Category: Tips & Tricks

Shopping at thrift store in Panama City Beach, FL is an effective way to save some cash, get quality goods, and keep the world a greener place. Secondhand items cost buyers less money and are often much higher quality than the (basically) disposables that come from discount stores.

And, ultimately, by continuing to use perfectly good items, we are keeping them out of landfills and not pulling more resources from the earth to produce new items.

The environmental impact of throwing things out is catching up with us. The fashion industry, with its high product turnover, produces some 1.2 billion tons of greenhouse emissions a year, millions of tons worth of garbage in landfills, and millions of tons of plastic microfibers in the ocean. Start adding in throwaway cutlery, cheaply made furniture, and last year’s cell phones and the numbers are even more disturbing.

Equally as beneficial as shopping at thrift stores is donating to them. Rather than tossing goods out or storing something in the bottom of the closet to never be used again, it’s good practice to give thrift shops these items and put them back in circulation. It’ll provide someone else with all the benefits listed above, as well as earn some funds for the thrift store’s charity. And, don’t forget that it’ll clear out some of the clutter in your house as well.

What Not to Give to Thrift Stores

It’s important to remember that thrift stores in Panama City Beach, FL are not garbage heaps, nor are they repair shops. Items that are obviously broken or unusable are not really going to do them much good, and, in fact, donating this type of stuff will cause more work for what are likely volunteers or low-paid staff. In other words, it’s best to avoid being a burden.

Otherwise, there are some items that just don’t seem to sell or are already overstocked in thrift stores. For example, clear glass stemware and fine china are regularly donated but rarely leave the shelves. Baskets come in bulk but sell primarily near holidays.

What to Give to Thrift Stores

On the other hand, there are some items that thrift stores love to get and that will almost be gone by the time the donor is. High-quality cookware like pots, pans, and skillets are examples of such. Jewelry is another. Many people hit the thrift shops in search of rings, brooches, and necklaces. The same goes for decent toys and children’s books. Toddlers aren’t too worried about name brands or if something is new.

Clothing, of course, is what most of us think of as the thrift store shopping experience. For donors, it’s important to only give clothes in wearable condition — no big stains, holes, or rips. It’s also good form to wash them beforehand as stores do not have the time or the funding that it’d take to launder all the clothing that is donated.

How to Give to Thrift Stores

The main idea when giving to a thrift store is to treat the donated stuff as if it’s being given to a friend or family member, someone who deserves respect. Check items for damage before they are given — plugin electronics and check clasps and zippers. Clean everything as if you’d be willing to use it — wash the dishes, cookware, and clothes. Then, as much as possible, sort things into meaningful categories so that they can be easily sorted at the shop. This saves the store time, and time is money.

In general, it’s easy to find thrift stores online. In fact, nowadays they sell much of their products online, just as the rest of the retail industry does. For donations, go online and check out the store’s preferences and hours of operation to streamline the process for them. Just like it’s important to realize that the stores aren’t retail landfills, it’s also good to keep in mind that staff are often volunteers and well-meaning people, so it’s best to donate respectfully.

But, Do Donate to Thrift Stores

All that said, donating to these places is an amazing thing to do. It provides money for worthy causes. It provides people with repurposed goods at affordable prices. It helps you get rid of items that weigh you down. And, it keeps all those tons of garbage out of the landfill. In short, whatever small effort it takes to prep items for donation, the outcome is irrefutably valuable to other people and the planet. Don’t we all want to do that sort of thing?

The Style Conundrum

Clothing manufacture is a big polluter of our planet, yet we have to wear clothing for our entire lives.  

Clothes also wear out, so they need to be replaced too.  You can’t just buy one set o clothing to see you through the rest of your life!

So how do you become a more careful and conscious clothing consumer?  

Reading this blog will certainly help you make better choices, so, therefore, fewer mistakes, which cost not only your back pocket a lot over time, but also our planet.  Having an image consultation such as my 7 Steps to Style program is another way to arm yourself with the information you need to really make good and sustainable fashion choices too.

1. Where You Purchase Your Clothing and Accessories From
2. How long you keep your items 
3. How you dispose of unwanted or worn out items

These are just three of the things you need to consider when becoming more conscious about your fashion and style choices.

So how do you stay stylish and also only leave a gentle footprint on this glorious planet of ours?

Start with the 5 Rs of Sustainability

Reduce – Reuse – Repair – Re-Vamp –  Recycle

1. Reduce Your Impact

Consider Your Fabrics

How sustainable are your fabric choices?  As much as a cotton tee may seem like a cheap and good option, is this so?  Did you know that the environmental cost of cotton production is very high as it’s a water-hungry crop?  If you live in a drought-stricken country like Australia, you realise that water is a precious precious resource that should not be squandered lightly.

