Let's not kid ourselves, it's near impossible to rely on thrift stores for your entire wardrobe or every shopping need. Some things are more difficult to secure in general, and your luck often just depends on where you are and when. Sometimes I have better luck with sweaters and fun blouses at thrift shops than with basic tanks and tees. I suppose that's why over the years I've invested in new sustainable basics more often than other pieces of clothing (I've always had decent luck with dresses, ... Read More
Blog
Why I Chose to Build a Tiny House at 26
Yes, a few weeks after my twenty-sixth birthday, I began construction of a tiny home: 196 square feet of house lovingly positioned on a flatbed trailer in the southwest of my home state, Montana. And yes, I am building it in the dead of winter. (Snow is peaking and flurrying outside in negative temperatures as I write this on a mini-break from sawing and hammering.) To some, this is the ultimate dream. The tiny house movement has been accelerating in the last few years, with ... Read More
Ethically Made Overalls Do Exist, Here’s 9 Worth Saving Your Pennies For
Edit: We wrote this list of ethically made overalls back in 2019 and have updated it a couple times over the years with more finds. I'm so happy to see that this article is still getting some love--that means more and more of you are looking for ethical alternatives to your favorite wardrobe staples. Yay! As you can imagine many of our picks have long since sold out, so I've gone ahead and found more to choose from in 2023! I'll leave the others at the bottom of the post (a few are still ... Read More
8 Simple, Beautiful Zero Waste Starter Kits for the Absolute Beginner
I'd definitely consider myself a low-waste advocate—I’ve long boycotted many things single use—but even going mostly zero waste is a whole new level of commitment I can't say I've yet mastered. That's the thing, you may read an article, hear a story, or see a film that inspires you to jump on the zero waste train, but I think most of us really just do what we can, learn a little more, then do a little more, and so on. Not to mention, what you can feasibly do is largely determined by your ... Read More
The Most Important Lesson I Learned from Marie Kondo
It's gratitude. You can all click out now. You're welcome. (Did I just kill this post?) I did watch a few episodes of Marie Kondo's Tidying Up on Netflix. It was cute. The families were sweet. I did tear up a bit, when watching during PMS. I also realized, god forbid, that it could use like 5% of the drama that Hoarders had. Maybe a few flashbacks, you know? What I'm saying is that I didn't learn a ton from it, though I do think her methods are effective for keeping things organized, if ... Read More
What to do with a Closet Full of (Non-Ethical) Stuff
So you’ve begun learning how to build an ethical closet. You read some articles, watched a documentary, and found out how those ‘fast fashion’ brands are making things so, well, fast. Your wardrobe suddenly looks like a war zone. There’s a touch of regret mixed with sprinklings of guilt. You never would’ve bought that shirt if you knew how it was made. You didn’t even need that dress—you only wore it once. (Photo by Charity Hestead Kubena) Well, you’re not alone. In fact, you’re pretty ... Read More
