I have a lot of clothes, I used to have way more.
If you have followed me for a while, you know that I have been striving to live a more minimalistic lifestyle. This means streamlining all the things that I own in my life down to keeping only the pieces that make me happy.
This was especially true when it came to my clothes
My Wardrobe
I store my clothes in three locations. My closet, my dresser, and my trunk (where the off-season clothes go). Due to living in the TriState area, I need to keep almost double the amount of clothes a typical person does since I experience all the seasons of Spring, Summer, Fall, and worst of them all, Winter.
Most of the clothes in my closet consist of clothing that has been either purchased for me or hand me ups/downs.
The History of My Clothes
Until as of recently, I used to hate shopping for clothes. I wore uniforms to go to school until I attended college. This meant that I was more than happy to have people give me clothes so I didn’t have to go through the hassle of shopping for them.
There are two reasons why people give me clothes:
I Receive Clothes as Gifts
My grandmother and my boyfriend enjoy giving me the gift of clothes. My grandmother tends to always get me something when she goes to the mall since she thinks of me constantly, while my boyfriend used to work in retail and received major discounts for high-quality clothing that I was more than happy to use.
My other family members also like purchasing clothes and accessories for me during the holiday season since clothes are an easy gift that they know will be practical and stylish for me.
Some recent highlights of gifts I’ve received from my family during the holidays are:
Shoes from my stepmom and dad
A green scarf from my brother
Gloves from my sister
Hand Me Ups/Downs
As I mentioned in my first blog post, I’m 4’9” and have been since my high school years. I also have been able to maintain the same weight throughout the years which has translated to being the ideal candidate for when my friends and family grown out of their own clothes.
I call clothes I get from individuals older than me as “hand me downs” like the rest of the world while the clothes I get from individuals younger than me are called “hand me ups”.
Much to the delight of my friends, I tend to get clothes from the latter category from young teens growing out of their clothes due to growth spurts.
Why I Want to Declutter my Clothes
After reading Marie Kondo’s books of, “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” and “spark joy”, I decided that I no longer wanted to keep all the clothes that were coming my way. This was especially true about the clothes that were given to me.
Initially I felt bad about giving away clothes that were given to me, but as Marie Kondo stated in her work, one shouldn’t keep gifts because of the guilt. It’s important to keep possessions in your life that give you joy.
How thredUP helped me declutter?
Now that I have set up the stage, here is the part that you all have been waiting for. The reason why I downloaded thredUp followed by how it helped me declutter my wardrobe.
To be honest, the way I found thredUp was by doing a variety of searches in the Apple App Store. I believe there was even a round-up of decluttering apps while the hype of Marie Kondo’s show was still on the rise.
While I checked out a variety of apps, thredUP was the one that I decided to try at the end of the day. thredUp is a consignment and thift store that allows people to donate and purchase used clothing items so that we can reuse and recycle items.
thredUp’s Clean Out Kit
While thredUp has several of goodies and features on their app, it was their Clean Out Kit that helped me declutter my closet. Below is the process.
Ordering a Clean Out Kit
Admittedly, it took me a bit longer than I’d like to admit to find the Clean Out section of the app. Due to the dual functionality of the app, initially navigating to where I needed to go to donate took a bit.
Once I found where I could order my kit, I went through the process which included:
Picking the kit- I went with FREE Donation Bag, which allowed me to donate all my items to a charity and get a tax receipt in return. However if you want to get paid for good quality items, you can go with a FREE Standard Bag (or Expedited Bag).
Entering information- You then put in your address followed by the charity you’d want to donate to if you picked that option. The charities as of today are: Feeding America and Girls Inc.
Waiting for My Kit
Due to wanting a Donation Bag, the wait was the longest part of the process. While I waited for my kit to arrive in the mail, I spent a weekend going through all of my clothes.
As Marie Kondo suggested in her book, I actually went through the process of individually lifting up each article of clothing to see which ones brought me joy. If I felt conflicted, I’d try out the article of clothing and see how I felt while wearing it and how it looked on me.
