Oh. My. Word. I just found this documentary online, available FREE to watch in full {about 14 minutes} here. It shook me to the core. It is such an amazing video on so many levels. Really, do yourself a favor and watch all of it.
As you know, one of my goals for 2016 is to not buy anything new this year…and that includes clothing and shoes. In the spirit of “use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without,” I am not buying one single new thing, and honestly, I suspect that while I might have to really learn the lesson wants versus needs in a really raw and honest way, I won’t really NEED anything.
After watching this documentary, so many thoughts bubbled to the surface. The first is how embarrassed I would be if this woman ever came to United States and saw how we lived. We would fall from her pedestal quickly, I think.
Two, I couldn’t help but notice how beautiful she was–just as she is, no frills. Her smile and her attitude went a long way on that too. Three, I have an entirely new perspective on this whole not buying anything thing. I don’t NEED anything, and I am not even sure if I know what it feels like to need anything.
If anything comes from this year, I hope it’s the ability to discern, without question wants versus needs. #westernworldproblems
Watch it, and tell me what painful truths you learned in just 14 short minutes?
~Mavis
Stephanie says
Thank you for sharing this today. It really has hit home while I was waiting for my little one to fall asleep. We truly do not understand how wealthy we are. Even if we do not have much we still have something and oh my, all those clothes! Thank you for challenging me. This is the first year I have made goals to try and achieve. I was inspired by watching you over the last year. I have put up some of the same goals as you. Look forward to all of your posts! Thank you again!
Sonja says
Oh my. The comment about water being so expensive we cannot afford to wash, and that we just don’t like to wash so we only wear something twice then do away with it. i think if we took on this mantra you posted about wearing it out, we would be a lot more careful about what we buy. However I was very impressed at the way they processed the discarded clothing and took it all the way down to thread to make a new product. We could learn something from that as well. Thanks for posting. Love your blog!
Jocelyn says
I love this! I’m working on being more mindful in my purchases too.
Lynne says
Lots of the charities to which we donate used clothing make no attempt to give it to others or sell it to raise money for their cause. They take what is donated, bale it up, and sell it to the people for whom these women work. To the extent I look at an article of clothing and see someone else being able to get use out of it, this is sobering, although I do think I now feel less betrayed by the organizations that send my donations off in bales. My donation is part of a sale that adds some money to the account of the organization I supported, and then it creates jobs for these women in India. I never considered this end of the transaction.
I did some immigration work years ago, and learned then to be very grateful to my various ancestors who left wherever they were to come to this country, enabling me to have the life that I do. We are so fortunate to live where we do, and we need to appreciate that.
Janet says
Although I am not wasteful of anything in my life, I am embarrassed and ashamed after seeing this.
I do wonder if the clothes were donated to thrift stores and not sold so they are bundled and sent overseas. I have seen bundled clothes being loaded in the back of trucks at a thrift store. My mom has seen the employees (same store) going through the shelves and throwing items in a trash can. She said the sound of breaking glass is so loud. She has been told by employees that if items are not sold they throw them away or take them off the racks to dispose of them. Sometimes I think the prices are too high. I know my mom and I both have said we would buy more items at the thrift store if the prices were lower. Either way, it’s all a waste and all a shame.
Tina P says
The first thing I noticed was how young some of those beautiful girls were. Most of our children here in America have no idea what a “hard” life even looks like much less to live one. I agree, she is beautiful and yes, we should be ashamed of how a lot of us act in this country. We forget how truly blessed and privileged we are as American’s. I would love to wish her a future journey to our land but I’m afraid we would disappoint her greatly. I know I would.
sandra fisher says
I have recently been put on a collision course with an American family. They are extremely poor and electricity often gets turned off. I have watched this mother work 50 hours a week at minimum pay. Her live in boyfriend (recently laid off) and her son go daily to see if they can get work by the day. Their rent is almost as high as our mortgage. They get taken advantage of constantly by circumstances. They will not take any money from me. The best I can do is to give them eggs and veggies in the summer. I do pass things on to them as they will let me. I often trade things and she will take that as I haven’t spent money. They didn’t have a Thanksgiving dinner, but they had Christmas Dinner with donated food.
I FEEL SO BLESSED AND GUILTY.
Sandi
lynne says
“At the end of the day you are as beautiful as God made you”. Just one of the many quotes that stood out as I watched this. Wow. What an eye opener. I don’t buy a lot of new clothing, I tend to shop rummage sales & thrift stores, but still – My sisters & I have had rummage sales every year for the last 24. We are a wasteful society. I think I’m on board with your “use it up…” mantra for the year. Peace. LynneInMN.
Janice says
This was very timely. I have just returned home from shopping at a large grocery store here on Vancouver Island. The price of groceries has skyrocketed and I’m being even more aware than usual of prices, sales, etc. The price of bacon has been very high since before Christmas and I noticed a lot of the packages were going to expire on Jan. 15. I spoke with one of the employees and asked if they would be reduced before Friday. I obviously hit a nerve with him and he told me all the store’s “dirty little secrets”. They will not be reducing the bacon – at midnight on the 15th the bins full of bacon will be thrown in the garbage! This is the policy for all meat, produce and dairy. He encouraged me to contact customer service both locally and the head office. I will definitely be contacting them and will do so until someone listens to me. I volunteer in Africa and quite frankly I’d never tell them this story because they wouldn’t believe it.
