place.

We packed a full size punching bag with old clothes. It’s a great workout!

Thank you Gitte again for an excellent video! I almost exclusively buy my clothes from yard sales, get from friends and from thrift stores. Last Christmas our family hosted a party for our friends where everyone brought something to eat and stuff from their home to swap. The rule was that we spend no money and we get wonderful "new" Christmas gifts 💝 I use my clothes as long as I can and then cut them to rags. I have a circle of friends with whom I also share clothes and give my daughter's used clothes. In the end, I think the key is not to buy anything unless you really need it, but even then, nothing new unless it cannot be found used from somewhere. Overconsumption is the problem.

Cleaning cloth, and old for outside clothes become home clothes. I love the pillow stuffing idea!!!

Great video - would love to see a video of what you can do with clothes you need to let go of (doesn't fit etc). Thanks!

It's a good thing I'm sewing my own clothing and can upcycle most of my old clothes. Or my families clothes. Or my boyfriend's cloths or anyone's clothes that people are willing to give me. The scrabs I use for stuffing things like plushies and pillows.

Yes, it’s so important to only donate clean and wearable clothes!

A thrifty thing I’m doing at the minute is there a T-shirts I have with logos and designs that I don’t like anymore , so I’m taking scraps of fabric or clothes that don’t fit anymore and placing those designs or patterns over the old ones via sewing! And to make sure nothing goes to waste , I am then using the fabric scraps by sewing them onto my tote bags to make cool patchwork designs

I make doll clothes from old clothes :D Might be a niche thing, but you can apply same principle to making kids or pet clothes

How true and sad at the same time what you said about the quality of the clothes. I live in Hungary and unfortunately the quality of second-hand clothes available here is worse than, for example, in Germany or the UK. Love the video 😊

Tip: If you found an item it does not have to be in the shop! leave it behind and come back later. If you’re in the shop, just continue to shop and leave the item behind. If you immediately forgot about the item, it probably isn’t worth it. And if you truly wanna buy something, vision the item. When would you wear it? Where would you wear it? Is it versatile?. This helps me a lot to find items that I’m wearing for a long time. This is for both thrift shopping and regular shopping.

So thankful for local buy nothing/freebies groups 😭

Once my things are no longer worthy of leaving the house, they become “house clothes” or “winter travel (so less people see them under my coat) before throwing away clothes.” At the point where I’m not comfortable wearing them outside the house anymore, no thrift store or person buying a clothing bundle abroad will want them.

I love to do clothing swaps with friends or strangers or buy secondhand. If there is a stain in a Shirt I love to cut it in parts and make kitchen wipes to use them over and over. I recently have enough of those and now I make tshirt or textile cord out of them and i crotched a rug with all my old Shirts 😂❤.

It’s definitely making me rethink my options -- here in Paris, NGOs often put up posters inside buildings asking for clothing donations, and I always find myself going through my closet before they come by to see if there’s anything I don’t need anymore. It’s making me second-guess if most of what I gave away actually ended up at a thrift store or given to people who need it...

Old torn clothing goes into rag rugs... braided or woven doesn't matter jus make sure you use the same mix of fabrics for each strip or braid or the rug... so all nylon hose in one rug all polyester mix knits in another rug all acrylic sweaters in another rug... and if you have cotton or wool sweaters or mittens or socks please do unravel them for the yarn in them which can then be twined into a 3ply yarn for weaving cloths. Please med and patch torn and worn pants and blouses as such mended patched clothes arr good to wear when working in a garden or fixing machinery or doing laundry.... also parting out flanels and making quilts out of them is good if you live in a place with cold winters.

There is some good video's on you-tube, showing start to finish on this. Who knew we had such a major textile waste!

