The brilliant new way to downsize clothing

Clothes can be tricky to downsize. There's not a huge second-hand market for them. So much is donated - far more than the charity shops can ever sell to their handful of customers.

What's the best thing to do?

For me it's been an ethical dilemma. Unwanted clothes versus unwanted landfill.

Until now

Now there's a more planet-friendly option. One that comes with rewards.

Drop-off at H&M stores

Fashion store H&M has a zero waste goal for the clothes (and other textiles) that you drop off in their recycle stations. So far they've taken in the equivalent of 89 million T-shirts for their Rewear, Reuse, Recycle process.

Rewear

Clothing that can be reworn is sent overseas for second-hand use.

Reuse

Textiles no longer suitable to wear are converted into products such as cleaning cloths.

Recycle

Textiles that can't be reused are recycled into textile fibres or used to manufacture products such as insulation materials.

Reward

For each bag of used textiles they'll give you a discount voucher. I think 15% off your next item. If you don't need it (or find it too tempting) then pass it on. It's a chance to brighten the day of a random shopper.

What to do

Up the back of the shop, look for a recycle station like this one.

To get your voucher, talk to a staff member first. For more information see H&M Recycle your clothes or their partner Ico-spirit.

PS. If you've are looking to sell some of your really-good-condition clothing online, you may want to grab a free copy of my ebook Less Clutter More Cash for tips on selling online.

Comments

Less Clutter More Cash - now available

Do you feel like you have too much stuff? Is your home full of things you never use? Would you like to swap them for cash? We did My wife and I have sold more than 550 items online as we downsize and we've learnt a bit along the way. I've put some of our best tips into this handy ebook. I hope you can use these tips so you too can have less clutter and more cash. Enter your email address below to receive the book for free. Less Clutter More Cash Get my new ebook for free. PS. This will subscribe to the But Wait There's Less email list, so you'll know when the new updated version of the book is available. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Big motivator for small living

It's been a while between posts here - mainly because we've been moving house. It's been a real motivator for downsizing. Packing each and every item we owned, really makes me wish there were fewer of them. Moving everything from the old apartment to the new one made me envious of those people who live in a "tiny house on wheels". For them moving house simply means towing it to a new location. No packing required. The whole process has reaffirmed our commitment to owning less stuff. So we're going to be intentional about downsizing. It will be an ongoing activity. My environmental heart couldn't stomach a spontaneous dumping of things into the garbage, but it's also more fun this way. Selling things online brings in some handy pocket money. Giving items away is also a great community activity, whether it is to friends and family, to charity or to people in the neighbourhood. I'm looking forward to it as a lifestyle rather than a task to do....

The power of part-time

The Project had this short but revealing story on a study of work hours. Turns out that the perfect amount of working hours per week is 25. Working about this amount increases your brain function, your productivity, your free time and your happiness. What was interesting was the talk afterwards by the hosts. Comments like "but who's going to pay the mortgage?" and "you get the same pay" indicated that the biggest obstacle is in our heads. Australians have the largest houses in the world. The only reason we get such big and expensive houses is to ' keep up with the Joneses '. But that doesn't actually make us happy. It doesn't make up working an extra 2 days each week. If we could free ourselves from traps like this, we could set up our lives around things that actually make us happy. Such as having 4-day weekends.

But wait... there's less!

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