Photo by Helena Dagmar.

The summer before I left for college, I cleaned out my entire closet deciding what to take with me. I divided my shirts, pants, and dresses into categories, and the "donate" and "trash" piles became huge. My massive collection of unwanted clothing indicated an integral problem: My unsustainable shopping habit was money-draining, space-consuming, wasteful, and, as I would later learn, takes a toll on the environment. After the painful culling process and in the face of a leaner college budget, I decided to start shopping smarter -- both economically and environmentally. I started to thrift.

Currently, the average American purchases about 10 pounds of recycled clothing per year. Countless blogs have dedicated posts on the art of thrifting. Here are five reasons why you should consider thrifting your clothes: