Toban Nichols on Creative Reuse, Crafting and the Stuff We Hoard

What if the most sustainable craft supply is the one you already own?

Toban Nichols is the director of education and development at Remainders Creative Reuse, a nonprofit that gives donated fabric, yarn, paper, tools and all kinds of unexpected materials a second life. After 15 years teaching visual arts and photography, including to underserved young people, Toban has seen firsthand how access to creative materials can shape who gets to see themselves as a creative.

In this episode, Toban and Lexy get into the surprising ways crafting can fuel overconsumption, from resin and glue-heavy trends to buying supplies for projects that never actually happen. Toban shares some of the wildest things that have landed at Remainders, including a Rolex, a grand piano, a jar of teeth and a very unexpected truck accessory. They also talk about the difference between sustainable reuse and hoarding, why Toban eventually stopped bringing materials home without a current project in mind, and how Remainders is making creativity more affordable and accessible. 

If you love crafting, thrifting or finding new uses for old things, listen to the full episode and follow The Lexy Show for more conversations about fashion, creativity and demanding better from the things we buy.

Find Remainders Creative Reuse:
Instagram: @remainders_creative_reuse
Facebook: Remainders Creative Reuse
Website: remainders.org

Follow Lexy: @lexysilverstein on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube

If you enjoyed this conversation, be sure to subscribe to The Lexy Show, leave a review, and share this episode with someone who's ready to make more mindful choices for themselves and the planet. For more information visit https://lexysilverstein.com/

Transcript

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 📍 That was me, age seven. I thought fashion was magic. Turns out it's a lot more complicated than that. I had a blog at seven talking about clothes. Back then, I didn't know about greenwashing or fast fashion, or what it actually costs to make a $5 shirt, and now I do, and I'm trying to do better. So welcome to The Lexi Show: Fashion That Gives A Damn. I'm Lexi Silverstein, and this show is for anyone who loves fashion and is done pretending the industry is fine. Every week, we go deeper so you can shop smarter, spend better, and stop getting played. Now, let's get back to today's guest. 📍 Today I'm talking with Tobin Nichols, director of education and development of Remainders Creative Reuse. Remainders Creative Re- Reuse is helping people rethink what we throw away, what creativity should cost, and who gets access to the tools needed to make something. It's part arts and craft thrift store, part classroom, part studio, and part community gathering place. Donated fabric, yarn, paper, tools, and other materials are given a second life instead of being treated as waste, while artists, families, teachers, and first-time makers get an affordable place to learn and experiment. Tobin, welcome. So your relationship with Remainders started because you needed one small scrap of fabric and didn't wanna buy an entire yard, which is a very quick version of that story for anyone who hasn't heard it. But how did that kind of turn into a career? It's funny how that's become part of the story. It's such a weird beginning. But yes, I originally needed a small piece of fabric to make a jewelry tree. I don't know if you're familiar with the traditional sort of They were very popular in the '50s and '60s, making a jewelry tree out of old jewelry. I needed a small piece of fabric, and I didn't wanna go to JOANN's. I didn't wanna buy a whole yard of fabric. It just seemed silly, and I googled, where to buy fabric, and Remainders came up, weirdly enough. And so I just went there. I went there, walked in the door. I didn't know what to expect. And I was greeted by the executive director, who back then ran it by herself. Her and her son ran the whole thing. She did the cashier and everything. And we just hit it off. We just became like... We hit it off immediately, and it just seemed like a good fit. I started going there more often. She taught me to sew. I took private sewing lessons from her. And then one day we just happened to discuss that I was a teacher. I was an art teacher. I'd been teaching around LA and in different places, after-school programs, for several years. And she said, "Oh, you should teach here. We have classes once a week." And I said, "Great, I'll do it." And that's really how it began. That sounds so wacky, but I think that's the way a lot of really good things begin, is you find your tribe, you find your people, you find someone that you really vibe with. You know, she's a, she's a Taurus, and I'm a Capricorn, so we immediately got along really well. And we just... it just made sense. And also I loved what I saw. That store was, like, 900 square feet. It was tiny. Stuff was packed on top of each other. I guess