Monday Free Write

Happy Monday!

Over the weekend I stumbled upon this article from the Huffington Post Parents section. It's called The ‘Chilling’ Moment This Father Realized Where His Kids’ Clothes Come From. And the article is all about the high price of fast fashion and how consumers love to buy cheap clothes that don't last that long because they know fashion is always changing and they don't need their clothes to last longer than one of two wash cycles. And a lot of the time clothes end up in the trash (either by consumers throwing them out or retailers not being able to move the product in the time for the next wave of clothes.) It also goes a little into the conditions the clothes are made in, too.

And I love this article for two reasons. One I'm really into upcycling. So while I do like buying cheaper clothes, that I know won't last that long. I often try to find ways to reuse them. And if you just do a simple search on Pinterest you can find how to transform any article of clothing you have into something spectacular. I love it! and I love find news ways to use old items. (Hence why I have a monthly upcycle project and why I keep posting ways to upcycle t-shirts!)

Another reason I loved this article, is that early this week, I decided to finally tackle giving away my spare clothes. This is the pile I started with:

And well I've been ignoring it for about a year now. (I know, I know, but at least I finally got around to it.) As you can see its a big mess and I also at some point started to bag up my clothes and then stopped. So I looked at it for a while and just decided there was no best way to start this and I just needed to jump right in.

And afterwards that big ol' mess turned into this:

Okay so its still a mess because this is right outside my laundry room and I have towels starting to pile up and because now that Lion can get to the old baby clothes, he likes reaching his hand into there and pulling them out. Yay for curious kids!

And Mike promised me that over the weekend he'd take them to New Beginnings (Our local non profit thrift shop). But somehow by Sunday they were still in our house. So Blue and Lion found them, pulled them into the kitchen and used them to bounce on.

Blue noticed I was taking his picture and promptly decided to look cut and innocent, but he was bouncing along with Lion.

So while fast fashion may be a little to fast, there are still good ways to get rid of your clothes without throwing them all out.

And if donating isn't your style. Huffington Post has a solution for you as well. They wrote an article 7 Brands That Give Old Clothes New Life Again. In it you can find online stores to sell your clothes and also buy clothes people no loner want.