Decluttering: Our Addiction to Cheap Fashion

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I ran across this book while listening to an old podcast from Stuff Mom Never Told You (one of my fave podcasts).  It is now on my reading list, for sure.  If you get a chance, check out the podcast I linked to, as well.

All this talk about decluttering, and what is the root cause?  Shopping!  And why do we shop?  Because How can we afford not to.  We shop when we're bored, we shop when we're on vacation, we shop when we're socializing with friends.  We buy stuff because it's on sale, it's pretty, it's fun, it might add something, if not to our lives, well, to our afternoon.

The statistics in the podcast are a bit frightening.  Women dispose of many times more clothes than men do.  Because women, like, love shopping!  When you take clothes to the thrift store (as I love to do), not all of them are given to the needy, or sold to fellow thrifters.  Some are recycled into rags (those weird pink rags you see at the auto parts store).  Some are shipped off to Sub-Saharan Africa.  Well, several billions of TONS are shipped off...  And let's not mention how much STILL winds up in landfills.  And, do those in Sub-Saharan Africa actually need our clothes?  Not especially, and there is evidence it is negatively impacting their culture and livelihood.

What can we do, as consumerists?  Consume less.  I am not innocent.  I was a shopaholic for several years, and only in the past four or five years have I stopped, but I had amassed a buttload (to use a technical term) of clothes, shoes, and bags.  Plus, everyone knew I was basically someone who would take any clothes, so people gave me their old clothes.  AND, my grandmother was a clothes horse as well, so I got all her old clothing too.  As an aside, she had excellent taste, and I still wear, and kept most, of her clothing, including vintage Pendleton.  They just don't make things like they used to.

But I digress.

We just really don't need as many clothes as we think we do.  When statistics fly around that women wear 20% of their clothing 80% of the time, you know something needs to change.  It's not entirely our fault.  We are being market to, just as we are marketed to about everything.  Every year, we need new things.  Every season, we need new things.  Even in California, where there really are no seasons!

I am trying to make amends for my former shopaholic ways.  I have gotten rid of many clothes, trying to as responsibly as I can, but some were taken to my trusty local thrift store, which claims on their signs that the clothing or money from it goes to help local charities--this is really tops in my book, and not the worst thing you can do--definitely better than trashing it in a landfill.  Others, I have taken to consignment stores like Crossroads.  My friends don't want any, which refutes the suggestion in the podcast that the only responsible way to get rid of clothes is through a clothing swap.  That assumes that you and your friends are clones who all have the same style.

Here are my suggestions:

• Don't shop.  If you need something, think before you buy.
• This means, is there something you own that can already work for the item?
• If you have a shirt that is torn, or jacket that needs mending, don't just chuck it, but try to repair it.
• The mantra should be: repair, replace, recycle.  Upcycle.  Just don't toss.  And don't treat your clothing as disposable in the first place.
• Approaching shopping in a mindful way means less waste.  Less waste means a better economy for our country and world, and it means a better environment, too.
• Shop responsibly.  This doesn't always mean Made in USA, but many times it does.
• Be the non-consumer--buy from consignment and thrift stores.  You can find some clothes still with their tags on!  This means that people bought the garment, never wore it, and then got rid of it.  Or were given the garment from a well-meaning but clueless friend.  Not a good thing.
• Some retailers like Patagonia have programs in place to repair old items of theirs, to keep them out of landfills.  Similarly, such companies often try to make sure their factories have as little impact on the environment as possible.  You won't believe how much water these places use!
• The book I mentioned above, Overdressed, has a handy shopping directory at its site, to guide you to some places that are a bit more responsible than Forever 21.
• Listen, Forever 21 is one of my most favorite stores to shop at.  Fast Fashion is Fun!  But, the cost involved in the creation and eventual disposal of it makes that supposedly expensive $200 blouse that is "slow fashion" look like a steal.
• Google "Made in USA" or "sustainable clothing" for more ideas.

I recently watched an early Hitchcock film, called Young and Innocent.  Besides the fact that the lead actress had the coolest name ever (Nova Pilbeam!) and that I had no idea who any of the stars were, and besides the fact that while I love 30's movies and am interested to see how Hitchcock found his style, what I really noticed was the clothes.  They were cut so beautifully.  Of course, duh, you say.  It's a movie.  But, I will counter that everyone wore the same costume for the entire movie (all 83 minutes of it).  People owned less clothes, but the quality was miles better.  Clothes weren't disposable.  Things in general were less disposable.  I am hoping our generation moves back toward less a disposable society, for the sake of our future and environment.