it still is here, but- ... it just seemed like, oh, this is an amazing place. It's got such great energy. I really wanna... I just wanna be a part of this. So being asked to do something that you love, which is teaching, and also having it be... go along with your practice, my art practice, it was just... There was no question. I was like, yeah, this is the way to go. I love it. That's such a amazing story. What do you think that a a city loses when it has recycling centers and thrift stores, but none are dedicated specifically to creative reuse? I think If it doesn't have a place to explore its own creativity, then that is a loss for everybody. I think larger cities, I mean, artists and crafters exist everywhere obviously, but there are larger concentrations of them in larger cities. So when a place like Remainders or, any of the other places that, that do what we're doing don't exist in that city, I think people are really missing out on a way to explore their creativity in a different way. We've been through school and through media and through advertising. We've been told you gotta buy new things. You gotta... If you wanna start something, you gotta buy new things. You gotta have all the things. And that's really hard for a lot of teachers to do. It's really hard for a lot of students and artists to do. They don't have the money to buy a bunch of new things. If you're gonna start painting, you've gotta have a canvas, all the paint, brushes, an easel usually. You've gotta buy all this stuff, gesso, and that's all extremely expensive. Just a tube of paint's like 15 bucks. It just is daunting for anybody that wants to do it. So if you're in, if you're creative and you're not near a reuse center, go to it. You'll be so inspired. You'll be really amazed by what you find, the magic that exists there, especially in the community that exists there. So as far as what's lost when a city doesn't have something like that, I think the main thing is community and the expression of creativity. Yeah. I love that. That's so important. I think it just, I think a big part of, sustainability that we're working on and stuff is just making things more accessible, and I think that a lot of people have this, like- connotation of sustainability in their mind, that it's super expensive because you have to buy from a sustainable company, when in reality half the things that you might be doing in your day-to-day are already sustainable. I love a craft. And I have a whole craft drawer and every single time I cut something up, I just keep it. And then end up using those scraps later on for something else. But it's like everything you're saying where it's like it makes me get a little creative with it. It makes me think a little harder about how I can use these and not just throw them out. But then it also saves materials and saves me money at the end of the day because I don't need to go back to, yeah, I don't know a Michaels or something to go get more. yeah. It's really... People just get conditioned to be like if I'm gonna make something, it has to be, it has to be new. Everything has to be new. It has to be, like, pure or whatever." And that really discounts what you can find in a place like Remainders because, our motto is, "It's here somewhere." Whatever you're looking for is here somewhere. You just gotta find it, and it's not hard to find. And also using materials that other per- people have used or given up or donated is a wonderful, inspiring way to work. It's not just... Y- you can be inspired by the materials. We preach that in our classes. We preach it all the time. Be inspired by what's in front of you, not by going and buying something new. If you find a really cool button, that's vintage or something like that, then be inspired by that and make something out of it. That's, for me, in my art practice, that's the best inspiration is what it... what could this be? I love that. That's all part of the creative process. People always ask "What's your creative process?" I feel like as creatives in the field, they're like, "What do you do?" It just comes to me, and then I do it." Yeah. Which is a great way to do it, rather than sitting around trying to manipulate it and come up with ideas and stuff. I always think of it as like things come out of the air. You pluck it out of the air. Here's where your inspiration comes from. Or you see something out of the corner of your eye, and that inspires you to make something out of whatever. That's where it's always come for me. So, if I don't have a if I don't have a good idea right away and I know that I can't push it. If I'm not... If I'm like, "Oh, you should be making something," that's not how it works. It's when the inspiration strikes and you capitalize on that. Yeah. Completely. Remainders diverts thousands of pounds of creative materials from landfills every month, which is so amazing. What comes through your doors that still makes you think, "I can't believe someone was about to throw this away"? I could give you a thousand