The saying is “reduce, reuse, recycle” for a reason. It’s in order of impact, with recycling being low impact and reactive and reducing being high impact and proactive.
this post was submitted on 24 Dec 2023
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As if I had enough money for a second sustainable outfit
The prices on this things I swear :,(
That’s why thrift stores exist. Nothing more sustainable than buying used.
And the stuff there is generally good quality, since it has been used and not fallen apart for being cheap shit.
I've exclusively bought clothes, furniture, kitchenware etc. second hand for about 10 years now and everything has been cheaper and so much nicer and better quality than anything I could buy new.
I've shifted to buying a lot of things used but I still can't wrap my head around buying used clothing most of the time. There is an overwhelming selection of choices, and even if I sift through all of that to find the sort of stuff I need chances are it isn't going to fit well.
Poshmark helps for some things, but only if it's like a discrete, easily categorized item that I can clearly for (like a specific brand of hat, or a specific line of pants from a specific brand that I already know fit). I'm appreciative of brands that have started carrying their own used clothing sections - even though it's usually more expensive it's so much easier to wrap my head around.
Contrast that with things like electronics or household items which I go used for all day every day. I needed a rice cooker, bought a used Zojirushi off a local guy within a week, easy as pie.
If you've got any local tailors, you can always buy slightly larger and then bring the clothes to them for adjustments
That only works for people for whom the largest size option is too big in every dimension. For me, XXL clothing is rare, AND 75% of the time, XXL clothing is made for a person 11" shorter than me who weighs 3x more than me. Which a tailor can reduce the width, but a tailor can't make the clothes taller.
Ah, that's fair. My SO is plus sized, and she usually doesn't have a good time thrifting either for similar reasons.
I agree with that statement, but I also don’t know how to define where the line is where consumption turns into overconsumption. Any ideas?
People buying every shoe color in order to match all the time? I don't mean like 3-6 pairs.
Wait people need more than 6 pairs???
I'm god damn shoe obsessed and I don't have that many. I got:
-Sports shoes
-Work shoes (thick, leather, sturdy)
-Fancy boots (black)
-Fancy boots (white)
The only boots I ever got purely to match was the two pairs of black and white fancy boots. Which is more than enough to be complimentary to any wardrobe depending on if I use brighter or darker colors. What more could you need? Two pairs of sports shoes? Two pairs of work shoes if you wanna be extra? But even that only brings you up to 6 and I can't fathom needing more.
Like I consider myself a shoe obsessed woman. I pride myself in my silly little stompers yet I can't imagine owning more then 6 at a time. Unless you count during my lifetime because yeah boots got replaced as old ones wore out. I needed to replace the white ones as they literally fell apart, went through several rounds of work and sports shoes too.
Depending on what sorts of stuff you're into there are situations where you can go over six without it being absurd. Like:
- Everyday walkaround shoes
- Running shoes
- Hiking boots
- Black dress shoes
- Other color dress shoes
- Sandals of some kind
That's already six pairs without even getting into other things that one may need like rain boots, snow boots, cleats, nonslips for work, etc.
And without getting into the varieties of hiking/trail running/etc. You can easily encounter situations in that genre alone that necessitate 2 or more. Waterproof or not, trail running vs hiking vs thruhiking, the list goes on and on.
Editting to add: this isn't unique to hiking either, you'd find similar variations in runners too. Endurance, sprint, or agility (among others) running are all different enough you'd have genuine performance and health reasons to separate the shoes. Obviously hardly anyone will dedicate to that many unique activities, but some people really enjoy them so it's worth explaining.
I've seen men and women have boxes of shoes filling their small closet. It's a weird thing to see and then explaining is no different. Everybody has their drug, if you know what I mean.
Apparently I own 13 pairs of shoes. Damn.
I used to be way more consumer-y and I've been slowly reforming my ways. Case in point, two of those pairs are old running shoes repurposed into general beaters, and 10 of them were purchased 5+ years ago.
I have sizes 47 and 48 pairs of shoes. Not used as it was very large for my feet, which is technically 44-45 when I received shoes that belonged to my late American uncle in September.
I own sneakers, sandals, and boots. What else would I need?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_economy
Unfortunately, people being cunts, this is very open to corruption by pretty power hungry authoritarians. But probably the only viable solution.
I feel fat shamed.
good
Not being able to afford over consumption at sustainable prices is half the point, right?