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There are two good reasons to consign: it's good for you and it's good for the environment. Consigning is good for you because it keeps your closets and cupboards filled with only the things you actually love and use. It simplifies your life and saves you time otherwise spent maintaining under-appreciated possessions. Best of all, it turns your cluttered closets into cash.
Recycling is good for you, your family, and your wallet.
Keep your closets clean. Why waste valuable time organizing things you don't use and love? Think of all the time you could have spent doing something fun with your family instead. It's a snap to get everyone dressed in the morning—or the party table set—if you love every choice that's pulled from the closet.
Simple living is good for your family. Wouldn't you rather spend time with loved ones, instead of caring for all those boxes of unused possessions? Wouldn't your spouse be much happier if the car would finally fit in the garage?
Simple living is good for your wallet. While consigning your "mistakes" won't make you rich, it will provide a welcome rebate on purchases that turned out to be not so perfect for you. And, of course, that money can be joyfully re-spent in the shop on something that is just the thing!
Recycling is good for the environment. We all know this. But consider:
Cotton crops pollute. It is estimated that in the Third World, half of all pesticides used are used on cotton fields. When you consign—and thus recycle—a single gently-used T-shirt and one pair of jeans, you help save a full pound of chemical fertilizer and pesticide from being released into the soil, water, and atmosphere.
And consider this: "One doesn't usually see cotton as a "dirty" product like plastics, but in fact cultivation involves high concentrations of fertiliser, herbicide and pesticide. Cotton accounts for only 2.5% of all agricultural land use, but for 22.5% of all insecticides applied in agriculture. During the processing many more chemicals are used in the bleaching and dyeing. Finally, every stage of cotton agriculture and processing is water-intensive - often in areas of the globe where water is not in plentiful supply. If the T-shirt is going to end up in a landfill after a couple of outings, it represents a spectacular waste of environmental resources of soil and water."
WOULD YOU PREFER YOUR ITEMS BE SOLD TO HELP OUT A CHARITY?
If it's important to you not only to clear out your closets, but to make sure your items help others in many ways, think about donating your gently-used good items to charity. Charitable shops, run by non-profit associations, can do double good: they help recycle and they raise money for their mission. If the shop is run by a true charity, you can receive a donation slip that you might be able to use to reduce your income taxes.
Another, and often more valuable, way to help a local charity is to ask them if they maintain an account in the charity's name in a consignment shop. This is the perfect blend of expertise: the charity can get on with doing what it does best in fulfilling its mission, while allowing the consignment shop to use the retailing and marketing talents it has to gain maximum income for the charity. The sharpest consignment shops will have available a list of charities who welcome your consigning to their accounts.
ARE YOU WILLING TO SHARE IN THE RISKS AND REWARDS OF CONSIGNING?
Since a consignment shop doesn't make money until you do, participating in the process by placing your items on consignment is, in effect, profit-sharing. You do your best to offer stylish, clean, appealing merchandise, and the shop does its best to showcase them in a proper manner, draw potential buyers to the shop to buy, and operate in a professional manner so your goods return the maximum reasonable price to you and to the business.
Now, the key in pricing is reasonable. No professional shopkeeper, and no reasonable consignor, will insist that something in a consignment shop be priced too high. The consignor risks having her items remain unsold, and the shopkeeper risks not making the rent! So when you're looking for a shop to best represent you, look for one whose prices and selling policies will draw buying customers.
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