examples. I could give you a million example. The things that stick out for me, first of all, this is really crazy somebody donated a Rolex watch to us, and we were like, "What are we supposed to do with this?". we finally ended up putting it on eBay because you can't put that on the sales floor. Like- Yeah ... also who's gonna buy that? What do you even price it at in a place like this? Like- ... is that a $10 item? What is that? It was just crazy. We were all standing around with our mouths open when that came through. So obviously it could be worth a lot of money, who's gonna, who's gonna come here looking for a Rolex? So that was crazy. You may have heard this story somewhere else, but one of my favorite things is where someone said... Someone called me on the phone, she said, "I'm from Missouri. We're moving. I wanna make a donation." I'm like, "Cool. Great. That's fantastic. How are you gonna get it here?" She's like, "I'm gonna ship it to you on a truck." I was like, "Oh why don't you tell me what it is?" She said, "It's a grand piano." And I was like wait. Stop. Don't send me that piano. Don't... Please don't ship that here." Also, how much is that costing you to put it on a truck? Those things weigh so much. What is that costing to ship it here? That seemed... Sustainably, that just seemed insane to me that someone would wanna do that. And I had to like I said, I literally said, "Please don't do that. Please don't send that here. Thank you, thank you, thank you." Amazing. No. That's insane We're not the one. We're not the one. We're not the one. Give that... th- also there's Kansas City Scrap, which does exactly what we do, like it'll be much cheaper for you to- ... hand it over to them. Go. Girl, come on. Oh. That's crazy. That's insane. It was crazy. All right. One more I'll give you. We got, you know this is gonna be bad when I say this word. A jar- Oh, no ... of teeth. Of teeth. A jar of teeth. Somebody donated a jar of teeth. They were their father's teeth Oh my God It's here's a jar of teeth. I literally was like, I actually think someone's out there is definitely gonna cook with that. For sure. But where's someone gonna find that? In arts and crafts? In like, where does a jar of teeth live? It was- Oh my God, I'd be terrified if I stumbled upon a jar of teeth it was so wacky. And your dad you don't wanna keep your dad's teeth? I guess you don't wanna keep them. I don't know. I don't know. I can give you one more which I thought was amazing, 'cause I'm from the Midwest. Everyone else was appalled, but there's this rubber item that that exists that people attach to the back of their trucks. Do you have any idea what I'm talking about? I don't think so. So you can, in the Midwest, especially where I'm from, you see a lot of this. It's really funny. Okay. But out here, people were not ready. Someone donated a rubber set of cow testicles that hang off the back of your truck. So it's like this shape, an upside down heart, but of course gross looking. Oh- And ... my God. Yeah. I've never heard of this before. Oh my God, Google it. It's like the... It's so stupid. It's so stupid, but it's also hilarious. 'Cause when you, when people drive down dirt roads shake. They s- shake back and forth like a cow would. When it arrived here, nobody knew what it was or what to do. And pe- when then I was like, "I know what that is. I know exactly what that is." And when I told them, the faces were like... Oh my God. They were horrified. Yeah. I said, "Just put it on the shelf. Put, like, two bucks on it. Somebody will buy it." They're like, "I'm not putting this out. I don't want this here." I was like, "Come on." Oh my God, wow. It's like you never know what to expect, huh? Everything is just... people send their old headshots. People send family photos. People send things that you would think would be something they'd wanna keep all the time. Things that you're like, "You don't need this? You're not gonna use this?"... Someone wrote me an email once that said, "A friend of mine was at Remainders the other day, and they saw my headshot in a box of photos." I was like, "Okay." And they're like, "Could you please take it out and throw it away? I don't want that becoming part of someone's art." I was like, "Okay, I get it, but did you give that to us? "Where'd it come from?" That's so funny. I remember on TikTok, it was a while ago, but someone donated a whole thing of pictures of this one girl, and it was all her awards and whatever, and it was all in one place of this thrift store. And the person posted about it being silly and I guess the girl who was in those photos ended up seeing the TikTok, and she was like, "Wait, that actually was my stuff or something." And I think she ended up going back and having to buy it all back. I was like- yeah. What, what happened? I love those stories. How did this get here? How did this get here? Like- That's so funny. That was a treat. Thank you so much for sharing those with us. You're welcome. It never ends. You don't... It's