Top Two Reasons to Reuse Besides Saving the Environment

What do Ann Taylor, Chico's, Johnson Brothers (ironstone-England), Pendleton, Fossil, Denby (English stoneware), Ralph Lauren, Anne Klein, Vernonware/Bird Pottery, Talbots, Jones New York, Rockport, Liz Claiborne, Land's End, Eddie Bauer, Woolrich, Columbia, Stone Mountain, Tommy Hilfiger, Levi's, Lee, Justin, Easy Spirit, Farberware, Nike, Reebok, Danskin, Corningware, and Random House have in common? These brands are in my closets, cupboards, and on shelves, and they were ALL found at used goods, resale, or thrift shops.

Everyone should know the three R's by now: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Shopping resale means buying recycled goods and reusing them in order to reduce the amount of waste produced by disposing of goods no longer needed and by reducing the amount of manufacturing (and all the environmental detriments). At the same time that you go shopping for reusables, you can drop off your recyclable household and clothing items at the same time. But why else shop at thrift stores?

Reason #2 Dress Better, Live Well

A simple Pendleton wool sweater typically costs over $100 at Pendleton. A perfect-fitting, great style jeans skirt: $79.00 at Talbots. Anne Klein cotton sweaters range from $80 - $200.00. Johnson Brothers "Provincial" platter used at Replacements.com: $55.99. A new Anne Lamott hardcover book at an online discount store can be as low as $17.00.

Totaling up the retail price, even at a discount or clearance price for name brands, could cost more money than the U.S. Mint knows how to print, or way more than the average person could afford. So, do people who can't or even won't afford high prices doomed to dress in new, but poorly made, ill-fitting, short-lived, cheap clothing?

Of course not; shop discriminately at thrift stores, and dress like a million bucks without spending a million bucks. Shop thrift stores, go to the tag sales to save even more money, and shop the labels to find better quality clothing. Here's what you might find: Pendleton sweater: $6.99; Talbot's jean skirt: $3.49; Anne Klein sweater: $2.99.

And while you're at it, accessorize better, set a better table, read better, and play more: signed 1st edition of Anne Lamott hardcover: $.50; The Johnson Brothers platter retired a dozen or more years ago: $1.99; Stone Mountain leather purse: $5.99; Ravensburger puzzle(average retail around $15.00): $.49.

Reason #1 Save the World

When shopping at charity-run thrift stores, like the Goodwill,Salvation Army, your do good in the world by putting your dollars into non-profit programs that provide jobs and job training, transportation, meals, housing, and so much more. If you are wondering how much good is done shopping at these non-profits, Goodwill alone provided training and jobs to 1.5million people in 2008. "We turn jeans into jobs," they say in Minnesota.

The Salvation Army, "an evangelical part of the universal Christian Church," uses your donations and thrift store money for wide variety of purposes, from the campaign to stopping human trafficking, to finding missing persons, elderly services, meals, transportation, jobs, disaster relief and more. In 2007-2008, over 29 million people were served.

Other charity-run thrift stores around the country are operated by the Society of St. Vincent DePaul, Habitat for Humanity,American Veterans Association of America, and local chapters of national organizations such as the American Red Cross and Junior League.

Look for local organizations that operate thrift stores in your area and organizations dedicated to issues of concern to you, such as hospital auxiliaries, missions and shelters, religious organizations, and no-kill animal shelters. For example, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation operates several Out of the Closet Thrift Stores in California, and The Home of the Sparrow organization provides transitional housing for homeless women in Illinois, and operates theSparrow's Nest Thrift Stores.

Shopping at non-profit organization-run thrift stores is a win-win-win-win: good for the environment, saves money, better quality for a lot less, and it helps people in so many important ways.

Sources:

The Consumer's Handbook for Reducing Solid Waste:

http://www.epa.gov/osw/wycd/catbook/index.htm