As I limp my way through the winter of 2025, I thought to myself, damn do I have a nice collection of gently used snow boots and oh-so-warm sweaters. I love my sustainable fashion finds. Let me walk you through the treasures that are keeping me warm when the windchill gets our temperatures to around nine degrees this week.
I may live in southern California but I’m not a beach girl. This happy healthy hiking girl is more at home in snow boots than aboard a surfboard. I live and thrive six thousand feet above the smog and crime of the concrete jungle of Los Angeles. I spend my days trekking trails with my adventure dog. I can’t remember the last time I stepped foot in a mall. It has literally maybe been ten years. Thrift store shopping is my passion and I am outspoken about reducing, reusing and recycling. When it comes to loving this beautiful planet of ours I am the first person to glare at anyone throwing their empty Monster energy can in the none-recyle trash can, or even worse, on our wilderness trails.
Goodbye Fast Fashion, Hello Timeless Treasures
You know that rush you get when you find a $5 bill in the pocket of an old jacket? Imagine that, but ten times better, and instead of just a fiver, you walk away with an entire new-to-you pair of Ugg hiking boots! Welcome to the wonderful, wacky world of thrift store shopping—where every rack is an adventure, and the thrill of the hunt is half the fun.
Fast fashion? Never heard of her. Okay, fine—I have, but I’d rather not personally contribute to the 92 million tons (yes, MILLION) of textile waste that end up in landfills each year. That’s the equivalent of one garbage truck full of clothes being dumped every single second. Meanwhile, perfectly good winter clothes, scraves and hats are sitting in thrift stores, just waiting for someone like me (or you) to swoop in and give them a second chance at life.
Hey, you, Snow Pigs!
Aside form my sustainable fashion hobbies, One of my passions each winter season is picking up trash alongside our mountain highways. I try to organize community outreach litter collection events. More often than not this lands me in Facebook jail after I throw out noneloquent terms like “Snow Pigs” to explain the tourists who trash our mountains. I can’t help myself. Some days I just get a little pissy when tourists throw dirty diapers out their Tesla windows at me as I’m picking up discarded dog poo bags and broken sleds along our mountain highways. Yeah, that’s when I lose more liberal friends on social media after I claim that when Elon Musk starts sterilizing people the asshats who threw the soiled diaper at me should be first in line.
I honestly don’t understand why more people don’t care to protect our planet, recycle and not throw their trash on the ground. Here in California the trash and litter in the forest and city streets is just disgusting. This used to be the Golden State. I just don’t see that anymore. How can you even enjoy nature with mountains of garbage everywhere the eye can see? I pick up trash almost every day here in Big Bear Lake during the touristy/ winter season. Broken sleds, lost gloves, old McDonald’s packaging and worse, so much worse, is everywhere you look. Last week I picked up twelve giant bags of trash between my work day shifts. Yes, my bright yellow safety vest I wear while picking up trash alongside our mountain highways was also thrifted! It seems so unnecessary and such a time suck that trash removal volunteers are needed. It’s just common sense, take your trash with you! Leave the forest as pristine as you found it. I mean then I would have more time to go thrifting.
I would spend less time picking up dirty diapers and bright blue bags of dog poo on the side of our mountain trails. However, at least I feel like I did a hundred squats yesterday during my trash pick-up workout. I used to do Insanity HIT workouts. The real Insanity is the toilet our mountain forests here in California have become.
How to be a sustainable fashion loving adult 101
How else can you help the planet besides being an adult and taking your trash with you? Purchase your fashion at thrift stores! I know I know thrifting is not for everyone. Some people just love to pay three hundred dollars for a pair of jeans at Nordstrom. I feel guilt just looking at a brand-name clothes brand new price tag.
Thrift Stores: America’s Best-Kept Secret (That We Should Definitely Talk About More)
When you look at all these textiles being produced in sweatshops and for what? To end up in a dumpster in a few years? It’s shameful how few people really pay attention to their carbon footprint. When we have guests over and I have to chide them constantly for putting soda cans or beer bottles in the garbage, not recycling, I just think to myself, have you really gone your entire life not recycling?
Lucky for us, the U.S. is a thrifter’s paradise. From your friendly neighborhood Goodwill to that little hole-in-the-wall charity shop run by someone’s grandma, there are over 25,000 resale, consignment, and nonprofit thrift stores across the country. And trust me, they’re stocked with everything from vintage snow pants to designer snow gloves from Nordstrom that some unsuspecting person donated in a moment of decluttering chaos.
The Fun, the Funky, and the “What Even Is This?”
Thrifting isn’t just about scoring unique finds—it’s also about making sustainable fashion choices without having to suffer through a lecture on carbon footprints. Shopping secondhand reduces demand for new clothing production, which means fewer resources are used, and less pollution is pumped into the environment. And if that doesn’t make you feel smug in your secondhand leather boots, consider this: Goodwill alone keeps over 3 billion pounds of clothing and household goods out of landfills every year. That’s right, us thrifters are basically superheroes, and our capes are 100% vintage.
Thrifting is fun!
Not only is sustainable shopping fun but it also helps our planet. Earth Day may be months away (April 22nd this year) but I try to do my part every day, starting with my closet. I seriously do not need a brand-new Northface long-sleeved t-shirt. I mean the foodie in me would probably splash a $100 piece of clothing in hot Bison and Sweet Potato Chili the first time I wore it! This is why I can’t have nice things. But wait, I can! I just prefer to purchase them at my favorite thrift store!
This is the beauty of thrifting: it’s an experience. A treasure hunt. A gamble that might pay off in the form of a $200 snow jacket for five bucks or leave you wondering why you just bought a 1980s VHS workout tape.
When you work outside all winter in the snow and it may be 19 degrees with wind chill, you better believe you are wearing fleece-lined jeans! My favorite fleece-lined jeans are a wintertime staple for me when I’m leading snowshoe groups at Big Bear’s finest snowy destinations.
Sustainable fashion Boots boots boot
Okay, I may have a problem. I’m addicted to buying boots at thrift stores. How many pairs of boots do I have? Well, I really don’t want to talk about it. However, since I wear my boots outdoors, in the elements like in the snow and mud, I tend to wear them until they are falling apart. I love my genty used boots and I trek mountain trails in them until the soles are falling apart and they are covered in stains. But I seriously might have a problem, because I just can’t stop buying thrift store boots. I might be a Boot-a-holic.
When it comes to treasures that came from the thrift store, these Ugg walking boots were this winter’s winner! I literally had to throw away my favorite cowboy boots I bought for hiking at a Nashville thrift store a few years back. I find that these gently thrifted Ugg boots are such a great replacement. Because they are a high-quality Australian Ugg brand, I hope they will last for many years (Or miles!) And best of all, I only paid fifteen dollars for these amazing comfy boots! (I had a coupon) There is a reason that Saver’s is the best thrift store chain in southern California.
Christmas sustainable fashion treasures
If you love your Christmas wardrobe the way that I do, why would you ever buy a reindeer romper and pay full price? As a Christian woman who embraces everything on Jesus’s birthday, I have a huge Christmas thrifted wardrobe. It’s a little embarrassing how many pairs of Christmas leggings and National Lampoon’s T-shirts I own. I actually thinned out my closet big time this December and I donated about half of my Christmas wardrobe because I just have way too many pieces of Christmas swag.
My sister-in-law loves thrifting the same way that I do. We meet up at least once every Christ
mas season for a thrift store morning in Orange County. Or a day of Thrifting shenanigans in Yucca Valley. Here in southern California, Yucca Valley has so many thrift stores within a square mile. I know, I know, so many tourists visit trendy Joshua Tree National Park each winter season. The real treasures are to be found on Highway 62 just west of the park’s entrance.
As much as I love thrifting, there are some thrift store chains in southern California that are just not my thing. Crossroad’s here in southern California and also Plato’s Closet just sell so much trendy stuff that is not my style. I love the thrift store lifestyle because I like to dress more uniquely. I don’t need to buy the newest, slightly used sweater. And I really am not interested in a used Urban Outfitters body suit. Actually any time I see a body suit in a thrift store I kind of shudder. Gross.
Just say no. To fast fashion
Here in 2025, thrifting is a lifestyle that enriches my life and helps our planet stay green. I can pick up tons of garbage left behind by uncaring asshats every Monday and yes, that also helps curb my carbon footprint but saying no to fast fashion is my go to way of life.
Thrift shopping isn’t just a hobby; it’s a lifestyle. It’s about breaking free from the cycle of fast fashion, saving money, embracing sustainability, and curating a wardrobe that’s as unique as you are. So, the next time you feel the urge to splurge on some new Norstrom jeans, take a detour to your local thrift store instead. Who knows? You might just find the winter outfit of your dreams.
Happy winter thrifting, my fellow treasure hunters!