So when choosing a cotton garment, it needs to be high quality, in a garment shape, colour and style that I love, and that I plan to keep and wear repeatedly for at least 5 years.  My denim jeans that are worn multiple times a week for years are a good and sustainable cotton-based fabric choice.

The cheap tee shirt in a lower-grade cotton that will sag and stretch out of shape and then shrink in the wash is not a good one!

Knowing which fabrics disintegrate more quickly is also important, I’ve learned that anything with more than 3 different fibres will not wear as well as a garment made from fabrics with 3 or less fibres mixed together.  

But then there are fabrics, such as acrylic, that even when 100% one fibre,  wear very poorly, and your garment will be looking shabby and old within a handful of wears!  Do not bring anything acrylic into your wardrobe!

Recruit only the best

Here is another thought, one that I’m sure you’ll agree with, is that by acquiring only the right items for you  (just as an employer is keen to recruit the right employees who have the right skills and abilities for the job which they are to perform) is essential.

If you don’t think about recruiting the right colours, shapes, and styles of clothing to your wardrobe to start with.  If you don’t really consider the comfort of the new shoes you are about to purchase, then it’s post-recruitment that you suffer the consequences of a poor choice.

Shifting the emphasis from what to do after you’ve made a bad purchasing decision to one that is upfront, only bringing the best into your wardrobe will make it a much more sustainable place with so many fewer regrets!

Do You Love it More?

This is a great test to see if something is good enough to come into your wardrobe – ask yourself do you love it MORE than what you already own, as you are going to give something away (one-in-one-out) if you bring this new item home with you.  If you can’t think of anything in your wardrobe you love less than this new thing, then it shouldn’t be coming home with you!

What’s the Source?

Who is making my clothes and accessories?  How are they treated?  Am I happy to be contributing to their livelihood?

There are many lists of good and poor clothing manufacturers which you can look up to see who is naughty and who is nice!

Will It Need Special Care?

Does a garment require dry cleaning or some sort of special care?  This is adding additional environmental and time costs to it  – the dry cleaning chemicals, the time and effort to hand wash – how will this impact on your wear of the garment?  If you’re anything like me, you may choose not to wear a garment, knowing it has special cleaning care requirement, and so decide that the garment is “work” and so ends up unworn in your wardrobe, even ironing for one people stops them from wearing a garment more frequently).

2. Re-Use What You’ve Got

You certainly don’t need a new outfit for every special occasion. Why do we think that we do?  Are we so worried to think others will think less of us if they see us in the same clothing more than once or twice?

It’s great that even fashion icons are now lauded for wearing the same garment and accessories more than once in public!  Vintage is fashionable and sustainable too.

Wear it Again and Again

How many ways can you think of to style the same garments?  So many of us wear the same clothes just one way, rather than seeing if we can find multiple ways to wear them, in different combinations and outfits – giving them a much greater lifespan and use than they would otherwise get.  

I love to challenge myself to put together new and different outfits with what exists already in my wardrobe (shopping your wardrobe) and you’ll see the same garments appearing in outfits over multiple years here on Inside Out Style.

3. Repair What’s Broken

Instead of throwing out, because your sweater is a little pilled or a hem has come down on a garment, can you repair it?  It’s not hard to sew on a button, make a small alteration and to fix that zipper that keeps coming down.

4. Recycle What You No Longer Love or Wear

Pre-Loved Shopping

This is a great option for giving clothes that were not wanted by one person a new life in another’s wardrobe.  Making decisions more quickly about your purchasing mistakes and letting items that can’t be returned to their source  to the world of thrifting and or resale will ensure they get more love and wear, than holding onto them in your wardrobe or a long time before letting them go.

Remember fashion is like milk, it goes off over time, so allowing your fashion mistakes to be someone else’s fashion finds more quickly will ensure they have a more sustainable life.

5. ReVamp

One of the things I often look at when doing a wardrobe audit and assessing clothes, particularly those that have been loved and that are no longer fashionable, I think about if there is a way to update them, to revamp them into a more modern shape or style (particularly if there is still good wear left in the fabric).

Often a dart here or there, and an altered hem, or a change of buttons can make an older item look like new again.

Upcycling

If you have the talent, that means, the imagination to upcycle older pieces of clothing, this is a great way too to help build a more sustainable fashion future for us all.

Thrift store shopping can be fun and you can cop a lot of things you’d never expect to find. If you are in FL or TN, check thrift store in Panama City Beach, FL. They help men overcome drug and alcohol addiction by offering inpatient services at Haven House Addiction Recovery. Support a great organization while doing some sustainable shopping!

