lmk if any of this shocked you #thrifttok #thriftingcommunity

I'm a thrift store assistant manager and I'm genuinely shocked by the fact that I have never seen anybody on here who works at a thrift store and talks about their experiences working at a thrift store. There's a couple of things I need to vent about because whatever hopefully someone relates. Anyway let's talk about the elephant in the room this ever-growing pile of bags of clothing behind me and no these are not brand new donations these are donations that have already been sorted through and they are unsellable because of the bad conditions that they're in and so we have a recycling service that comes picks up the clothing weighs it per pound and then gives money back to the thrift store. We are a non-profit thrift store so all our money goes into our cause and I don't really want to disclose too much because I don't want you to figure out where I work but whatever. The thing the well there's multiple things and the first obvious thing that is just hard to deal with working at a thrift store is witnessing people's consumption habits and realizing how much we really don't need but just how we are crazy and we just buy and buy and shop and shop what's brand new and blah blah blah. It's getting hard to to watch how much stuff we actually have like probably 50% of the stuff is going to end up in a landfill and you probably already knew that but you don't see it. I have to see it every day and let's not even talk about the pile of brand new donations that I'm staring at that we just yeah it's a shit show but I'm grateful for every single donation that we get but and this leads me into the second thing sorry this leads me into the second thing and it's a little bit more disturbing the conditions that people allow themselves to live in. Amaze me I mean I've met messy people I've met dirty people but receiving donations where you can clearly tell that they're not okay like that home is not okay is it's really sad and it's not so much about dealing with those items it's more about the emotions that come with that because for example I received a bag full of little boys clothes and the moment that I opened the bag everyone gasped and we had to throw it in the trash. You could tell that the clothing had not been washed the smell was so putrid and I didn't really care about the smell all I could think of was that poor child and the neglect that was clearly going on because those things tell you what's going on and just the thought of this poor child having to walk around in filthy clothes and just why people choose to have children and not take care of them is something that I'll never be able to understand but I don't know if you have any ounce of empathy you'd be able to put those two pieces together and some sort of emotion would come over you and yeah that's a really sad thing about my job that I even have to see the moms they're like oh here's a donation and you know I go through their stuff and you can tell that child is not being properly cared for. Another thing and I guess the last thing because this is turning into a five-minute conversation is people's lack of consideration. Now I understand I already knew you know that people don't care about each other nowadays but it really is shocking a lot of times the condition of the donations that we receive. People donate literal trash. I've received things with poop, urine, sweat, blood, you name it. Not as many smoker things anymore but yeah I we've received things with giant stains on them, holes, giant snags and just people's lack of consideration is really shocking because what do you think happens when you donate something at the thrift store? You do realize we have to sort through the stuff, hang it up and price it and bring it out and it's a whole process. It's not just here grab go and it just magically goes up on the shelves and the racks. They have to be dealt with and people just give us their trash with their really dirty smelly clothes. I once had to take care of a huge plastic tub of clothing filled with pet hair and I really tried. I tried so hard to save that clothing and I went through 15 pieces of lint rolling tape on one clothing item and I gave up. I mean we had to put that clothing in the trash because recycling is not going to take that either. They're also very picky about the stuff that they take and also like people's stupidity in the sense of like would you buy that stained shirt you're donating? Like would you buy that shirt with a giant bleach stain at the bottom? And there's something to be said of like oh well you can give it to homeless people. Homeless people come into my store and shop and I swear to god they're even pickier than people who have jobs and have homes and that are not homeless. You know like I once helped a homeless woman shop for some things that she needed and I was showing her certain stuff and she's like no I don't want that. That has lint all over it. Like homeless people are picky so don't talk to me about donating a t-shirt with a hole on it and being like oh we'll give it to homeless people. They're picky too so um yeah just that lack of consideration. I just find it so odd like if you wouldn't buy it yourself if you wouldn't if you would go to a thrift store and you would see that item and you were like oh this is gross why are you donating it? A thrift store is is not a dumpster and also do know that most thrift stores have a recycled program like us and you could definitely like go through your clothing and if there's clothes that has holes and all the stuff in it just put it in a bag say it's recycle when you get to the thrift store be like this is a recycle that all of this clothing that has holes in it and stuff like that this is recycle for you guys and we'd gladly take it but just having to go through an entire bag and only two items be somewhat sellable is is really just kind of feels like a big fuck you in our face like you do realize like how important thrift stores are to communities and how much thrift stores uplift communities and and help uh lower income people move forward like we owe that to one another as human beings on this planet i don't know i'm sorry i could keep going on it's been eight minutes anyway i love you bye let me know if you want to hear more toodaloo