Clearabee Spring Cleaning and Rubbish Removal Right On Time!

Rubbish Removal by Clearabee: Clothing Fashions

It is almost that time of year when spring-cleaning begins. Windows are cleaned and polished until they gleam with transparency, spiders are rendered (briefly) homeless, and dust bunnies are banished from under beds. It is also often a good opportunity for people to go through their clothing and get rid of anything that does not fit, is not stylish, or even that they have simply tired of wearing. This sort of deep decluttering of a home could lead a household into needing a rubbish removal service, such as that offered by Clearabee, but perhaps we should think twice about some of the items that we are getting rid of, especially clothing.

Clothing and Landfill: Not Good

Clothing and textiles that end up in the landfill can take up to two hundred years to degrade, and as they do break down they can release harmful methane gas into the atmosphere and allow toxins to leach into the ground. This is especially true of cheaper fabrics – which are made into garments that are readily disposed of, being cheap and sometimes poorly made. There are several ways to reduce the amount of rubbish removal you will need and it begins at the start of the shopping process.

Less is More

When choosing new clothes, opt for fewer high-quality items. Put a wardrobe together thoughtfully, opting for items that mix and match well together in distinctive styles to create different effects with only simple modifications. When you are buying less, you can afford to source your clothing from ethical, natural sources that use reputable farmers and factories that use fair labour practices.

Once you have a good selection of high-quality clothing, look after each piece carefully. Some brands are now offering lifetime repair services on their garments – take advantage of this to both save money and keep a piece of clothing in use for longer. If we can double the life span of our clothing, we could reduce the textiles found in landfills by twenty-four percent: imagine how much we can reduce by keeping clothing for much longer than a year or two?

Recycle Charitably

No matter how carefully you look after your clothing, you may feel like a change every now and then. Before you head to your go-to ethical clothing shop, why not explore a few charity and thrift shops? Many people donate their shops to charities, but only about twenty percent of those clothing items end up being purchased for continued use: the rest ultimately ends up in landfills, despite the best intentions of those making the donations. This is because of people, happy to donate to charity shops, are rather unwilling to buy from them. This is rather silly as charity shops tend to wash and iron all the donations they receive – and even if they did not, you can always wash and iron items that you buy, rendering them perfectly clean and ready to wear!

Sell, Sell, Sell!

However, people have no such qualms about buying second-hand clothing from auction and resale sites like eBay! Make sure your unwanted clothes stand a higher chance of avoiding the landfill by listing them for sale – and make a few pennies while you do so!

Swap Meet

A final way to keep your clothing out of your rubbish removal heap is to arrange a swap meet with similarly sized friends (this sort of thing is great for children’s clothes as they grow so fast they seldom wear out any of their clothing). You can have fun trying on each other’s unwanted clothing as you enjoy a glass of wine and a chat and hopefully find new homes for each piece of clothing.

Time to Say Goodbye

No matter how carefully you look after your clothing, there will come a day when a garment is simply too old and worn to remain in your wardrobe. You can either recycle it yourself, cutting it into squares for craft work, using it as rags for washing the car or mopping up floor spills, or you can recycle it. There are textile recycling centres that will downcycle old clothing into rags, filling for cushions and toys and insulation fill.

Once you have sold, recycled, or repurposed as many of your unwanted items as possible, you can call Clearabee for a rubbish removal visit with a clear conscience, ready to enjoy your new spacious and decluttered home.