this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2026
254 points (98.8% liked)
me_irl
8016 readers
1071 users here now
All posts need to have the same title: me_irl it is allowed to use an emoji instead of the underscore _
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Literally what everyone should be doing now for the environment. Clothes waste is a huge problem. The fact that people throw away stuff that can still be sold at thrift stores is appalling. Understandable if your body shape has changed or something, but "getting bored" of clothes is indefensible. This extends to people "getting bored" of phones and cars too, which is terrible.
Also: I'm in this picture and my wife hates me for it. I have something from 25 years ago thats still wearable.
OP's post has also missed the category of "sleep clothes".
I have a sweater that my grandma got me when I was 7. It's purple with a handful of printed comic panels featuring Harry, a snow dog. It goes "Harry is a snow dog. Harry is a good dog." and you can see Harry doing snowboard and stuff.
I am 35 today. It's worn out a bit but still my dearest, most beloved pajama. It still fits, somehow
30y/o.
I have bought a grand total of 3 brand new pieces of clothing in my whole life(not including underwear/socks). Every single other piece was either given to me for xmas/birthday/random gifts or bought from thrift stores. Anything I can't wear anymore has either been donated back to thrift or cut into rags myself.
I've also directly worked in a thirft store, where anything unsellable get tossed into 'rag out' where it's donated to a company that turns it into cheap bags of shop rags: so even stuff that's falling apart is still worth donating.
In England they tell us not to donate anything that we wouldn't consider worthy of gifting to someone. They have to use volunteer time to soft/sort (and I guess clean) all items. If it's not something anyone will buy then best to take it directly to clothes recycling drop offs rather than charity shops.
May be a difference between regions, but thrift doesn't clean clothes around me. You're expected to donate clean clothes; But if it's visually in such rough shape that it needs to be washed first, it's 'rag out', otherwise it goes on the sales floor. Laundry is a huge expense for a nonprofit; instead, they expect you to wash it yourself before wearing it.
I'm not aware of any seprate clothes recycling facilities around me, and can't find one with a quick search. Just the typical thrifts.
If your body shape has changed, donate your old clothes! My wife lost a bunch of weight because medical reasons, and she recently went through her entire wardrobe; I dropped five 30-gallon bags of perfectly serviceable clothes off at a nonprofit thrift shop.
My friends and I have been doing clothing swaps with the local femme community and honestly its been a huge game changer for closet refreshing! We had like 260 people come through last time and anything left after the swap is done is donated to local youth/addiction/women's centres :)
I've gotten some of my favourite outfits from the swap!! And it's completely free!