Thrift+

This is a very exciting thing for me to do, and very new! Some of you who know me well, know that I'm something of a hoarder. I have issues throwing things out because my mind tells me that I might need it one day. I can't bring myself to get rid of my clothes because I've bounced about with my weight for years and have kept some of my bigger sized clothes because I'm convinced I'm probably gonna end up back there because I have before. However this time is different. I'm not going to put the weight on that I've worked so hard to lose. So I'm going to get rid of my larger clothes and I'm going to get rid of the clothes I'm not going to wear again and only taking space in my wardrobe and suitcases, so I'm donating my clothes to charity.

I struggle donating to charity because I don't want to see my clothes being sold on a rack in a charity shop I visit frequently, or even seeing someone else on the street wearing the same clothes I know I donated. Its something I've struggled with this for quite a while. So when I discovered a website called Thrift+, I jumped at the chance to donate my clothes through them. Thrift+ is basically an online charity, so once the item gets sold, then the money goes to a registered charity of your choice. They'll send a flat packed box, that you fold out when you get it. This box is what you'll fill and take it to your nearest DPD store, to send back to them. They'll upload it to their website and the money goes to a charity.

I thought I'd document the journey from ordering the boxes to sorting out the clothes to shipping them back to Thrift+, so you know what to expect of the process if you decide to donate to Thrift+ too.

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Finding and Ordering The Boxes

I don't remember where I discovered Thrift+'s website, probably on Instagram, but when I saw it I knew that it was the best to help my mild case of hoarding. So I ordered two boxes, both free of charge to order and to deliver, which I was pretty please about. I did run into a slight problem. They were out of boxes and that they'd send them to me as soon as they got the boxes back in stock. The date they gave me was a few days away. From there, it took an extra two or three days before the boxes were flatpack shipped to me. I'm not sure the photo here clearly shows how the boxes looked when they arrived. They were extremely helpful by notifying me whenever things changed with my order.

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Assembly of the Boxes

It took a few moments for me to figure out how the boxes are assembled. They remind me a lot of the pizza boxes we have to assemble at Travelodge Gatwick Central. The boxes are larger than I thought they'd be and I think they'd be able to fit quite a bit of clothes and shoes into before they're full. I'm pretty pleased about this. Since I'm also going to go through my clothes upstairs to see if I can get rid of some more of the clothes that I have hanging up that I haven't worn in longer than a year, I've ordered another three boxes. Since I ordered these boxes, I got another email from Thrift+ saying that they're out of boxes, again, which made me laugh a bit. It gives me some time to fill these two boxes up with stuff before the next three arrive.

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Sorting Out My Stuff

This was the hardest part, for me. I need to be ruthless with what I don't want or need. I'm going to use the theory that if I haven't worn the clothes for within the last year or so, then it needs to be put into the boxes. I don't know if I'll throw everything out because I have some really nice stuff that I'm not going to throw out because of the price I paid to get these clothes. However the amount of fancy clothes that I own and like are rather small. I'm a blue jeans girl and will happily wear jeans, a t-shirt and Doctor Martens whenever I possibly can. I've even been given the all clear to wear my Doctor Martens to work, under my fancy work trousers; you can't see most of the eyelets. Anyway, I'm dithering, so I've gone through all my clean clothes, have pit these clothes into boxes and have shipped off whatever I'm not wearing. Whatever else that can be gotten rid of (old socks, etc), will be taken to H&M, whilst bedsheets and the like will be taken to a charity shop (not sure which one yet). 

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Delivery to DPD

Thrift+ said that I just needed to take my boxes to DPD and they'd take my boxes free of charge. So I took my boxes to the nearest DPD drop-off point at the shopping store, Matalan. There's a return address sticker already on the box so all I made sure to do was that my address had been taken off the boxes (just to save on any confusion with the return of my full boxes to the Thrift+ warehouse and for my own safety). Now that I have dropped off two full boxes of unwanted, unworn clothes off, I'm not sure how I feel about it. It was a lot easier than I had thought it would be to give some of my clothes away, even the clothes I'd thought would stay on my clothes rack for another long period of time.

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What happens now?

I'm planning to sending more things to Thrift+ in the future, as more things come up. Its really helpful for me. I've had some more boxes arrive over the last few weeks, because I have clothes on my clothing rack that I haven't worn for months (some I haven't worn in almost a year), even when the weather's warmer. Some of the clothes I own I haven't worn just because I haven't had the reason to wear them or because I do tend to feel a little bit uncomfortable in some of my fancier clothes. Maybe its because I'm such a blue jeans girl and I tend to stick to the same few dresses and skirts, when I'm not in jeans. There are questions this post has caused me to ask myself, maybe I'm a minimalist in regards to my clothes? Maybe I should truly think about throwing out the clothes that I don't want to throw out because of sentimental reasons. I've got some time to think these questions through.

If you're planning to get rid of clothes because you've shrunk, like me. Maybe its because your style has changed and you want to get rid of the old clothes you're unsure of what to do with, send it to Thrift+! I'd strongly suggest them because of the easiness of it all. I'm someone who tries to find the easiest way of doing certain things and this was easy. The hardest part was going to the DPD drop-off point because the boxes were quite heavy (which I was a bit surprised at, given most of the clothes were quite light).

This post is completely unsponsored by Thrift+. All opinions and views stated above are my own and I have done it to share my thoughts on an incredible company. I'll probably write more about this as things progress in regards to my journey to an emptier wardrobe and chest of drawers.