never, it never ends, ever. Oh my God, I love it. That's so fun. I'm obsessed. Okay. So where do you see that the most overconsumption is happening in crafting? Is it the supplies we buy or trend-driven projects or anything like that? That's such a good question because, when you think of sustainability, you think, "Oh my God, we're all doing such good work. And but, artists are big wasters just like everybody else. There are a lot of things that artists use and crafters use that are not good for the planet. Something that I think is overconsumption is like glue products, like products that have glue in them or have, resin or things like that. I think there's just so much of it, and people use it for everything. They encase things in glue... You know, that's sort of the fallacy is like.. not everything can be perfect. Not every system is perfect. Sustainable practices are not perfect. We all let things through the cracks. But, that's something that I notice a lot is that there's so much glue in the world. There's so much stuff holding stuff together that is just off-gassing and smells terrible and will never break down. And, I guess that's what you want. You wanna make something and encase it in, resin or whatever so that it will never break down. But that's what happens. It lives forever on this planet. It never goes back to anything natural. Also, things that we get a lot of are people try magazines are somepe- something people used to try to give us a lot, and we don't take magazines. They're absolutely useless. They're great if you wanna be a collage artist and they're fantastic that way, people traditionally have had so many magazines, and that's just wasted paper that just sits there. It doesn't really have a use beyond what it is except for collaging. . People try to bring that stuff here all the time. Which is terrible because you know that If we don't take it, it goes into the trash. That's the thing that's so hard about things that we don't take. Yeah. Those are good points. I honestly just remember there was a huge trend on social, I feel like, I don't know, maybe 2020 or COVID era or whatever where like all jewelry was in resin and like people were buying resin and like jewelry molds and stuff. And then the trend dies and then we just have all this extra resin and materials- and the stuff that were made out of resin. And it's I think it's honestly similar to, we see these fashion trends where we see crafting trends and crafting and, working with our hands has been around forever that like there's so many materials that are already out there. You don't have to go to like a, a Michaels again. Yeah you know, every, whatever, like September, all their Halloween stuff is out, all their Christmas stuff is out. Ugh. That's all stuff that was manufactured. It was manufactured in another country, probably by a child, and then shipped in a big gross ship that's bulging out, smoke across the ocean to get here for people to buy, and they don't want , what, they don't wanna keep what they had last year. They send that here. So they buy all new stuff, and so it's just more and more plastic and more glue and more stuff out in the world that, Michaels is more than happy to sell. You gotta figure out ways that it's just not killing the planet like that. That's another part of the cyclical economy with, thrift clothes. Thrift clothes have a cyclical trip around the world on these boats and these steamships and stuff like that, where it's just being carted around the world and then ending up in a landfill somewhere in Sri Lanka. Because it goes, from here to, I don't know, Scotland or whatever, then to Germany, and people are taking what they want out of to try to sell, and the rest of it just goes to another place. And so it just makes this trip around our planet in a boat and then ends up in a landfill. And it's like that's the way the economy works, especially with that sort of stuff. Everyone's trying to get whatever they can that's valuable. But it's just destroying everything. Sustainability is not something that a place like Zara cares about. But after that, years down the road, that stuff's all going around the planet in a boat that's just belching out smoke. That's where it gets scary to think about where it's like, ugh, I can do what I can do, but we need everyone to do their part. And we need to start targeting these big, corporations and big brands, and- Yeah ... getting them to be... To change their ways. Sorry to just be so negative Lexi. No. But it like- It's the truth ... but \ 📍 yes we're all doing what we can and that is a great thing. It's better to do something rather than nothing, but There's just so much. You know, last year we took in 298,243 pounds of materials. 