In the Netherlands the clothing recycling and donation are often the same bin. I actually always make a bag with 'good' clothes and one with 'should not be worn again but just be made into insulation/recycled' bag. I just hope that the system works like that, because the only information I could find about it was that it is sorted by people here and that too many times people also put other trash in the bins destroying all good fabrics 😢

I recently have had to change my wardrobe a bit since I started gaining muscle and don't fit to my old clothes anymore. Also I've had years' worth of old clothes from times I didin't buy clothes conciously. In many thrift shops in Finand you can rent a table for a week and sell your own stuff and get the money from it so I did that and sold half of my clothes there. After that I donated the rest to a recycling center that sells what they can and recycles rest of it accordingly. I did what I could and had the energy or recources to do and that's enough for me.

Thankyou for yet another informative video.

Hiya, thanks for this vlog. Educational and bloody scary! Anyways, I got two pairs of black Levi jeans at my local doggy charity shop last week . Fit perfect, cost £14!! Ah c'mon, YAY me! Much luv, and Hwyl. Taffy Nige from South Wales

Well said. I wrote an article for our recent internal web page at work about this (I work for a government environmental agency, and even in my work awareness of these things is low). I referred them to the Dead White Man Clothes documentary and recent 'War on Waste' series in Australia. A vanishingly small proportion of items donated in Australia, where I live, is provided free of charge to people in need of more clothing - about 0.5%. About 16.5% is purchased in op shops, 14% is directly landfilled, 36% is downcycled into rags and other end of life items, and 33% is sent overseas. The reality most people don't want to hear is that there are very few people in need of more clothing these days. I was recently involved in an event where I spoke about clothing waste. As part of the event, we organised with op shops to collect T-shirts they couldn't sell, which we showed people how to turn into reusable shopping bags without sewing. To my horror, a lot of the "unsaleable" shirts were in better condition than a lot of what I own and use... and some were BRAND NEW organic cotton shirts... in other words, the amount of donations is so extreme that a brand new cotton shirt is considered unsellable. I rescued a few to wear myself, I couldn't handle making a bag from a new Tshirt.

I know i sound old saying this, but even back in the 80's clothing was better quality. So even if you stop buying trends and buy with the mindset of wearing something to oblivion, the clothing simply dosnt last as long. So trends are more accessible but i don't think we're really winning

I am collecting all ripped-hem etc state t-shirts and tunics for a t-shirt quilt, because I am of the opinion that a quilt is always useful, and I will cut squares out of picture parts of the shirts, but also use up the other parts as a layer in the quilt (or two layers, depending on how much I will have of them). Other than that, stuff like yoga pants legs and long sleeves can be repurposed as windstoppers (filled with sewing scraps and all unusable pieces of clothing), to help with window/door insulation, which not something to scoff at in older buildings. The same goes for ends of yarns, if one knits and has a lot of leftovers too small to create a specific thing - just knit them in a round, possibly tightly, joining different yarn types as you go - make a windstopper.

Since a couple of years, so many people are talking about this... in France, we don't have that many thrift shops to give our stuff to, so I've been using Vinted to sell my clothes to other people, Le Bon Coin (basically same thing as Craigslist) and facebook marketplace for fournitures and household items and Geev to donate things directly to someone in need. At least there are less chances for them to end up in landfills

I live in a town where we only have charity shops and not thrift shops. I always look round the charity shops for clothes, rather than fast fashion shops. I also have donated clothes to the charity shops and recently saw a dress I donated for sale in the shop, which made me very pleased.

Some of my small local thrift shops keep a "free box" outside where they put clothing and other items that are damaged, shoes with the one of the pair missing, etc. I'll pick up pieces that I like that have stains that will be hidden when I wear them, for example, shirts that I would tuck in, and I leave things that require more expert mending to other people. This is in a small rural town so lots of people have the expertise to fix things and make do with what they can find.