Lisa Millar says
This is quite amazing to watch.
I love the different perspectives these people have on our western lifestyles and the reasonings they come up with for our wanton waste!
I rarely shop for clothes and wear things until they literally wear out – some get turned into gardening clothes, others rags for the garage/general use.
We have a very privileged lifestyle – some of us don’t even realise it.
I sometimes pop into our local op-shop (thrift store) and have been amazed at the warehouse high packed crates of clothes just from this relatively small area. I wonder if they are destined for India?
Courtney says
I have a coffee cup with this slogan. It’s been my fave for over 20 years
Marcia says
whoa that was sobering
Claudette says
Wow. Thanks for posting. We are so privileged. I’m glad that something useful is done when we decide to be so wasteful.
Renay says
My step dad and mom say this and live it. They live on a ranch in Texas and let me tell you, they know how to take care of themselves and everything on the ranch.
We went in the summer and it was sobering for us ‘city mice’ to take down the old 5 wire fence (posts there since the 30’s, not too shabby!) and put up a new 5 wire fence (a string of five lateral barb wire fencing with steel posts pounded into the ground). We reused posts that had been pulled up from other areas of the ranch, having to sift through a large pile to find the right kind and size. Did I mention this was in the summer in Texas? Outside? That lasted about 4 days and we were beat. Oh, and we had to take care of cattle every day. And the garden and the chickens. It was an experience we will never forget and we realize how good we have it up here. Now to compare to this place in the video and there is no comparison.
I have made the same commitment to use it up, wear it out, make do and do without. If I do have to buy something, I buy American,
Cass says
I come away from the video with a different perspective…If we were not so casual about donating clothing to organizations that sell them to India, what would all those Indian women do for work? None of them looked poorly clothed or unfed, so they must be making enough money to buy cloth and food.
I am NOT advocating throwing away perfectly good clothing….wear it until you can’t….but people donate clothing to organizations for loads of reasons …weight change and death probably being the top two. Once you have donated it to an organization you have no control over what is done with it….I know the Mission I gave my deceased step-fathers clothing to had a HUGE pile in the back of the clothing shed that were no longer wearable and were destined to be sold as “rags”….that pile probably made it’s way to India for the ultimate in upcycling…became a warm blanket for someone who was cold. In return the Mission gets money to use to help folks with food and keeping the free clothing shed open, heated and staffed.
Also, when a donated item has been on the rack for a specified amount of time it joins the rag pile….Salvation Army and Good Will does that. (probably all the places that get their merchandise for free does it to some extend, you just can’t hold on to an item for years, taking up space that other more desired, money making,items could occupy.)
So, as much as I was floored by how many tons of clothing goes to India, I am not going to stop donating items I no longer want, even if I could conceivably still wear it. And those donated items will go one of three places…on someone else’s back, to Canada to be added to paper for US money to be printed on or to India to keep those women in a job and the cold people of the world in blankets. (actually 4 places….some of it goes to Africa to be worn by those served by relief organizations there)
Marcia says
“but people donate clothing to organizations for loads of reasons …weight change and death probably being the top two”
I’m glad things are being recycled, but it’s “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”, in that order.
While I, for sure, have donated a fair bit of clothing due to weight change (once from weight loss and twice from pregnancy and the associated ups and downs), the vast majority of clothing donated is because people are tired of it, plain and simple. I wish what you said was true.
Christine Lee says
Such a good reminder to not waste. I am glad that these clothes are not ending up in landfills and that the process of recycling these clothes is happening, for one, and that it is giving these amazing people a livelihood, however meager.
Radha says
Thanks for sharing this documentary. I admire your goal of not buying non essential items. You should watch this segment by John Oliver. Definitely sobering. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdLf4fihP78
RebekahU says
Wow! What a thought provoking video. Americans are so wasteful in so many ways. I am always looking for ways to waste less. People often think I am super weird, but who cares… I too was happy that these clothes were not making our large sticky mountainous landfills taller, and I was so happy that these cast offs were able to provide incomes for other families in India. But I also wondered about the people that purchased all of these clothes. I’ll bet a lot of the clothing was purchased on credit cards, and I’ll bet that while these clothes are being ripped and placed in the thread-making pile, the credit card bills remain, ticking up interest day by day. Our thirst for more more more is not healthy. We need a big dose of contentment.
Andy says
My, but we do consume without thinking don’t we? But that is what keeps our economy buzzing, buying things we don’t need, or did not utilize to the fullest. It would seem we are caught in our own web of self consuming destruction. We either consume in the extreme to keep the economy afoot, or conserve and destroy our economic base. As for me it is conserve. Great article and thanks.
Susan says
I also grew up with this saying being said by both my parents who were very frugal all their lives. We always had enough and didn’t do without anything that we needed. I have lived this my entire life, and I also added one more, “Fix it or fix it up” I learned how to repair most anything and to “fix up” what I already had to make it more usable or to last longer. It is something that has served me well all my life. Also, I might add, it is good to be content with what you have, be grateful and thankful for everything you have in your life including the air that you breathe every day. Don’t focus on what you don’t have or what others do have, that will make one miserable. Focus on the good things that God has blessed you with. When compared to people who live in poverty around the world, all of us have so much more. Even the very poor around us live like kings compared to those people.
Laura Z says
Thanks for sharing this with us!