![]() ![]() And there’s more: Your Recycling Mostly Isn’t Getting Recycled What that means for those of us who have more than enough is that we shouldn’t use the excuse of donation as a way to absolve our guilt of tossing out something we don’t need. No one - not even the poorest people - are lacking a shirt on their back. We collectively buy five times more clothing now than we did in 1980, per person, and that means that the clothing waste stream has multiplied many times over. This is all part of the clothing deficit myth, this idea that there are people out there who don’t have enough clothes. In fact, between 10 and 12 million tons of clothing end up in U.S. And worst, more than 10 percent of clothing donated to Goodwill in the U.S. ![]() ![]() Some of that clothing is sold in poor communities in other countries, but even that is not without costs - doing so kills jobs of local textile makers who don’t have any of our safety net programs to fall back on. Most donated clothes either don’t ever make it onto the racks at thrift stores, or they don’t sell and end up getting shipped in bales overseas. Recently we learned this alarming fact: Only a small portion of donated clothes actually get sold in U.S. Which is important, because: Your Donations Don’t Go Where You Think Not that that makes decluttering bad, but I do wonder sometimes if we’re succumbing to the pressure to take it too far. Not to mention that throwing it out is wasteful when it could serve another purpose.ĭecluttering is a massive privilege, born from the trust that we can always buy that thing again if we find that we tossed it in error. That’s why that generation would never dream of tossing a margarine container when it could be reused to store leftovers. People who’ve known true hardship have a different appreciation for the value of things than those of us who are willing to toss bags of stuff without another thought. And maybe we will.īut, let me ask you: Could you imagine your grandparents who lived through the Great Depression ever going on some massive decluttering spree and getting rid of all their belongings that don’t “spark joy”? Of course not. I think there’s some tiny voice in the back of my brain that’s constantly saying, “You really should be decluttering.”Īnd the idea sure sounds great, that if we get rid of the stuff that’s stressing us out and taking up too much time to keep it organized and clean, we’ll feel better. Minimalism and Marie Kondo-inspired decluttering are both reaching near-hallowed status these days, and if you’ve ever felt the pressure to winnow your belongings down to some impossible standard, you’re not alone. But there’s one area of our life where we are resolving say no this year, not just as a means to say yes.įirst, some context: The Pressure and Problem of Decluttering Our last post was about our theme for 2017: Learning to say no, to make room to say yes in the parts of life we care most about. ![]()
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