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Diana Rene: 0:06

You're listening to The Decluttered Mom podcast, a podcast built specifically for busy moms by a busy mom. I'm your host, diana renee, and in 2017, I had my second daughter and it felt like I was literally drowning in my home okay, not literally, but I felt like I couldn't breathe with all of the stuff surrounding me. Over the next 10 months, I got rid of approximately 70% of our household belongings and I have never looked back. I kind of feel like I hacked the mom system and I'm here to share all the tips, tricks and encouragement. Let's listen to today's show. Hello and welcome to this episode of The Decluttered Mom podcast.

Diana Rene: 0:53

Today, we are going to be talking a little bit about, I guess well, clothes in general, but a little bit about, like, fast fashion and how it has created a major problem in our world, not only in our closets, just like it's been. It's easier now than ever to buy so many clothes for even way less money than when you, when you maybe owned less clothing items because of fast fashion. Right, it's just. Unless you're buying from, like, a more expensive store, it's very easy to let your closet get a little bit out of control and do it season after season. There's no hiding that I am a TikTok scroll fan. It's one of my favorite pastimes and I sometimes get into different algorithms on TikTok where I am just dumbfounded at the amount of clothing items that people buy on a seasonal basis or not even seasonal, just constant. Every week it seems they're buying like bags and bags and bags, or boxes and boxes of new clothing for them and for their kids, and a big reason for that is fast fashion, right, it's like it's just very affordable to be able to do it. So today we're just going to talk a little bit about, like, the hidden environmental impact of clothing clutter and what you can do if you're feeling like, oh shoot, I am one of those people who has a closet full of clothes and one of the reasons I can't get rid of them is like I just feel bad, like they're going to end up in a landfill, even if I donate them, like I just like I just have this bad feeling environmentally. What's going to happen to all these clothes and my contribution, right? So just a couple things about fast fashion. To begin with.

Diana Rene: 2:53

This statistic shocked me and it said each year, 92 million tons of textile waste are generated globally. Okay, 92 million tons, that sounds like a lot right, but obviously, if you're like me, that sounds like a very big number, but at the same time I'm like I don't really know what that means. So that is the equivalent of a garbage truck full of clothes being incinerated or sent to a landfill every single second. That's insane, right. The other statistic that I read was the average American throws away 81.5 pounds of clothing annually. And you guys, that is the average American. Think about how many people are in America and then multiply that for the average. That's insanity.

Diana Rene: 3:51

Globally, less than 1% of used clothing is recycled into new garments. So that means that more than 99% of used clothing is going to a landfill or is being incinerated. So that's not great, right? And so if we are able to let those facts kind of linger in our mind when we are buying new clothes, but also when we are letting go of our items, there is something that we can do to help that situation. And side note real quick we all have to buy clothes. We all have to wear clothes. Our kids have to wear clothes.

Diana Rene: 4:30

It's not bad to enjoy fashion. It doesn't make you a bad person to want to express yourself through fashion. What I'm talking about here is like the overconsumption of clothing items, where, like I see so often on TikTok, like I said, where people will buy a full outfit for one outing and then they donate it after, and it's like when we can really like think about what we're doing with these clothing items and if we slow down our consumption, we are helping to contribute in a positive way to the environment instead of potentially a pretty negative one, right, and the thing is is like decluttering doesn't just create space in your home, right, like with everything you declutter, it's a decision about where your things end up, and it's honestly like a very quiet but powerful way to make values-based choices, right? Okay, so what do you do? You have a closet full of clothes. You're really wanting to go through them and you want to get rid of them because they're overwhelming you in your home, but you also want to do it responsibly.

Diana Rene: 5:34

So what I want you to do is I want you to go through all of your clothes and, as you're figuring out what you are going to let go of, you're going to sort the donate items into two categories, so you're going to have a re-wearable, like higher quality clothes, things that you would feel great about accepting into your home or you would feel great about giving to a friend. So not something that has stains on it, not something that might be ripped, not something that has been worn 8 billion times by your child and so it's really worn, worn like. Those types of things are not great for donations, but like clothes that you would feel great about receiving yourself or giving to a friend. You're going to put into that donate pile, right. And then the second pile is going to be clothes that you still want to get rid of but might not fit that donate criteria. So things like the stains, the rips, the really just outdated or damaged or anything like that you're going to put into the recycle or repurpose pile. So for the donation pile, you're going to donate those. You're going to find an organization in your local area that you feel good about and you're just going to get those in the car out of the house out. And you're just going to get those in the car out of the house. Get them out of your house, right. Donate them Now. For that pile, that is the recycle or repurpose, these are the clothes that you're not like. They're not in great condition.