Thank you so much for this video! Here in Iceland there are frequent open swap markets at local libraries, pubs, universities etc. (there is at least one (probably more than one) Icelandic facebook group that is all about letting others know when and where these markets are happening). I don't know how it is in other countries, but here in Iceland there are drop-off donation dumpsters for clothes that get filled to the brim, and then people put the clothes on the side of the dumpster. The weather here can be awful, so those clothes get rained on and end instantly in landfills because the charity shop is not going to wash and dry all those dirty clothes that get spread out in the street around the dumpster (this is so horrifying to see). People are afraid to take those clothes because they think that other people will judge them for that ("are they stealing from the Red Cross donations"?, "are they crawling in the dirt for clothes"?), but if no one takes them, they go directly to landfill, no matter how valuable or useful those clothes might be if washed and dryed. So - if you see something like this, I encourage you all to take the clothes with you and see if you can wash them (if needed) and then use what you can, and dispose responsibly of the rest.

Swap parties are fun I've been to a couple.

I stuff animal beds (just big pillows sewn from two rectangles of sturdy fabric) with fabric scraps from sewing projects and completely worn out clothes. I also like to make cleanig rugs from cotton shirts. Made a rug for in front of my bed from a worn out duvet cover. I do lots of quilting and love used or already brought fabric for it. First it is much cheaper than the newest line of quilting cotton and second I always feel like the essence of quilting is make do with what you have. Does not stop me from buying much too much fabric when I see a very good deal...

Thanks for the reminder! I just found out that (in the US) Carter's sponsors a Terracycle program for recycling kids clothes, so it's completely free to have stained and torn kids clothes recycled. Getting my donation box out and pulling everything out for a Terracycle box that isn't definitely sellable!

Nice video 😊 Can you make a video about things you can do with completely worn out clothing? Or teatowels with to many holes to still call it a towel?

Because you have so many followers, is there some kind of an action we could take together to help the environment?

I think it should be noted that was is being described in this video is for the big major second hand stores mostly. Such as in Canada we have value village, salvation army and good will. That is what they do, they sell the unsellable clothing to a middle man who then sells outside of Canada. I work in a small second hand store and I did a video about what we get and do at the time, I do have to do an updated one. Most smaller store "not all". do not follow the same practices. but you are 100% correct that people should ONLY be donating stuff that is wearable, still works, has all the parts etc. The amount of actual garbage we get is disgusting and does end up in the landfill.

In Australia where i live, I only donate wearable things. I've seen my things in the same store I donated at. I think maybe because we are so far from the rest of the world we dont have this same supply chain. In saying that I have watched a documentary on Ghana and how they buy giant bundles of clothes from the US to be sold off locally.

I volunteer at a US military thrift store. They have a good heart. However, even they end up trashing so much good and usable stuff for a lack of storage and because the staff is overwhelmed. I found good stuff dumpster diving there late

Do you know about the scam donation bins in Germany? So bins that aren’t actually charitable and so on… my mom always puts all clothes that are visibly not wearable anymore in there because she thought that this way the company, who usually is a textile recycler, will make it into rags/insulation/filling. So is that actually the case or are these tags still finding their way to Africa?

Same as with the 'honey' video, I love thriftstores but knowing all I know from you (

Growing up, if something was too badly damaged to be a hand-me-down we would cut it up into cleaning cloths or reusable tissues. I grew up poverty, and weirdly in the USA that turned me into someone more sustainable.

OMG, yasss! Legislation, pls! Where do I sign the petition?

At the end of the day, thrift shops are not a panacea for a fast-fashion dominated world. Yes, it is possible to get wonderful second-hand pieces at bargain prices at these stores, but in order for that to happen the donations have to be high quality in the first place, which is challenging if people buy and then donate low-quality fast fashion.

I go to my local thrift shops fairly often. I’m shocked at the change over the last 20 years. First the retail price is really quite high given that it used to be a place where poor people could shop. Second almost 90% is synthetic fabrics, denim being the main exception and even that is often a few % elastane

Ibe noticed in thrift stores in the philippines ive visited the parts of garments are nearly destroyed Overly outdated or "ugly" acc frm the waste and either sold for 50₱ to a 10₱ then quick restock within a week again

Also now the market is oversaturated with fast-fashion items being sold for so much money! This is insane, I'm not going to the thrift store to buy shein clothes...

