In the way things work in this wonderful world, I was helping my mom yesterday get some items she wanted to donate to Goodwill and some items she was taking to the landfill staged to be loaded in her car when she was ready to go on these errands later that day.
I always (when I have the chance) scan her thrift-store donation boxes and harvest any wool items, which I bring to burning man regionals (Summerisle Burn 2024, in particular) to give away to lovely people who may appreciate some wool on a chillier-than-expected evening.
While scanning her boxes, no wool was found, but I did notice she had several pairs of good-quality jeans in one of the boxes. Thought I, to myself, “These would be fantastic in the hands of someone who wanted to do a jeans crafting project, such as re-using them to make some new clothing item or something fun.”
But as I am in the midst of lots-of-lots-of right now, I chose not to add another “thing” to the already-quite-long list of things on my radar.
An hour or so later, scrolling Facebook for a few moments, I saw a photo a nearby friend posted. He is (rather) tall, gorgeous and one with presence and style … and he likes to get used clothing and transform it into all sorts of wonderfulness for him.
I’ve seen many of his outfits over the few years I’ve known him and am always impressed with his creativity.
Yesterday, though, he “just happened” to be showing a new outfit made of — you guessed it — a whole bunch of repurposed jeans.
I commented on his post and ever-flowing style and creativity, then threw in for good measure a comment about the three pairs of jeans my mom had boxed and had ready to donate … if he was interested.
He was, and said he’d be over in about 20 minutes. Cool, right?
It gets better. I’d just sat down to have lunch with my mom when she commented on a bird’s nest in a nearby tall holly bush. I turned my head and noticed several branches at the top of the holly bush which I’d missed during my annual brush-with-destiny when I trim the holly bush and precariously balance a ladder on an uneven surface as I attempt to get the top-top branches. Clearly, I’d missed some, and they were growing wild and straight up!
My tall friend is coming over, thought I. I’ll ask him for help, and I proceeded to get the loppers out and ready for the near-impossible-for-me task.
He arrived. We chatted. He was glowing. Big changes in his life. Difficult. Good. Important.
As things happen, I was standing next to a vacuum cleaner I’d put out for a landfill deposit. Long ago it had been top of the line, but now it worked well in some ways but not in all ways, and it had been replaced for a better machine.
No one had yet asked for the vacuum cleaner on a Buy Nothing post I’d put up a couple hours earlier, and it was headed for the landfill in short order if no one claimed it. On the off-chance he needed it, and as I was standing right next to it, I asked my friend if he needed it. He did. For his studio. The function that didn’t work on the vacuum cleaner for my mom wasn’t something he didn’t need, but he did need the features that worked. He took that.
Then another off-hand comment he made, triggered a question in me to ask if he needed another item we had in spades and didn’t need to keep all of. He took that, too!
***
I simply love moments such as these where This and That add up to so much more than simply This and That. And while I’m a big donator to and customer at many a thrift store, I find it a little extra special when it works out to pass along an item or two, or three, to a friend rather than through the thrift-store system.
Speaking of which, you are in your local Buy Nothing Project group, right? They are such a fabulous way of gifting items no longer needed, and receiving items you may want and need, as well.
Check it out!
