Goodwill bins: how to shop sustainable and chic!

Art by Zadie Kang

Fifty hungry resellers, one-hundred pairs of gloves, ten safety cones, and 5 blue bins stuffed with clothes. This is a picture of the Goodwill bins, a place that I’ve learned to call my slightly dysfunctional, but makeshift home. If you’re not familiar, it’s essentially a warehouse selling used clothes by the pound. While outwardly it may appear to be a landfill for slightly strange smelling and discolored garments, with the right eye— and some time on your hands— it can really be a trove for hidden gems! 

So how do you find things you actually like? This is a question I get asked frequently when explaining to people my Saturday morning routine of scavenging through the bins. Usually, finding good stuff is a matter of luck, the most important thing for me is having a strong idea of what you’re looking for. If you’ve ever been inside, it can definitely seem overwhelming at first. If you’re used to browsing racks or websites it’s a much different hands on approach that becomes much easier if you have an eye for the types of patterns or even fabrics you’re looking for. Sifting through clothes can become faster and more effective this way, so don’t waste time on what looks like a 3xl potato sack— because I definitely have. With this being said, giving yourself time is probably the biggest piece of advice I can offer. It’s almost impossible to go in and immediately find what you’re looking for after 10 minutes, but with a few hours and headphones, you’re almost guaranteed to pick up more than a few things you like. 

For me, the best aspect of this type of shopping is how sustainable it is without being bland. While fast fashion can often promote a culture of buying what’s new and cool and tossing what’s dated, buying second-hand provides environmental benefits and on a more personal level has been a way for myself, and many others, to develop an individual stylistic identity. In recent times this endless cycle of fast-fashion has been specifically alluring, and we’re all victims to it one way another. When we take a moment to slow down, it’s easy to see that none of us are without fault— it’s the way the world spins. We want what we see and clothing brands bring that to life. Especially in an era of social media, that wheel spins about a hundred times faster, and the inspiration we can draw from there is unlimited. That’s not to say it’s a bad thing, but it can become one when we let this process turn us into mindless consumers. 

Personally, one of the biggest struggles I dealt with was wanting more, simply put. It’s so easy to put twenty things into a cart without giving a second thought to how that ten dollar tank top was being made. For me, going to the bins meant I could buy what I wanted in amounts I didn’t feel bad about, and it also broadened my horizon to clothes that didn’t have dates attached to them. The flow of fashion trends are the most evident in thrift stores; in many ways, they are physical evidence of styles that have come and gone. This ruthless pace we see promoted across billboards and store mannequins consumes people with the illusion that they need to keep up; when in reality, the truth is they never will. On the flip side, when we realize these standards are purposely unreachable, we can develop organically— creating personal style, something that can be a powerful form of expression. This is not to say what you buy in the store holds any less value, but it is important we learn to be conscious shoppers and second hand clothing is a great way to practice!