📍 That's just what was donated to us. So like I'm super proud of that. We have kept all of that out of the landfill. It went into the hands of people that could use it. It is doing good in the world, hopefully. Yeah. We don't need all this stuff. There's so much stuff out there already. Like- Yeah. Let's find ways of reusing it. ... Yeah, patch your jeans and re-wear them before you go buy a new pair of jeans. Sometimes we see something that we really, really want that's not the most sustainable and sometimes we, are in a place where we absolutely need to buy something and it, we're not gonna get the most sustainable option of it. But I think that's important to know of We're not perfect and we're doing the best we can, and that just because we're not perfect doesn't mean I'm not gonna do it at all, Yeah ... and just do it. Do what you can. Do what you can. That's really... but do it. Yeah, but do it. Like, don't just throw your hands up, like- Exactly Well, you bring up- Yeah ... a good point about hoarders. Is there a point when saving materials stops being sustainability and starts becoming hoarder with better bra- hoarding with better branding? Yes, absolutely. We have that conversation here all the time. We take in everybody's trash, everybody's garbage. We sell it super cheap to people that need it for whatever, and then once it leaves here, we don't ask them, What are you gonna do with this?" We don't have any way to check where all of this is going. People are certainly buying things here and reselling them at a higher price other places. They're certainly hoarding things and keeping them forever for whatever reason. And, just because it's inside your house doesn't mean it's not affecting the planet and affecting you mentally. Yeah, hoarding is a, real thing. And you can see it in people's eyes. I think once you work here for a while, you recognize a look in someone's eye. It's a terrible way to feel about people, but it's real. So that is definitely something that happens here, and there's no way around it. I can tell you when I... Probably three years into working here I would take things home all the time. Oh, I'll... Oh, look at this. I'll need this. I'll make this. I'll use it in this project, or I'll create something around it. Every day I was taking something home. And I realized one New Year's Day should I- ... change the living room around? Should I... Like, how am I gonna get my life together for the new year? I looked at my studio, which is in my garage under my house, and ha- literally to the halfway mark of the studio, to the top of the ceiling, it was full of stuff from Remainders. I just had so much stuff that I was never gonna use, and if I needed something that was behind there, I'm never gonna get to it. And so I established the rule right then and there that I've stuck to this day- That if I don't have a current project that I'm working on right now that thing will go into, I don't take it home And that's worked really well, and it's not easy to do. I know I do it. I see all these things and I'm like, "Oh, that'll be my next thing," and then, "That'll be my next thing," and then it's like, hold up. Rewind. Yeah. If that'll be my next thing, I can go back and get it later or find something similar or whatever. Let me not get something just to get it. And there's genuinely, there's such a, a rush of, what is it, endorphins that you get when you buy something. Yeah ... and I know that was something that I had to do when I first started thrifting, and I'm still not always the best at it. I'm still, learning and adjusting and whatever. When I was switched from fashion industry and went from un- in- accidentally supporting fast fashion companies to only thrifting secondhand sustainably sourcing clothes I would go to the thrift store and I would buy all these things 'cause they were, like, $2 and I was like, "Oh, it's on trend or I'll upcycle it," and then I would never upcycle it. I would never get around to it. And I would, just end up having a bunch of stuff that I end up taking back to the thrift store after purchasing it from the thrift store. And it's like I just switched all of my fast fashion shopping habits with thrifting, and then I realized when I was, like, looking at my closet or I was constantly at the thrift store, that I was like, "Why do I need all of this? That's something to remember when buying it, and I think that's a great way of thinking of unless I'm doing this right now, I shouldn't be buying something for a future thing. Yeah, seeing something you're like, "Oh, that would be great in my collection. It'd be so awesome. It would be something I should really get. You shouldn't leave that there. You should have it," it's like you convince yourself in so many ways, and then, 📍 a lot of the things that I have done that with in the past, I never end up wearing. Or it's something that's so wacky and crazy you could wear it once a year. Yeah. And then people are gonna be like, "Why are you wearing that again?" Yeah. It's just like it's like a, a weird disease that you just get you know- You're like Gollum or something. Happens to me all the time, it happens to my husband all the time. He is the type of person that is really... He has trouble saying no. He has a very addictive personality. We check each other, where it's like, A, our house is full of stuff. We're very lucky to have amazing art, wonderful things that people have given us, things we've collected over the years. Super lucky, great, but also we don't have any room for anything else. So whenever something is like, sparkling in the corner, you're like, "I need that." I always say, "Where's it gonna go?" "Where does that live? Or what are we getting rid of that can go with?" Sorry, somebody's outside my door. Like, where can that go and where can something else go away? And that kind of brings it back around. It's like, "Yeah, you're right. We don't need that. We don't have anywhere to put it." Let it go to somebody else. Rather than us become hoarders. 