Let’s Recycle Old Clothing

You know, it’s funny that most of us, when we think of waste, don’t even consider old clothing as a waste. Old clothing adds way more pollution in the air than we can ever imagine.

Here is the fact for you, according to vox magazine…
“The average American throws away 70 pounds of old clothing every year, which is roughly the equivalent of 191 T-shirts per person”.

Growing up- I always noticed that my mother never wasted any of our clothing. She loved to sew and was, and still is, a very creative woman. She is constantly finding ways to recycle old clothing. My childhood was not that advanced, and there was not much awareness about “going green”, but there was less mess as well. I am not that old if you are trying to figure out my age…lol, I am still a young chick.

Mom’s Hacks

I took a lot of traits from my mother, and recycling old clothing is one of them. I am so blessed that she is my mother.  She taught me how to live life the way I am living now. She shaped me up and people who know me or meet me soon figure out about my personality. Well, today’s post is not about me though. It’s about how to recycle old clothing in some amazing ways.
So let’s start learning how my mother recycles our old clothing.

1-Upcycle:

Recycle your old clothing into something new. Make your kid’s clothing of your old ones! When Zahra rushed to wear the top in the picture below yesterday, she gave me an idea for this post.

BTW, Zahra broke one of my candlestand pot holders next to her on accident in the picture above.

Girls clothing:

Ever since I moved to the USA, I have purchased clothing on clearance as I have a few charge cards for my favorite stores and I get alerted when there is something on sale, and that’s how I get our clothes. I get tired of wearing old clothes for too long, and as we all know, they get out of style as well.
My lovely mother lives with us and any time my husband and I get rid of old clothes out of our closet, it goes to my mom’s sewing corner where she reshapes them and uses them for my kid’s clothing. It feels so nice when she recycles old clothing with her sewing skills and just turned them into something new. I think that’s pretty smart of her.

Here is another one that was my outfit my mother made for me 13 years ago, and now it’s Zahra’s beautiful Pakistani style dress.  This is one of the greatest examples of ” Recycle old clothes to create a new style”.

T-shirts: Older t-shirts can be resized accordingly to your kids as well. Most of my husband’s old tee-shirts are Zahid’s now.

Grocery bags: Old curtains or pillowcases can be used for reusable grocery bags.

Rags: We use old sweaters for rags, and they work nicely. Look around your old clothing to make your pretty and long lasting rags.

2-Hand-me-downs Old Clothing:

Kids clothing you can easily hand-me-downs. In our house, Zahra’s old clothing goes to Zoha, and from Zoha it goes to one of my nieces, and at the end, it goes to donation. As kids grow very fast out of them, so does their clothing so they don’t wear out fast.

3-Donation:

If you are not handy like my mother is (I am not that handy either), then donate your old clothes. First, find someone in your friend’s circle or you can always put an add on Craigslist. I once put an ad to sell Zoha’s tons of old clothes, but someone was very needy and I just gave away two full boxes of clothing for free. I felt so peaceful. If you don’t know anyone, then you can donate them to any thrift store.

4-Recycle Old Clothing For Cash:

You also can sell and turn all your old clothing into some money to put into your savings or buy more stylish clothing…lol
IF you prefer not to ship and would sell local, your best bet is put them on consignment stores although those stores don’t pay you well. I would recommend Craigslist.

Related: How to sell on Craigslist like a pro.

Related: A Little Girl With Her American Girl Doll.

Otherwise, ThreadUp, eBay, and Amazon are also great sites to sell, but you have to ship your product, which is not that difficult. I have sold several times on eBay. The buyer mostly pays for the shipping expenses. I tell you, it feels so nice to get rid of old clothes and get your space back!
Garage sales are also a good way to sell your old clothing. You don’t make tons of money, but that’s not your purpose anyway. My scarves go bad fast and I give them to my girls, so I am always in need of scarves. In the summer, someone was selling scarves from Macy’s for a dollar each. I bought all ten. It was the win-win situation for both of us. The seller, and the buyer.

5-Recycle Old Clothes Online Or Near Me:

Some of the old clothing, such as underwear and bras, are very hard to donate or sell. Especially if they are not even in good shape. For those, you can use one of the several recycling programs. Find out what local company you have.
Here are some of the sites I know to take all types of old clothes,

The Bra Recyclers. You can just mail them if you don’t have any station closer to where you live.
Soles 4 Souls. They’re a famous national shoe recycling program.
Glasses: Any Lens Crafters store would take that from you for their gift of sight program.
TerraCycle Fabrics and Clothing Zero Waste Box. That’s the best one. You can ship them whatever you want to recycle. It’s a bit of a hassle to ship them, but once we learn to be responsible to live green, everything makes sense.
Artifact creative recycle. If you live in Portland, you can drop your clothing there.
Shwop. is the other local place where you can swap or donate. It’s kind of a cool strategy.

6-Buy Old Clothes:

You can also help to reduce waste by buying used clothing for yourself as well. I know as women always want to buy more so the best way is just go to any thrift store and buy slightly used clothing. It’s nice to be a part of the green system. We mostly buy from Goodwill, Savers, or Salvation Army.

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I hope I was able to help with these tips and resources with some of my ways to recycle your old clothes so you can go green and reduce waste.

I would like to know what do you do with your old clothing?