The Need to Thrift and Donate

Dresscue Me poster imageI have been asked by you to write on thrifting, but as I think about the subject it seems almost too simple. I don’t think anyone needs to be inspired to thrift in 2011.

Thrifting is, of course, the practical alternative in a downturn economy. It just makes sense to shop at the lowest price point and to re-purpose that which has been used before. And, as much as I could treat the subject from my own personal perspective, I feel the need instead to focus on the issue of donating. I am witnessing an unfortunate trend in America today as it relates to the “how” of passing it on. It seems that everyone wants to be a vendor or a merchant. In the “old days,” if you bought a new table and chairs, your first thought was to donate your old table and chairs to The Goodwill. The impulse toward charity was almost immediate.

Today, there seems to be a growing trend around selling off one’s un-needed personal items in lieu of donating them. People now post their “merchandise” on Etsy, Craigslist, Ebay and similar websites, and in regard to clothing we are seeing the growing trend of stores who consign, trade or buy used clothing. As much as I understand that at this time people may feel the need to squeeze the value out of everything they own, what is being lost, or over looked, is the great value in the act of donating. The value of a donation is not simply the gift that it will give another, but truly the far greater gift that you give yourself. We are a country of people predominantly in excess.

We have more than we need. In recognizing that you are in excess you acknowledge that you are indeed rich and experience an awareness of gratitude. To then choose to pass along what you don’t need with a sense of good will toward others, you immediately are rewarded by a sense of your own abundance and prosperity. Selling your un-needed items may be a way of making money, but donating them will truly make you rich.


Watch the premiere of Dresscue Me on Planet Green, April 19 at 10:30 p.m.