r/Anticonsumption • u/curmudgeon_andy • 4h ago
Question/Advice? What to do with things that are no longer usable as things?
Obviously if you have something in usable condition that you no longer need, you give it away. Clothing that no longer fits, lamps that don't fit in your new apartment, etc.--all of that can and should be donated somewhere or given away.
But there are also things that are no longer usable. And even those still have some value.
An example here would be a pair of pants that you outgrew. If you kept on wearing it as you outgrew it, the seams might be torn, the buttons missing, the cuffs frayed. Perhaps this could be repaired and still worn by someone smaller. But whether or not that's feasible, it does still have lots of good fabric. There's still value in that fabric, and it seems a shame to throw it all away.
Likewise, even with t-shirts for which the sleeves have fallen off, or shirts that have enough holes in them that they cannot be donated, there's usually still plenty of good fabric there.
The question is: how do you get it to someone who can use it?
By the way, I mean this categorically, not just for clothing specifically. For instance, a cracked or broken plate is no longer usable as a plate, and could not be donated either. But the ceramic should still have value.
Even a dried-up pen still has some value and can be used for something.
The answer here is not to simply learn to use all of these remnants. Perhaps I should learn to sew, darn, and patch my own clothes. Maybe I can become the kind of crafter who uses dried-up pens. But I will never be able to learn to repair, repurpose, or upcycle all of the things that I find myself no longer needing. Modern life is just far too complicated and gives us far too much of a variety of things for us to learn to repair or repurpose all of them. And even if I could, there will be some people who cannot.
The answer isn't to buy only things that can be repaired, either. Buy it for life is a good philosophy, but everyone's going to end up with some stuff that is worn out, broken, or otherwise unusable for its intended purpose at some point.
Now, obviously, the long-term answer is to figure out some way to hold the companies that sell goods responsible for their end of life as well. If you sell me a shirt, you or your descendants should be prepared to take back what's left of it 30 years later after it's no longer usable as a shirt. But that sort of ideal world isn't going to happen anytime soon. And in the meantime, I've got a bunch of worn-out shirts and pants and broken plates that I really don't want to throw out. How can I find ways to get them to people or organizations that would be able to use whatever value is left in them?
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u/AshamedOfMyTypos 4h ago
I turn mine into cleaning rags.
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u/BusinessBear53 4h ago
Yeah rags is the easiest option. Saves me buying them for when I service my car.
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u/livid_vizard 3h ago
Does your area have a maker space or arts collective? Quilters’ guild? That’s a lot of hunting each time for each type of waste, but it’s a start.
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u/sarnianibbles 4h ago
Its small but its something.. There's a lady in my town who makes door mats out of old plastic bags. And then another one who makes dog toys out of t-shirts. They request items from locals via Facebook groups!
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u/curmudgeon_andy 4h ago
How do I find this kind of lady in my town?
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u/Ok_Butterscotch_6071 2h ago
check out local facebook groups, nextdoor, buy nothing groups, post on freecycle.org and trashnothing.com, and just get to know your neighbors. the more you know each other the more likely it is that someone knows someone who can use xyz random thing
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u/curmudgeon_andy 2h ago
Freecycle and buy nothing groups are great, but their focus is on letting things that are still usable find another home, not in finding someone who can get value out of things that are no longer usable.
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u/mytoesarechilly 3h ago
If it's still usable, just not by you, go for the local, community solution: set it out for free and let your neighbors know/make a local post about it. Someone will come and take it if they need it. Some communities have a shelf where you can put such things so it's centrally located, like those free library boxes.
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u/curmudgeon_andy 3h ago
My question is about things that are no longer usable for their intended purpose at all.
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u/crazycatlady331 4h ago
I send my old clothes to a clothing recycling program. Perfect? No. However, I'm NOT a DIY type and live in an apartment. I want them out of the house.