As the days get longer, we tend to be more energized to get active and accomplish things. Spring cleaning is the best way to take advantage of that sudden spurt of energy and get your home ready for the warmer months ahead. Spring cleaning is the time when many homeowners deep-clean, declutter and organize their entire home. Things that you probably don’t do regularly, like store seasonal clothes or wipe off all the kid’s toys, should be on your spring cleaning list.

The Marie Kondo KonMari decluttering method is still a popular style after gaining popularity last year. This method declares that many of us have material items that don’t add value to our lives. When following the KonMari tidying up method, you must hold each item in your hand and assess the emotional attachment to that item. Does it bring you joy? If so, you keep it. If not, you donate it.

There are many ways you can organize and declutter. If you have small children, you might want to store clothes that they’ve grown out of and make a list of new items they might need. In the kitchen, it’s finally time to throw away the loose lids and broken cups. Need a deep-clean of the carpets? Now is the time!

Benefits of a Clean Home

If you’ve ever cleaned your entire home on a Saturday and subsequently felt like you could take on the world, there’s a psychological reason for it. According to a recent CNN article and licensed psychologist Michael Tompkins, we get a mood boost from “mastery activities,” or tasks that give us a great sense of accomplishment.

In addition, physical clutter can actually become mental clutter. According to the article, clearing out visual clutter is known to reduce stress and open ourselves up to making clearer, better choices in all areas of life, including relationships, health, and our career. Essentially, we’re in a better position to reach our potential when we’re not surrounded by clutter. This is why you feel like you could achieve anything when you’ve accomplished a day of decluttering and cleaning.

Whether you believe in the psychological benefits of spring cleaning, there’s no denying the benefits to your home. As you live your life throughout the year, it’s natural that your house accumulates a bunch of stuff, including layers of dirt and germs. Most people clean their homes regularly, but things like baseboards, windows, and deep-cleaning of appliances tend to get put on the backburner.

A once-yearly deep clean not only gives your home some much-needed love, but it’s also a time when many homeowners do small repairs. Taking care of those small repairs will ensure that your punch list doesn’t keep getting longer.

When to Start

The spring season officially begins on March 19 and lasts through mid to late June. There’s no exact date that tells us when spring cleaning should officially begin, but it’s called spring cleaning for a reason.

First, determine how in-depth you will go. What’s your plan? Will you do a quick and simple spring cleaning? Or is this the year to get out the touch-up paint and go all-in with a total home refresh? Either way, keep in mind how much cleaning and organizing you want to do. If your list is long, it’s probably best to start as soon as you can. You may have to dedicate a few weekends to finish the job.

It’s also a good idea to start scheduling any professional services now. If you’ll be having your carpets professionally cleaned, get that on the books so you have a date to work towards. Window cleaning and household cleaning services will likely also be booking up around this time. This is a helpful resource if you’ll be donating several carloads of boxes or any large furniture pieces.

Once you’re ready to clean and organize, the best method is to go room by room. Starting in the bedrooms where you might have to spend more time organizing and decluttering is a great way to give you some momentum. Tackling those larger projects, like the kitchen, will give you that greater sense of accomplishment.

As you go through the house, having a plan will ensure you are not left with giant piles of stuff around the house with no energy left to finish the job.

• Everything should have a designated “home” so cleaning up is easier
• Use baskets or bins to add storage (you can find these at Goodwill)
• Keep a donation box or pile in every room and then consolidate at the end
• Do the baseboards all at once (it’s not fun, so just get it done)

Simple Hacks

Some years, all you need to do are a few simple things to give your home a refreshed spirit. For those who live in an apartment or condo, anyone who recently renovated their home, or germaphobes who always have a spotless home, your spring cleaning will go by fast. For those looking for quick hacks to make their cleaning easier, here are a few tips:

• Open windows throughout to circulate fresh air
• Make your own all-purpose cleaning solution
• Use a Magic Eraser for baseboards or stubborn scuffs
• Use empty pantry boxes to store smaller items, like instant oatmeal packets and loose tea bags
• Disinfect your cleaning sponge by heating it for a minute in the microwave
• Use a halved lemon to get rid of hard water buildup on bathroom or kitchen faucets
• Designate a spot for everything in your house
• Find small baskets and boxes at a thrift store for organizing drawers (if they’re out of sight, they don’t have to match)
• Wash your pillows in the washing machine

Pre-Spring Cleaning Tips

There are some things you can do to get your house ready before you begin spring cleaning. Prepping your spring cleaning tools will ensure you can be efficient and sanitary as you’re cleaning.

• Have your household cleaning supplies ready
• Get boxes or bags ready to collect trash and donations
• Schedule professional services
• Make sure the essential systems of your home are functioning properly (HVAC, sprinklers, gutters, window locks, etc.)