'Cause it's a real danger. What you were saying earlier about it affects your mental health, where I'm just like, sometimes I look around and I just feel like my apartment is cluttered, and I'm like, "I don't need this stuff. I don't need to go buy more stuff." I feel really content with the stuff in my apartment, and I need to, remember that when I go thrifting with a friend or whatever, and I'm like, "Oh, this bag is so cute." And I'm much, much better about it than I was, five years ago. But hopefully that just means I'm gonna be even better about it in five years. Yeah ... but yeah. Well- No you're totally right. All right, I have to pay my bills, but honestly, this is one of my favorite ads I've ever had to read. This episode is brought to you by Black Barn Alpacas. Did you know alpacas might just be one of the most environmentally friendly animals on the planet? Hypoallergenic, soft hooves, barely drink water. And here's something nobody tells you. Cows don't fart methane, they burp it every 90 seconds. A cow burps up to 500 liters of methane a day. An alpaca, one to two. That's up to 500 times less. They are literally out here doing more for the planet than most fashion brands. So naturally, I love them. Black Barn Alpacas is near my hometown in Finksburg, Maryland. Real fleece from animals they actually know turned into apparel, home goods, and accessories. No synthetic fibers, no supply chain mystery. Visit, meet them, feed them. Shop at blackbarnalpacas.com. And if you're not near Maryland, alpaca farms are everywhere. Find yours at directory.simplealpacafarming.com. Okay, back to it 📍 You spent 15 years teaching visual arts and photography to underserved young people, including students in juvenile detention centers. What did that work teach you about who gets encouraged to see themselves as a creative, and who often gets left out? I can tell you from that experience, it definitely underserved kids, underserved people. People who don't have access to things and money, and people who can't walk into Michaels and buy whatever they want are the people that it affects the most. People like that, A, they are trying to find ways to survive day to day. Someone who's a single mother with three children that she has to work all the time, and she has to send them to an afterschool program so that they're not alone, being creative is the last thing on her mind, and she's certainly not passing that down to her kids. She's passing survival down to those kids. So you know, when I worked in the afterschool program, that was always the thing. People kids already at those tender young ages of 10 and 11 were like, "I'm not creative. I'm not skilled. I'm not talented. I don't know how to do that. I can't do that." I heard, I've heard that a million times. Like- People are able to be creative because they're given the opportunity. And unless you have a lot of money or a lot of time on your hands where you don't have to be making money, it's really hard to do a creative pursuit because you- your time is spent taking care of your family or taking care of yourself. That's one of the things that we really try to do here. Not only are the classes dirt cheap, we're undercutting other places that give similar classes by 90%. We're not trying to make a million dollars. We are trying to serve the community. You can take a cheap class here. If you cannot afford to take it, you can email us and we have a scholarship program. We are here to pass on creativity to anyone who needs it, because everyone needs it. It's important to life. In schools and places like that, art programs are being cut, art teachers are being fired, music teachers are being fired, and those things are going away. And so we need to preserve that for people and give them a creative outlet and show them that, it's part of their self-esteem, it's part of their wellbeing. To show them that you are as creative as you wanna be. It-- there's no rule about you're good at something and you're not. Anyone can be creative. Anyone can make anything. It's just a matter of people telling themselves that they can't. And also finding ways to take care of themselves that allow room for this sort of thing. It's really important to me that from being in those programs and being around those kids, that