Following on from one of my previous blogs, Make Do and Mend, I’ve been making a big effort not to buy any new clothes (apart from underwear!). I’ve never hesitated about the kids wearing secondhand clothes – they grow so quickly that it makes much more sense financially and I regularly swap kids clothes with my mum friends. But for a long time I’ve felt a bit funny about getting secondhand clothes for me. I don’t know why as I’d happily buy books and other bits and bobs in charity shops. Happily I’ve had a complete change of heart. The financial cost of buying good quality clothes and the environmental cost of clothing means that I can’t justify buying something new if I can get it secondhand.
My local town has 5 charity shops and the local Facebook group has a thriving selling page so I’m spoilt for choice and have managed to find most things I’ve been after. Only today I managed to get three summer tops for less than £20 and they’re all brands I could have never afforded new. I’m now having to remind myself that I don’t actually need more clothes and just because it’s nice and it’s cheap I don’t have to buy it.
I’m now trying to extend this mindset beyond clothes. I could do with a few more drinks glasses – I automatically thought of going to Ikea but every charity shop has shelves groaning with china and glasses, and when I started to feel a bit funny about them not being new I told myself off – how many times have I eaten and had a drink out? Has it bothered me that hundreds of other people have drunk out of those same glasses? No. If we could all pledge to buying less and making what we do buy secondhand (and borrowing things) we could make a big impact. Our goods are often made thousands of miles away, using environmentally harmful processes, not to mention exploiting poorly paid workers.
Eco Family Life 