What to Do With Your Old Clothes

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Recall the last piece of clothing you bought on an impulse. Perhaps it was an item ordered with leftover holiday money or the fastest winter layer you could find for those chilly commutes to class. Maybe it was a beach-ready outfit you snagged as you eagerly await spring break. The thrill of making a new addition to your wardrobe for any reason can make that spur-of-the-moment buy feel worth it — but when you buy clothes, do you ever imagine why you’ll one day part with them?

As a person's sense of style changes, the impact of discarded clothing remains. Each year the average American throws away roughly 81 pounds of clothing. Your favorite oversize scarf may get lost in the back of the closet as soon as March comes around, only to be fished out of the closet's depths later, to throw away or donate in the off-season.

It might be hard to predict why you eventually outgrow a piece, but some steps can be taken to avoid cycling through a new wardrobe year after year. Whether repurposing old, tattered garments or hosting clothing swaps with classmates, we’ve rounded up many options to help you determine what to do with old clothes if hauling bags to thrift store chains just won’t cut it.

Deciding Why You’re Getting Rid of the Clothes

The most important step is selecting the clothing you want to get rid of in the first place. Does your favorite sleep shirt have one-too-many tears at its seams or are you decluttering to buy more? “I think the common misconception is, ‘What I do with my clothing won’t really matter,’ and it does,” Lailee Waxman, a designer and sustainability graduate student at Columbia University, tells Teen Vogue.

Even if a piece of clothing no longer hangs in your closet, donating an item does not mean it is gone for good — in many cases, this is far from the truth. “It’s about reframing the whole idea of what to do with clothes when you’re done wearing them,” Waxman notes. “How can you repurpose or mend what you already have?”

If a small tear or lost button is keeping you from holding onto a piece, consider bringing it to your local tailor, dry cleaner, or using a sewing kit to mend it yourself. Try home remedies such as laundry soap, water, and vinegar to remove stains. “There are quite a bit of things that aren’t wildly difficult to do," says Camille Tagle, cofounder and creative director of Fabscrap, a textile reuse service. "It’s [about] changing your behaviors. Really try thinking through the longevity of the piece and investing in it.”

You’ve Made Your Donation Pile. Now What?

If you truly no longer see yourself wearing an item and it’s still in good condition, turn to peer-to-peer marketplaces like Depop, Poshmark, Etsy, and eBay for reselling. Many of these sites will create shipping labels, so all you’ve got to do is drop the packaged garment off at the post office. If you want to sell on a smaller scale, host an Instagram Stories sale and coordinate local pickup with buyers.

Over the past decade, more and more brands have created in-person and online resell, mending, and donation platforms. Los Angeles Apparel offers Swapmeet, enabling customers to resell past purchases through their order history. Patagonia’s Worn Wear program allows buyers to trade in old gear with the option to return or recycle unwanted items. Last fall, Zara launched its resell and repair platform, Pre-Owned, in the US; and three years before that, Madewell partnered with ThredUp for Preloved, a secondhand marketplace.

The resell policies for different brands are often explicit and their mending services return your garments to you. But when donating back to brands, and generally any chain like Goodwill or the Salvation Army, carefully reading their guidelines is critical to best ensure your items are accepted and not just landfilled.

Still, it can be tricky to know exactly where your items will end up, and the most ideal option for decluttering is to donate locally. Nonprofits such as Dress for Success and One Warm Coat have branches across the US, each outlining their specific requests and donation days by location. Dress for Success looks for gently worn professional attire for women, which it puts to use in its suiting program and job training, while One Warm Coat accepts clean and wearable coats for children and adults. Mutual aid groups and local churches are especially reliable places to look into when making clothing donations, and many update their seasonal or weekly needs on Facebook.

“It’s essential to try donating to local charities and donation centers, because their work will be localized to your neighborhood,” explains Columbia graduate student Megan Fillo, who works alongside Waxman at Impact Fashion, the university’s fashion sustainability organization.

Fillo often turns to her neighborhood’s Buy Nothing group, a gifting community network where members are able to trade or gift pieces they would otherwise donate. “You know the item is something someone explicitly wants, and you don’t risk it being shipped into the Global South or ending up in a landfill,” Fillo adds.

Knowing who you are passing garments on to makes swaps an ideal, community-oriented option. Says Ansley Jordan, creative vice president of Fair Fashion, the University of Georgia’s sustainable fashion club, “I recommend going to coffee shops, communal, or high-traffic areas on campus, looking at bulletin boards, and seeing what posters are displayed. Frequently, these events are thoroughly advertised because the greater the turnout, the greater the swap.”

Student-run orgs like this and Columbia’s Impact Fashion exist in many different forms across campuses, routinely hosting trades and educational workshops on mending and upcycling. If you’ve dug around and can't find a swap happening near you, take organizing into your own hands and plan one at a nearby park, campus student center, or classroom, with the help of peers and a professor.

Jordan adds, “One’s old clothing could be bundled in a bag, never to be seen again; however, when it’s given to one of your friends or someone within your community, there’s a much closer connection.”

And Before You Toss the Tattered Clothes…

In the case of damaged pieces that are no longer in wearable condition, you’ve still got options. Easily transform old garments into washcloths, rags, or reusable gift wrapping by cutting fabric into squares. Reach out to local quilt guilds to see if they’re accepting cleaned fabric swatches. Animal rescues and shelters also take textile scraps for dog and cat bedding, as long as the pieces are not small enough to pose a choking hazard. Clothes made of natural fibers can be taken to recycling centers, but make sure they are cleaned beforehand and are 100% cotton or linen.

Handling damaged clothing may involve 15 minutes of researching local aid groups online, watching a handful of videos on how to hand stitch, or a trip to the craft store, but putting that bit of extra effort into deciding what to do with old garments can make all the difference. “Try to get your stains out, go get that skirt hemmed, cut old jeans into shorts, take your shoes to the cobbler,” Jordan says. “Extend your clothing’s life and make it something new.”

Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue