Maternity Clothes

In my group of friends, recycling is pretty common.  But Recycling is only one piece of the puzzle.  It's definitely better than landfills, don't get me wrong.  But it still has a financial impact on society when you think about collection, plants for breaking down the goods, and energy to rebuild the raw materials into something new.  We all need to be doing our part to Reduce and Reuse as well if we're going to make an impact on our limited resources.

That's why I'm SUPER PROUD of my newest addition to my house.  I've joined a listserv of moms in the Jamaica Plain area.  It seems to be a good, supportive forum for moms to ask advice, get advice, etc.  But they also have a "classifieds" area where folks will post cheap and free items to be reused by other families in the area.  Most of the stuff is kid toys/clothes/etc.  But this week, a mom posted about free maternity clothes in my size!  All I had to do was pick the stuff up at her house and I could prevent all those items from being in a landfill, make 'double' use of items which took energy and economic resources to create, and also build my wardrobe while saving myself a pile of cash!

Check out the loot:

8 pairs of black pants and khakis
1 pair of black sweatpants
2 pairs of jeans
9 long sleeved shirts
6 short sleeved shirts
2 tank tops
2 cardigans (one cream, one black)
2 skirts
2 dresses
3 swim suits
3 shorts
4 capris






Even when you "subtract" the items that I've gotten which aren't gonna be seasonally appropriate for me, I'd say I still SWEPT UP!!!

Agreed?

This basically doubles my maternity wardrobe.  It means I can put away all of the non-maternity clothes which I've been trying (only partially successfully) to stretch over my growing belly and feel confident in the clothes I have that fit me.  It also means that in the next couple weeks as my belly officially out-grows my scrub bottoms, I have enough stuff to wear to work without needing to make any purchases!

I'd count this one as a success.  It'll be a double success when I can hand these items down to someone else in the future, as well!