The beauty of clothes recycling banks for spring cleaning
March 7, 2025Clothes recycling banks are a handy solution to getting rid of items quickly when you are spring cleaning. At this time of year you need to be turning your house upside-down and cleaning. You will be changing your winter clothing over to spring items to. When you do this, try to set an intention to shed maybe five items of winter clothing that you never find yourself reaching for. Dropping off these items somewhere nearby is ideal, so you don’t interrupt your cleaning work too much.
Lots of countries have spring traditions. The spring season is all about new life and new growth, so it makes sense that at the end of winter we have to start cleaning out everything to make sure everything is ready for a new year. Technically of course in our society the New Year started on 1st January, but it didn’t really feel very new in dark England. Now is when things start to feel new, when winter is over. In fact, a lot of festivals like New Year’s are a bit premature. It’s just to remind us that things are going to change when everything feels quite dark.
There is a Celtic festival of spring called Imbolc which falls right at the beginning of February, way before any sunshine happens and when buds are almost imperceptible on the trees. It’s halfway between winter and the spring equinox. But it’s still a spring festival because otherwise, I think people would have given up on the idea of spring.
Clothes recycling banks – Maslenitsa
Maslenitsa is a Slavic tradition – one of the oldest. It’s a Pagan tradition to banish the winter and encourage the sun to shine. It has been absorbed into the Orthodox Christian calendar.
The name comes from “maslo”, butter or oil in Russian. Little pancakes named blini represent the sun, as they are hot, golden and round. They used to be made of buckwheat and were orange. The idea is to “butter the sun up”, by honouring it to make it come out out. Circles were thought to protect against evil. Blinis also represent birth and death, as they were traditionally given to women in labour and are eaten at funeral rites. So it’s the death of winter and the birth of spring.
When is Maslenitsa?
Nord2024, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
The date of Maslenitsa changes completely for year to year, sometimes by as much as more than a month. It’s the week preceding Lent, and Lent changes according to the date of Easter. As in the UK, the date of Easter changes every year as well. But in Slavic countries the calendar of celebrations is different to the UK. They celebrate Orthodox Easter (as well as Orthodox Christmas). Maslenitsa is a celebration specific to Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, and the diaspora of those places.
Bonfires
In the UK we have Pancake day, which is quite exciting. This consists of eating pancakes. After that, if you are religious, you will give up fun things, or choose one fun thing to give up – some people choose sugar. The celebrations of Maslenitsa take things a step or two further. For one thing, it lasts for a whole week. They also have pancakes – but as well as that, they build straw effigies of a woman and set her on fire. These effigies can be quite big – life size or above. The life-sized ones are a bit like our Guy Fawke’s effigies, as they dress them them in second-hand women’s clothing. Well, that’s one way to get rid of clothes you no longer want!
For Orthodox Christians, work is not allowed on that week, which leads to its name of Freedom Week. But unlike Lent, where you are not allowed to work but also not allowed to party or eat anything but very simple foods, this week before is the time for all the fun things.
Clothes recycling banks – A Time to Connect with Family and do nice Things
Because Maslenitsa lasts for a whole week, it is traditionally divided up into specific days to do specific things. On Monday, Lady Maslenitsa, the straw effigy, is built, dressed, and paraded around. The first pancakes are made, and they are meant to be given to the poor. On Tuesday, men are supposed to look for a nice young lady to marry Wednesday, mother-in-laws have a pancake party, to which all their friends and their son-in-law is invited. On Thursday, people have fun outdoors and go sledging, ice skating, and have snowball fights and sleigh rides. I’m guessing this part of the world has much colder weather than we do here! On Friday, the son-in-law returns the favour and invites his mother-in-law for dinner, and on Saturday his wife gets together with her sisters-in-law.
On Sunday, it’s Forgiveness Sunday. You ask your friends and relations for forgiveness for anything you might have done wrong during the year, and give them a little present. After that, everyone goes out for the culmination of the ceremony, where they put Lady Maslenitsa on a bonfire and burn her, alongside leftover pancakes. The ashes of the fire are put on the fields as fertiliser.
Where to see the celebrations?
The big day is on Sunday. In Moscow, the yearly festival is next to Red Square. This year, a really elaborate display was put on in Nikola-Lenivets art park as well. People dressed in costumes, both traditional, quasi-traditional, and from their own imagination. The wore cow skulls with horns as masks, dressed as Ice Kings and Ice Queens, demons, princesses, birds, wolves, foxes, sunshines and figures from fairytales.
The organisers built a massive wooden fortress with 24 towers, which was set on fire after a performance. You can also see the the celebrations in many other cities.
Spring Cleaning – Where to put your old clothes
Where can you find clothes recycling banks? You can see these on most high streets and in residential areas, and shops like H&M and American Eagle outfitters. Supermarkets also often have them, either in store or in the car [ark alongside bottle banks and paper recycling. Other ideas for where to take textile waste include the thrift store, a traditional place for donating clothing, the Salvation Army or other charity shop for unwanted clothing or clothing and accessories in good condition. Clothing recycling bins have a positive impact on the environment. Find recycling locations for textile recycling which is is sorted by material type.