the understanding is that creativity is for everyone. It is everywhere. It can be accessible to every person on the planet, and should be, because it makes you feel better about yourself Yeah, completely. I think that, I, I could see a lot of that, happening where... you bring up a good point where it's like it happens to these people that can't just walk into Michaels and buy whatever they want. But creativity is, I feel like, honestly stemmed in everything. And I have my boss, she's always she's like, "I'm such a numbers person and you're such a creative person. I'll do this work and then I'll send it to you and you make it all pretty." And I'm like, "Okay, I can totally do that." I'm, I'm glad that this is known that I love to make things pretty, but I'm like, I also feel like- obviously, if it's not your strong suit, that's not your strong suit. But I'm like, if you, I feel like it's fun, and I feel like it would be relaxing for her if she, like- Yeah ... took a second and just made it look a little pretty. And then it would be therapeutic. I love doing crafts. Oh my God, that's something that I was, like, realizing I was spending so much time on my phone, and I wasn't even... I was, like, a 12-year-old. I wasn't even scrolling on social media. I was literally playing games on my phone, and I was wasting so much time. And my boyfriend, he would come, and he'd be like, "I'm going to bed." And I was like, "What do you mean you're going to bed? It's 10:00." Which in my mind is early. And he was like, "No, it's 1:00 in the morning." And I was like, "Oh my God. Oh my God, I have spent hours on end playing this game on my phone that has done nothing to make me smarter." Not even an intellectual game literally just a silly little game. Yeah. And I was like, "This is horrible." So I started spending, I started challen- challenging myself that every time I wanted to spend time on my phone, I would sit there and do a craft instead, and I would do the crafts with stuff I already had in my house. So a lot of it was, like, upcycling T-shirts, 'cause I have so many concert tees that I don't even, I don't even wear T-shirts unless I'm, like, going to bed. So I was like, what is the point of owi- owning this many concert tees if I'm not wearing them? And that's something that I honestly encourage everyone to do, is take... And every time you notice you're spending too much time on something that's maybe not productive or good for your wellbeing try crafting something, and you'll realize that it actually it's really soothing. Unless you're like me, and you start sewing something, and then the sewing becomes really frustrating, and you're like, "Ugh, God dang it I can't even finish this fricking project." Maybe pick a task that you know is going to be soothing. It doesn't have to be a craft necessarily. Yes. Maybe not sewing, but maybe crochet or- Yeah ... knitting. Exactly. It's a meditative slow craft as opposed to scrolling. No I've had that exact experience with my phone. You're never spending more than a few seconds with things. And then if you have a business account on any social media, you can see how many seconds people spend with your things, and it's it's sad. Yeah. It's like I worked so hard on this thing, and you spent two seconds with it. Literally. Attention spans- oh my God ... are just in, in hell. Yeah. Hell, yes. To wrap up a little bit, you told Print Magazine there's been definitely a shift in sales since Jo-Ann closed. This was like, I don't know, it was a big deal to me in the craft universe 'cause I, I always went to Jo-Ann to get fabrics growing up. Can you put a real number on what the shift was? Or has anyone from Jo-Ann's side, whether it's corporate or liquidators or anything like that, actually reached out to you since the closures? Yeah. When... Okay, first of all, when I read this question, I was like, "Oh, really? You're sending me a gotcha question? How dare you." You're putting my own words back on me. Oh my God, rude. Ooh. I actually... I'm glad that you asked because I went back and looked up the numbers for that. At the time I gave the interview, we had definitely seen an uptick, but I don't think we had really quantified it that much- 'cause, we're always reacting to things here. Things are rolling at light speed here constantly. Like once a month I get to look back at things like the number of donations, things like that. Anyway, yes, I have a number for you. I got a number. Between April and May, so Jo-Ann's announced their closure in Ja- in January of 2025. They actually closed their last store at the end of May 2025. Between April and May, we had a 43% rise, a 43% increase in sales. Wow. Which is huge for us. Yeah. That's huge. That's like a gigantic number for a small nonprofit like us. And we attribute that to people being so sad about Jo-Ann's and being... also, we had a bit of an uptick in donations because people were- ... either hoarding their Jo-Ann's things, or they were trying to help us. We found that a lot. People would be like I know that people probably aren't donating as much because Jo-Ann's closed, so I'm gonna give you stuff." And it's like, cool, that's great. Really people just needed another outlet- ... 