Why do I always see a commercial for the fast fashion, electronics and stuff online shop "temu" before your video starts 🙈 I think people who enjoy watching your videos (like me) are not the temu's target group... Makes no sense for me. Anyways... I love your content❤

For people losing weight, its a good way to buy temporary clothes as they go down in sizes. As well, as your children grow, its a good thrifty way to obtain clothes for quickly growing children. For pregnant women, its a good way to get maternity wear and then donate it back again. Buy only what you need. Many good sewers on you tube have bought things and re fashioned them for an event, like a wedding. We dont have to constantly buy "new". Some have even dyed things to their color preferences.

Does anyone have ideas for how to repurpose fabric scraps from athletic clothing? I try to rewear my clothes until they are truly worn out and unwearable. I usually have no problem finding a new use for knits, such as cleaning rags or stuffing material, and sturdy fabrics like flannel can be remade into bags, etc. But for some reason, i just cannot think of another way to use that stretchy, moisture-wicking fabric that my workout wear is made of.

I donate my plus size clothes because im doing a weigthloss journey. But before that i used my clothes until i couldnt repair it anymore. Am i really the only one doing that? 😬

Is a BIG system failure when textiles not get recycled in some way or another. There are companies that do this, however i dont know if they can handle the amount of 'shit' we donate. There are money to make, the system and politics have to make some policy changes so actually/real recycling are the first option. Or make it illegal to not have a Circularity system. 😒 I try to sell clothes that i dont use anymore first. If i dont got it sold i leave it to a Second hand comisson store. In 3rd hand i donate it to a local thrift store. I still struggle with what to do with stained/unwearable cloths, the recycle system are not what it should be.. 😢

I recently saw in reels how a girl makes strips of fabric from used T-shirts and then she used these fabrics to make a bag

i have been sorting a loot of clothes. some is so bad infestet whit mouse dropings that i have no choice but send it to be incinerated. some are bad but can be komposted. and the rest i wil make bags or clothes, re design and so on. some i will try and wash to se if i can use it for something or not. there was a lot of clothes to sort. but i am almost finished. i think some of what i will sew, i will donate. i got an idee from a turist, sew my own trousers. i think that is a good idee. mabe sew socks to, becose someone said that good socks dont get donated ?? just some idees.

Interesting! Could you link the article that appears on minute 5 or so? I appreciate it. Thank you ❤

Thrift or new does not matter. All that matters is that you keep them and wear them out.

ESSENTIAL

I can tell you,that the thrift shops in Greece have terrible quality clothes compared to UK,where I live now. I didn’t know second hand clothes were so undemocratic.

I have just started watching the video, but want to note this down, and maybe someone relates and/or can explain? I come from Lithuania (so where lesser quality donated clothes end up theoretically) and now live in the Netherlands (so, the higher quality donated clothes?!) BUT I have noticed since moving here, that a lot of clothes in the 2nd hand shops are far worse in quality and variety than what I was used to in Lithuania. To this day, I still make it a point for myself to visit a few second hand shops in Lithuania whenever I go to visit my family, because there, I feel like, I have more of a chance to find what I need. I wonder how that comes about? Is it because maybe clothes come from many more other countries to there? Or is it just that I have not yet found that good of "spots" here in NL? Sometimes it feels like here better quality clothes end up in boutiques (and highly overpriced thus) instead of second hand shops.

What do you know about wren? Any opinions? Is it good, and trustworthy?

Even though I knew most of this it is still sad to watch how anything that can't be made into money any more is just thrown on a trashpile somewhere in the global south. This is why I only use private owned secondhand Shops where I have to go fetch the clothing that couldn't be sold after 8-12 weeks. Worth the effort so it doesn't just go to landfill. Those returned clothes I try to sell online on secondhand Platforms. With a bit of patience and a clever storage solution including vacuum bags almost everything gets sold. The rest can be turned into clothbags or cleaning cloth. =)

I have a concern. I total see the reason to be sustainable. For the environment. But maybe the movement is also covering up a wave of poverty which is shaking our continent. Glory times are over and we often cannot afford new products 😢 and instead of fighting the rich getting richer, we looking to save and re-use

