You're listening to episode 27 of the Sustainable Minimalist podcast.

You are listening to the Sustainable Minimalist Podcast, a show about living simply and sustainably with your family.

Here's your host, Stephanie Safarian.

Hey there and welcome back. Have you ever looked at old pictures of yourself and

examined the outfits you wore 10 years ago, maybe 15 years ago.

I do.

My first thought is, oh my gosh, what was I thinking, wearing that?

The second thought I have is, hmm,

I wonder where that shirt or those pants are now. When it comes to sustainability, most of us know the three R's,

and they are of course, reduce, reuse, and recycle. But there are other ours too, like refuse, refuse

single use plastic, research, and of course, repair.

A listener listened to episode five of this podcast where I outlined 10 new

questions to ask before buying new clothes and she wrote to me she wrote and I quote

Trashing clothes really bums me out and I have become an avid seamstress in part to

avoid this you mentioned great tips on what to do with beyond repair

clothing, but don't forget you can cover a lot of stains, fix a lot of years,

and replace lots of zippers and buttons with pretty limited

sewing skill. Thank you Tara for reminding me about repairing. These days

repairing and mending clothes is out, right? Most of us get rid of any

item of clothing that shows wear and tear. Some of us donate these items, but the rule of donating is that if an

item isn't in very good condition and you don't want it, chances are real good, nobody else would want it either, so it shouldn't be donated.

That really leaves just one option for our old clothes, and that's the landfill.

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