Creating Community, Before and After the Fire 

The sky was still gray and particulate matter lingered in the air when the staff of Remainders Creative Reuse, a thrift store for arts and crafts supplies in Pasadena, got the all-clear to return to the building.

The store, located just three blocks from the borders of the Eaton Fire, quickly turned into a donation center, with staff collecting everything from water, toiletries, and hygiene items to bedding and clothing.

At first, Toban Nichols, Remainders’ director of education and development, planned to run the donation drive for a week. But by the end of the first day, the 700-square-foot-room that had been allotted for donations was practically filled to the top.

Not only was Nichols staggered by the volume of the donations, but he was also shocked by the number of people wanting to volunteer.

“I am so proud of L.A.,” Nichols says. “I'm so proud to live here and be a part of this community because of the way people have stepped up after these fires. There was no hesitation in helping across the board, and it's just been incredible.”

Given Remainders’ role in the community, it’s no surprise that the store became a hub in the wake of the devastating fires. In the seven years since it opened, it’s become a true community fixture. 

It all started as a weekly garage sale at founder Robin Cox’s home. Soon, Remainders had grown into an official nonprofit, and its first storefront, a 900-square-foot building in Pasadena, opened its doors in 2018. 

It wasn’t long before the business outgrew the space, and in 2020, Remainders moved into its current home, a nearly 7,000-square-foot thrift store and creative space. Nowadays, artists and crafters can shop at the thrift store for all manner of supplies — fabric, paper, jewelry materials, paint, and much more — all of which has been donated, some gently used, some brand-new. 

Six days a week, Remainders also hosts art classes, including embroidery, block printing, quilting, and printmaking. Almost all of the classes are just $30 with materials included, and the store provides scholarships for those in need. What’s more, the store offers open studio time for anyone to work on their crafts in a space stocked with art and sewing supplies. 

Soon, Remainders will expand again by opening a performance space. Capoeira classes have already begun, with plans to soon add yoga, dance, and music classes.

These days, Remainders is in a stable place, but it wasn’t always like that, NIchols says.

“We've definitely been boots-on-the-ground for a while now,” he says, recalling Remainders’ earlier years, when Nichols and the store’s former marketing director would have to employ creative tactics to attract customers.

“We used to sort of play this trick on Nextdoor, the app, where the former marketing director and I, one of us would post and say, ‘Oh, I found this really cool thrift store in Pasadena, you guys should go check it out,’ and then the other one would go on and say, ‘Yeah, I love Remainders, it's so cool,’” Nichols says.

Soon, the store had a loyal following. “The first time I saw Remainders mentioned on Nextdoor that wasn't me and it wasn’t the marketing director, I was really happy,” Nichols says.

In Pasadena and neighboring Altadena, there’s a large artist community, Nichols explains, and of course in the greater L.A. area, as well — each month, Remainders receives thousands of pounds of donations from film and television studios alone.

Nowadays, people come from as far as Orange County and Santa Barbara to shop and donate their unused art supplies to Remainders, Nichols says. “Everybody's got something that they're wasting,” he says. 

From single-use packaging to materials like paint or aerosol cans that can be toxic when disposed of improperly, art materials can have a negative environmental impact. Textiles in particular are a huge issue, Nichols says. Every year, an estimated 11.3 million tons of textiles end up in U.S. landfills — or about 81.5 pounds per person.

Remainders strives to make a dent in that waste: In 2023, the business accepted 74,000 pounds of donated art supplies. Last year, that number climbed to 267,000 pounds. Yet that's only a fraction of what gets thrown out or is left sitting in someone’s home, unused, Nichols says.

“I wish that people just generally understood that they don't have to buy something new,” he says. 

When it comes to gift-giving, for instance, conventional thinking says that everything from the gift itself to the wrapping paper has to be brand new, he says. 

“But that's actually not the case. We have lots of wrapping paper that people have donated. We have lots of really great gifts that people have donated,” he says. “You can find any number of things that someone has already owned. And I wish that people really took that to heart.”

Along with its sustainable mission, Remainders also has a key focus: making art accessible. Art supplies and classes typically come at a high cost, and not all public schools have art programs. Of those that do, oftentimes teachers and students have to purchase their own supplies, Nichols says. 

To remedy this, apart from offering pre-owned items at a low cost, Remainders hosts a yearly giveaway specifically for teachers, and the organization also frequently partners with schools and other nonprofits to provide supplies.

“We're not just trying to save the planet by taking donations,” Nichols says. “We're trying to help the community as much as we can.”

And when the community needed fire relief, Remainders stepped up.

“The most incredible thing I witnessed was people who would show up to donate something like water or toiletries, and they'd say, ‘Can I stay and volunteer and help?’ And that blew my mind,” Nichols says. “That happened over and over and over again. That whole weekend, people would show up, and we'd have to turn them away because we had so many volunteers.”

Apart from distributing donations over the three weeks following the fires, Remainders turned its creative space, which is typically used for classes and as an open studio, into a place for community members to rest, charge their phones, or even create something themselves. Some people would even sew clothes or other items to be distributed to those in need, Nichols says.

Since then, efforts have continued. In the first couple of weeks of February, Remainders shifted its regular clothing swap event to a clothing giveaway, hosted a jewelry pop-up, and sold volunteer-sewn items, all to benefit fire relief.

“We have employees here, and we have teachers that I employ, and we have friends, and we have customers that all live in this area, and we’re all affected in one way or another,” Nichols says. 

“Some people lost everything, so we have to step up and help them,” he continues. “There’s no other choice. What we’ve created here at Remainders is a beautiful community of makers and artists and people that really care about each other, so we have to take care of our people.”

Over the years, Nichols has had countless experiences with customers who have been impacted by Remainders, he says.

“People have told me that this place saved their life. It gave their mother something to do and some place to go when she was lonely,” Nichols says. “I can't even count the number of stories that I’ve heard of people and how they have formed a community here and found something that they were lacking or missing in their lives. It’s just been incredible.”

With its regular classes and upcoming performance space, Nichols hopes to just keep serving as many people as possible, he says.

“The thing that strikes me the most is that we used to sit and just try to think of ways to let people know we existed,” Nichols says. “Now people come from miles and miles around, and we’ve made an impact on their lives. That means more than I can even say. It’s just an incredible thing that we’ve been able to be a part of so many people’s lives in an important way.”

Get more information about Remainders Creative Reuse and contribute to fire relief efforts here.