There should be a law, and strict rules for all the stores. Clothes shouldn't be produced more than 10 of 1 item and they shouldn't be coming out with new stuff every few weeks, 2-3 times a year maybe 4 should be enough. Why the heck do they need to produce more than 100 pieces of something. We humans are just the stupidest species on the whole galaxy😢

(Hello from another Gitte. Just Gitte, nothing comes after or before in my case) I have been going through a big style change - something that just happens in your early 20's and imo, should be talked about more often in the sustainable fashion sphere because clothing as a form of self expression is 100% valid, and people change and even if they bought it when they were 18 and thought "this is great quality, I will wear this forever!" if you despise the color a couple years later and dyeing has a big chance of being unsuccesful because it was thrifted and you are unsure of the fabric content, well, that is just a fact of life. My *aesthetic* (one that comes from deep within inspired by my love for historical fantasy, unapologetic femininety with a touch of femme fatale and does not belong to any type of currently trendy "core" - a mix of mermaidcore, enyacore and whimsygoth coming closest I guess) has never been easily available and steered away from it by the more minimalist & scandi or plain conventional unflattering vibes of many slow fashion brands, haven't really been able to fully express it because I didn't even know, since this style is unconventional and not advertised whatsoever until like a year ago. I ended up buying things from slow fashion brands and thrift stores I didn't really like because what I needed just... Wasn't there. My sewing and thrifting skills have gotten a lot better but I really been struggling with a lot of my wardrobe being unworn, the unworn part being the old clothes that weren't quite it but that I bought and kept because they were "good enough" for a while unless I found that is actually GOOD and didn't want to look upon those old clothes again. But being afraid to donate it for this reason. I have been sewing for several years, partly school-taught so there is nothing absolutely horrendous, but handmade clothing does have less value due to the lack of a brand. I also see it on secondhand sites like vinted: most people filter by brand, without a brand... people just don't buy your stuff. And then I have to be careful vinted doesn't delete my account for "selling firsthand things with business purposes" (even though all of those pieces have been worn a couple times by me and were initially made for myself) I have been selling mostly on vinted to make sure it goes to an individual who will hopefully at least wear it once, and to also recoup some money - mostly to buy secondhand things myself (my filtering and searching skills have gotten better) or the occasional couple meters of fabric, but the selling doesn't go speedy and in the meantime I DO have this absolute mess of a wardrobe that is this cacaphony of colors, fits and textures. I have been altering and upcycling whatever I can, like turning my crewneck (ew) tops into scoop neck tops with lace edges (yey!) but there are things in both my wardrobe and fabric stash that are just completely unusuable but I also don't feel good enough about their condition to donate so I'd rather have them sit in a box to maybe get sold on vinted in a year trying to recoup €2, it's truly a struggle.

Is anyone as annoyed at the cotton industry as I am?

My friend will take all of my clothes that don’t fit me and the ones she didn’t like she sends them to Africa because her dad was born in Africa

The root of this Gittemary lies with you girls buying too many clothes cheaply online. Go into any thrift charity shop and you see that womens wear outnumbers mens wear 4 to 1 at least. Simply put, men tend to hang to their clothes and use more until they wear out. I rarely buy new clothes and have donated to thrift shops but what else can we do? I hate throwing stuff in the garbage but on the other hand how do you compost a polycotton shirt? I agree with you about the clothes rail that leads to Africa but have you ever wondered where all the clothes that were ever produced throughout the ages ended up? All those millions of people owned clothes so what did they do with them when they did not want them or died?.Think of the whole wardrobes of clothes that need to find homes when its owner is no longer with us and the relatives want rid. I honestly feel less guilty now about putting old clothing in the trash and off to the incinerator than knowing it will be dumped in a pit in the earth to moulder away for centuries giving off toxic chemicals because it was made from oil.

Say it again and again and again until the world changes! I would love to see a video about what to do with clothes that are too worn to donate. Use them for rags is always my go to. Love the idea to stuff them into pillows.