Diana Rene: 7:03

Many donation centers will accept something called like rag bags, so like you can put all of the items into a trash bag and you can bring to them and let them know it's a rag bag and they can use it for textile recycling. Not every donation center does that, so you definitely want to know up front whether they do or not. You can give them a call, you can look online, but that's just something that can make it easier for you, because then you're just going to one place, you're donating the clothes that are in good condition and you're giving them the rag bag for the textile recycling. Right, if you don't have anyone in your area that does something like that, there are several take back programs for different retailers and I think I've talked about one of them before on the podcast, but it's been a while. So that one is H&M.

Diana Rene: 7:51

You can take any brand's clothing or home textiles to their store and some of them have bins that you can just see and some of them you just have to ask an employee there and they'll take them from you. But it doesn't have to be from H&M, it can be from any clothing store. You can bring those clothing items to H&M. They recycle those clothes and they make them into new clothes, which is pretty cool. Patagonia they take back clothes but it does have to be from Patagonia clothes, but it does have to be from Patagonia and then they take those to recycle and reuse them. Same with North Face. I believe you would have to double check, but I'm pretty sure they only take back North Face. And some of these stores will offer discounts as incentives, like, if you bring in a clothing item or a bag of clothing items from their store, then they might give you, like a discount, but again, I haven't found any solid corporate policy on that, so I think it might depend on the specific store.

Diana Rene: 8:51

Then there are also mail-in recycling services. So these are great options. They do cost money, though, and so it's up to you, like, if you want to make it super easy for yourself sometimes it's easy to pay for convenience, or maybe you just don't have an H&M in your area or in your donation center won't take rag bags back so you could do something like trashy or retold, so trashy you can buy a take back bag, fill it and ship it back, and then up to 70% of the things that they get are reused and 25% are recycled, and then you can earn trashy cash like through their company, so you'll have again you'll have to check their specific website for details but it is an option and it can be a great option to just get it out of your house right and also know that it's like going to a good thing, it's not just going to an incinerator, it's not just going to a landfill, and you're able to do it in an easy, convenient, efficient way. Same thing for Retold. I'm not as familiar with their company, but they do prepaid mailers for clothing of any condition, and so it works right. Then there's also a company called Simple Recycling and they're actually a pickup service, so they're not in every town area, but they are available in some US cities, so definitely check into them as well.

Diana Rene: 10:20

So I hope this is helpful for you and if you are someone who does any of these things, even if you just do this for a few items of your clothing, I want you to know that you're helping to interrupt that fast fashion cycle, you're reducing landfill waste, you are modeling conscious and responsible consumption for your kids and you're building an intentional closet, moving forward, that matches your values. If you are someone who's really concerned about the environment, then this is going to be something that you can be very proud of moving forward, for how you interact or how you use your shopping patterns to buy clothes that you know you're not just going to get rid of in five weeks when the season turns and you just bought it for like one occasion or anything like that. So I hope this is helpful. As always, please DM me if this was helpful. And also I would love it love it if you could follow the podcast. You just go up in the top right corner and click the follow button. The podcast you just go up in the top right corner and click the follow button. That does more for us than you will ever know and share with a friend.

Diana Rene: 11:30

If this episode or any episode you listen to, is helpful, please share it with a friend. I would appreciate it because that just helps us help more busy moms out there to live a life that's just a little bit less stressful. Thanks for hanging out and listening to The Decluttered Mom podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, it would mean the world if you could write a review or share this episode with a friend or your Instagram stories. And if you're on Instagram, be sure to follow me at thedeclutteredmom and send me a DM to say hi. I'd love to hear what you thought about today's episode. I hope you'll come back next week and hang out with us again.