'cause they had Jo-Ann's, and they were legitimately sad. That's a, that was a really magical place for a lot of people, . Everything we do has increased over the last 10 years. We've never had a dip in anything. The sales increase, the donations increase people taking our classes increases. It's a wild ride that we're happy to be on, and we are so thankful. But at the end of the day, what that tells me is that this is a special place for people. It's a place where we've created a community, and they've actually created it. We don't take any credit for this community. We opened the doors and people came here to create their own community. And that's where we're really... That's what's really important, not that we're, like, selling tons of stuff. It's a community third space where people come and they make friends, and they meet colleagues and they meet other creatives, and they exchange ideas and become friends, and think of this as a place to come. Sorry, the last part of your question. No, we never heard from anybody from JOANN's. I reached out to every JOANN store in this area. There are, like, 15. There were 15 in this area. I reached out to every one of them. We reached out to corporate. Nobody gave a crap. And maybe they have their own thing going on. They were like, "We're going out of business. Leave us alone." I get it, but, I wanted to say "Hey, if you have stuff, don't throw it away." One day somebody that shopped here called me and said, "I'm at JOANN's and they're throwing away 20 sewing machines. Do you want me to grab them?" I was like, "Yes, grab them." Sewing machines? Get them. That's crazy. They threw them in the trash- No ... and this person watched them, and then went and pulled up to them and grabbed them all and brought them here. But it's yeah, that's the reason we're reaching out. We're not trying to be like, "Give us your merchandise. We're gonna make a million dollars." We're like, "Hey, don't throw things away." Yeah. "Sorry, sorry for your loss, but, let's make this work." Yeah. "Let's be sustainable." So that was... but no, I haven't heard from anybody from JOANN's. That's crazy. I- to throw out sewing machines is genuinely ridiculous. There is someone on TikTok I follow that does that. They dumpster dive outside of Like, really expensive companies. And they're always finding perfectly good things that are just thrown out that are, like, thousands and thousands of dollars, and it's just another thing, like the thing you were saying about how many crazy finds that you've had people drop off is people just be getting rid of things that some- someone somewhere would absolutely love and adore and maybe can't even afford it. . You might as well, create less waste and get rid of it in a better way It's much harder to bring something here. To pack it in your car. Something you don't want, you're gonna pack a bunch of garbage in your car and take it somewhere? That's a huge thing. Yeah. Yeah. It's so amazing what you do, and I'm so glad that give life to these, these things. I feel like crafts isn't always necessarily something that we think of as being wasteful, but in reality it is. But if anyone wants to get involved or follow you guys or maybe donate, where can people find you, whether that's on social media or anywhere else? We, we're at remainderspast.org. That's our website. We're in the process of making a brand-new website. It's gonna be gorgeous. It's launching next week. But until then you can look at the old one. And we are on Instagram at remainders_creative_reuse. We'd love to see you there. We have a vibrant community there that I'm really proud of. And we are also on Facebook. It's Remainders Creative Reuse everywhere. And I think we have a TikTok. People younger than me run that. But we also have a great social media team that are so good at, like- Aww ... making cute little things. They, there's an ongoing series about the creepy dolls we get, and so- Oh, God. definitely tune into the social media for the creepy doll series. But yeah, find us on the web, find us and follow us, and send us your things. I get really excited about what people make with stuff they get here, and they tag us, and you re-share it. We love to re-share things. Aww. So get into it. I love that. Everyone check them out, and thank you so much. If something in today's episode stuck with you, tell someone. Share it, screenshot it, send it to your group chat. Subscribe if you haven't, leave a review if you're feeling generous, and come find me on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube at Lexi Silverstein. That's L-E-X-Y, silver like the color, S-T-E-I-N. Everything else lives at lexisilverstein.com. Live a good life and look fucking good doing it, and demand better from the brands in your closet and everywhere else. See you next week