Kids’ clothes can confound wannabe green parents. I am sure I’m not the only parent who has bought their child nice new clothes or shoes, only for him to outgrow them, tear them, or simply lose interest in them in a matter of weeks. Hand-me-downs from kind mommy friends are great, and I pass along my son Theo’s clothes too, but rarely do the hand-me-down jeans arrive just when he’s torn a hole in the right knee of his. Fortunately, a few years back, my dream kids’ shop appeared in our neighborhood, a children’s resale store called Grow Kid Grow, which is packed full of lightly used toys, clothes and shoes. The shop is the brainchild of Missy Gibson, Mark McRae and Jonathan Siegel, who recognized the need for recycled, affordable kids’ clothing in our neighborhood (www.growkidgrow.com). Over the years, I’ve bought several pants, shirts and hoodies for Theo there, often with the store credit I’ve earned from taking in bags full of Theo’s old clothes.

A couple of weeks ago, I stopped by to drop off a bag to sell (so it wasn’t in the Giveaway) and ended up having a great chat with Dani, one of the women who works at the store. Dani is always incredibly friendly, interested, and a very fun, lively conversationalist. We talked about waste, over-consumption, cats, and of course, I mentioned my blog. I also mentioned that I was heading off to Goodwill to look for a large cat basket that would fit two adult cats in, and immediately she said she had one she didn’t need and I could have it. Loving the fact that she was happy to give me something she no longer needed, I accepted her offer and two days later I picked it up and tested it out on our cats. Sadly, though they sniffed it a bit, they didn’t take to it for some reason, so I reluctantly decided to return it to Dani. Today, I dropped it off at the store and inside it I left a vegetarian cookbook for her (her colleague at the shop told me that she loves to cook). I was sorry that her gift to me wasn’t a good fit for our kitties, but her gesture was a great fit for me. I hope she has fun with the cookbook, but if not, I know that like me, she’ll consider passing it along – perhaps to another lover of cats and recycler of stuff.