Giving things away
My partner and I decided to take a couple of white t-shirts to our local byttestation (swap shop). We don't plan to take anything from there, rather to simply give the t-shirts away.
White t-shirts are part of his self-imposed everyday uniform, and I borrow them often. A while ago, he ordered several white t-shirts from different companies with various sustainability credentials, and at different price points, to see which ones he would buy more of. Interestingly, none of the t-shirts performed exceptionally well. This situation reminded me of buying food: sustainability practitioners usually want their food to be local, organic, seasonal, unpackaged, affordable. And yet it's very rare to come by something that satisfies all these criteria. Likewise, it's difficult to find a clothing item that is locally produced, made from organic materials, by an ethical business, durable, well-fitting, affordable and so on.
He never gravitated towards these two t-shirts in particular, and neither did I. We could turn them into cloths for cleaning our home, but they were still in an excellent condition. They could certainly be loved by a fellow human, and it felt wrong to make cleaning cloths from something that is still usable for its original purpose and embodies both cotton plants and human labour. That's how we decided to give them away.
As a practitioner of sustainable living and extreme minimalism, I'm in two minds about using things up/wearing them out. One the one hand, doing so feels right. On the other hand, I want to live only with the items I love using and welcome into my space with genuine joy. When you live with only a few items, you probably are very much aware of all of them. Or perhaps it's not a common experience, and I feel this way due to sensory processing sensitivity.
Usually, when there is something I don't love using, I try to find a new home for it. For example, in the beginning of my sustainability journey, around 2010, I gave away my remaining jewellery, watches, leather bags, skincare, and other items to my friends and family. Somehow, I felt that I would never use those items again. Giving them away was stepping into my authenticity and freedom. And I never regretted it.