Lifestyle Update: Goods & Services I

Shopping at Diva

One chilly Sunday afternoon, following two hours of Hoover Ball and a quick bite at an Irish pub, my boyfriend and I went to the Diva thrift store in Old Town.  We were greeted with a friendly “hello” and a proposition to sell us warm jackets.  Diva was converted from an old town house and it seemed the woman behind the counter could be living upstairs.  The smell of stagnant perfume that usually accompanies worn garments filled the air.  The clothes were neatly organized on racks against the walls and costume jewelry was displayed in the center of the room. We took a look around and proceeded down the hallway and found two more rooms filled with clothes.  I soon realized it was slim pickins for my taste.  There were great deals, like Liz Claiborne dress pants for only $20 and Ralph Lauren sweaters for only $30—my mother would love to shop here!  We left the Diva empty handed but I felt good about giving it a shot. 

Not quite what I was looking for... 

Shopping at thrift stores is one habit I’m trying to acquire in order to reduce my ecological footprint.  Goods and services was my second worst category, which means my spending and waste disposal habits need improvement.  The ecological footprint calculator basically told me:  

• My buying habits are poor—buy used. 
• My eating habits require too many resources—eat less meat and more fresh vegetables AND cook at home more often. 
• My dry cleaner is polluting the earth with chemicals—use a “green” dry cleaner 
• I’m throwing away too much waste—use a food composter. 

So what did I change?  It came down to the amount of time I could dedicate to making these changes.  Between working long hours at my day job and spending my weekends doing homework, I didn't have a lot of time to research how I could improve on these four poor habits.  So, over the last three weeks, I shopped at thrift stores for my clothing, I tested out a green dry cleaner, and I researched food composting options.  I’m moving in the summer to a townhouse, so I decided to hold off on a small composter that could sit on my balcony.  I’ll instead wait until I have a yard to buy a bigger one.  I’ll also have more time to tend to it this summer because I won’t have classes.

I visited three local thrift stores, Diva Designer Consignment & Other Delights, Current Boutique, and Prevention of Blindness Thrift Shop.  Of the three stores, Current Boutique had the most clothing that I liked, but overall Current was more expensive.  The Prevention of Blindness shop had more house ware items than clothes and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone looking for clothes.  So what did I buy?  A $25 gray cashmere sweater from Current Boutique. I have to admit, my experience was a little disappointing.  I searched through these stores and only found one item of clothing.  I’ll continue to shop at Current Boutique but not the others. 


Next week, I'll blog about alternatives to dry cleaning and my experience with one local "green" dry cleaner.