Drop off your spring cleaning donations at a thrift shop in Panama City Beach, FL. There are 80+ community locations where your no-longer-needed items can be dropped off, which in turn gives new life to clothing and other items that would otherwise be thrown away.

Have you noticed that every thrift store and neighborhood Goodwill smells the same? And that the clothes also smell the same? With the help of science, we got to the root of why. (And we have tips to help you get rid of it.)

That vintage store smell: We all know it, that musty, grandma’s attic-y smell that licks your nostrils the moment you cross the threshold of any vintage, consignment or used clothing store, no matter how high- or low-end. Where does it come from? And more important, how do I get it out of my purchases when I get them home?

John Mahdessian, owner of Madame Paulette, a dry- and specialty-cleaning concern in New York that restores high-end vintage garments, says of that smell, “It’s a musty odor, a smell of decay. It’s funky!”

Katie McDonnell, owner of Nomad Vintage in Manhattan’s East Village, differentiates between good and bad vintage smells, and steers clear of buying anything that falls into the latter category.

“Good vintage smells a wee bit musty, but more like a whiff of wool or your grandmother’s attic,” Ms. McDonnell said. “Maybe just the slightest hint of a cigarette smoke from a party; more like a life well-lived than anything gross.”

Vintage items that truly reek, she warns, “can, like bad-smelling food, portend all sorts of other problems — damage, moths or other bugs (shudder).” She also notes that the garment may simply be made from a fabric that retains odors, holding onto them stubbornly even after washing.

But what makes those smells so universal? To find the answer, it turns out, we must only turn to Depeche Mode’s 1984 classic, “People Are People,” because that smell? That smell is us.

The Science of Vintage Smells

Modern prophets though they may be, Depeche Mode can take us only so far in explaining why should it be. Enter Science. Specifically, the analytical scientists at Procter & Gamble. P & G, the parent company of Tide, Gain and Downy, devotes no small amount of time and research dollars to the issue of awful smelling clothes, or malodor, as it’s more formally known.

I sent a bundle of vintage clothes I purchased at random to be tested at the P & G labs. Mary Johnson, a principal scientist at Tide, explained the testing methods: “Each item was placed into a headspace sampling bag and sealed. Then, using an automated headspace sampling system, the bag was filled with nitrogen to equilibrate at room temperature for two hours before headspace was collected onto a thermal desorption unit (TDU) tube packed with 35-60 Tenax-TA adsorbent resin. The headspace samples on TDU tubes were analyzed via thermal desorption in a chromatography mass spectrometry system. Chemical identification was performed using mass spectral libraries.”

Did you follow all of that? Me neither. Essentially, they put the clothes in a big resealable bag, shut it up, pumped it full of some nitrogen and then did a bunch of tests on the resulting gas to determine what the smells were coming from.

Here’s what they found: 12 of 18 of the key malodor molecules that contributed to the bouquet of that vintage smell were derived from body soils, which is a gentle way of saying your skin, your sweat, your oils. Distressing! But, perhaps, not nearly as distressing as the list of odor descriptors that accompanied the compounds. Sweet, sour, oily, herbal. Fatty. Whiskey, nutty, cheesy, sweaty. Stinky feet. Fermented. Bready.

The source of the remaining compounds that made up that vintage smell were environmental contaminants like car exhaust, gasoline, dry cleaning solvents, food and perfume or, as the team at P & G put it, “the odor molecule peaks form a record of the odors” that the garments were exposed to over its life.

So How Do I Get Rid of It?

When it comes to removing that vintage odor, machine- or hand-washing is ideal. While it may be tempting to outsource the work to a dry cleaner, it’s a temptation you should resist. Dry cleaning is simply not as good at odor elimination as wet cleaning, and that’s especially true when it comes to odors caused by perspiration and other body soils.

Mr. Mahdessian explained that “cleaning and odor remediation are two different processes. Cleaning will remove all residue dirt and debris from textiles of most compositions whereas odor elimination involves either masking, encapsulating or changing the molecular structure of the odor molecule that attaches itself to the fiber.” Ms. McDonnell said she had not found dry cleaning to be effective in removing strong odors. Her advice? “If it smells bad, don’t buy it unless it will hold up to a rigorous washing.”

There are some best practices to follow when laundering vintage clothing, or anything that’s especially rank-smelling. Machine washing will be the best choice for most garments, and if you go that route, stick with cold water, don’t overstuff the machine and opt to air dry the clothes, or machine dry using the no- or low-heat setting. High heat drying can amplify lingering smells.

That vintage store smell, complex and bready though it may be, can certainly be removed from your clothes. The bigger challenge is to force your brain not to think about what this means your clothes will smell like when they turn up in a vintage store 30 years from now.

Do you want to explore unique crafts and home goods? Visit thrift stores in Panama City Beach, FL to get the desired goods at one place.