I then folded all my clothes in a neat pile and put them to the side once I was done so I’d be 100% ready for when it came time to fill up my kit.
Shipping My Kit
Once the Clean Out Kit arrived, it was a decently sized bag. I proceeded to fill it as best as I could and then asked my boyfriend to seal the bag since I couldn’t figure out how to seal it.
My pro-tip for thredUp is to create a video of how to properly fill out the bag and seal it if they haven’t already, because this was mildly frustrating and embarrassing.
I then went online to pick the pick-up date for someone to pick it up.
This part was also frustrating since no one ever came to pick up my things. On the days I worked in the city, I made sure that either my mother or boyfriend was at home to answer the door, while on the days that I worked from home, I was fully alert for any doorbells.
In the end, after three failed pick-up attempts, I had my mom drop off my bag at the UPS store which was an easy and painless process.
Getting my tax receipt
It took a long time for thredUp to process all my items, but eventually they did email me verifying that they received my items. They also provided a tax receipt so I could fill out at my convenience.
What’s good about thredUp?
The convenience
While there are alternatives, and plenty of them, to get rid of excess items. I don’t have the time nor the patience to try to sell my used items on apps or on the Facebook marketplace.
I also do not have the luxury of a front yard (or backyard) so garage sales are out of the equation as far as I’m concerned.
Also this method requires the least amount of human interaction, which I know is strange when it comes to me since I’m outgoing, but I love it when a process of decluttering can be almost automated without any chances of miscommunication.
The tax receipt
I like the fact that not only am I donating my used clothes to a charitable cause, but I also can deduct some of my possessions as a tax deductible. As someone who is striving to get better with my finances and as someone who is ‘adulting’ in the modern world, any way to make my taxes easier and less painful is appreciated.
The size of the Clean Out Kit
While I could not fit all of my clothes in one bag, I was surprised with how much room there was for my clothes when I received my bag. It took two bags to fill out the clothes I wanted to donate.
For those of you who want to sell your clothes, I’d recommend using your own boxes since I’ve read that you get a better value for well-folded and organized clothes (and the bag doesn’t provide that).
What’s bad about thredUp?
The waiting
The wait for my Clean Out Kit was ridiculously long. I know that on the app it does tell you it takes a while, but I feel like it took a week longer than it indicated. This is why when I filled out my first kit, I immediately ordered my second kit on the same day so that I’d get the second kit by the time the first one was processed.
The user-interface
I opened thredUp recently on my iPad for this review. On the second time I opened the app, navigating through it seemed a lot easier than when I initially opened the app a couple of weeks ago. I’m not sure if there was an update, or if the app looks different on tablets versus on phones, but it took a while for me to navigate where I needed to go on the app to get started.
Would I recommend thredUp?
I certainly have recommended to others already! If anyone ever asks me of an easy way to donate their clothes, my go-to suggestion is thredUp. Despite the long waiting time, I really did enjoy the relative ease of getting rid of my excess things.
However if someone is asking about thredUp in terms of purchasing clothes, or selling clothes, that is difficult. As of today, I haven’t made any purchases, nor have I sold clothes on thredUp.
The reviews that I have briefly checked out have indicated that it’s a lot more profitable to sell clothes on different platforms such as Facebook Marketplace or Poshmark.
Click Here to give thredUp a Try
If prompted, you should use the code below to let them know I sent you:
TRTXB8
Do you have any recommendations for decluttering apps?
I still have several items in my life that I’d love to donate. This is especially true when it comes to technology such as old cameras, printers, and tablets. With how quickly electronics are becoming ‘outdated’ there’s definitely a need to safely recycle these items in an eco-friendly manner.
I also may declutter my clothes once again in the beginning of 2020, so if you know of any services or apps similar to thredUp that you’d like me to try, feel free to tell me about those suggestions as well!
