Do you have unworn clothes clogging up your wardrobe?

Detachable collars were the norm in the ’40s and earlier, I believe. Think they died out in the ’50s, but I do recall a Chinese laundry in our area where they seemed to do a lot of them.

It was common to have round leather boxes to contain collars (some were celluloid) when they had been washed and starched. Collar studs fixed then to the main shirt. I believe you could also get spare cuffs – indeed, prompted by this I find you still can http://www.rjwshirts.net/cuffs
I assume in olden days, detachable collars and cuffs saved washing (they didn’t invent detachable arm pit areas though) wherease now it seems to allow mix and match.

While on shirts, we needed several decent white shirts for a wedding and the friendly chap in a well known department store said “don’t buy ours, go to Ch….. Tyr…. in M….w. They had exactly what we needed – a great variety and in all shapes and sizes. But the strange thing was their pricing policy. Although they were all available ready made from their warehouse, if you bought 4 shirts they charged less than buying two – and they could be any mixture of style and size. It suited us as we wanted 7 – all at the “reduced” price.

Some disabled people might find a trouser useful Alex, as they would a single shoe 🙂

It reminds me of a saying “you three are a right pair of no-goods if ever I saw one”.

What happened to slacks? When skirts, frocks, dresses and suits were the norm for ladies, slacks were the alternative for casual wear. Denim ruined everything.

I would suggest you do try wearing a scarf when it is a little cool. I never did (since my university striped affair) until a member of my kind family bought me one, no doubt desperate for ideas. I now wear it when going out, even without a top coat, and find it quite warming. Just as we should wear a hat to prevent losing heat from an over-productive part of our body. I was bought a woollen (actually acrylic)) beannie hat for Christmas for when I spend days on an airfield, and thin gloves. Essential items of cold-weather wear.

I wore a wooly jumper and ski jacket during the Christmas break and the only time I felt cold was when standing holding a light while a young lady with small hands tried in vain to replace a headlight bulb on a poorly designed car. I wear a hat for sun protection but as long as I keep moving I don’t seem to feel the cold.

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I suppose the thin ones have a higher metabolic rate and others have a layer of insulating fat. What I don’t understand is why some have cold hands and don’t feel very uncomfortable.

I don’t feel the cold and neither does our eldest. My wife, OTOH, and our youngest both feel it.

I believe living in over heated central heated dwellings does not help Have any younger people had to scrape the ice from the inside of the windows before they could see out I know many of us older ones had to do just that Are we now breeding a soft generation Put another jersey on my mother used say if I complained of feeling cold Turn the heating up that is the answer today

I see nothing wrong with being comfortable, and if that means using the central heating then why not – why avoid the available means? But adding a layer will add to comfort without using as much gas.

Hands up to that bishbut! I remember the lovely patterns the ice use to make on the windows in our unheated house. My father was usually first up at the crack of dawn to get the fire going in the breakfast room which used to just heat the water and one room . As young kids we bathed in a tin bath in front of the fire. When we were ill my mother used to carry buckets of coal up the stairs to light the fire in the bedroom fireplace to keep us warm.

I always had cold feet in bed that stopped me from sleeping so I would creep out of bed when everyone was asleep into the bathroom and fill the basin with hot water and soak my feet to thaw them out. Of course I never let on that my feet had been where they all washed their faces the next morning!

Many will have memories of things like that Beryl The good old days or ??

I resist wearing hats, and will not wear any that cover the ears. But in 2010 when our temps bottomed out at -15C for more than two weeks, I did dig out my old uni scarves and found them very useful.

It’s my ears that get cold rather than my head or neck. My waterproof coats have hoods and I sometimes put up the hood to keep my ears warm.

I have four waterproof coats that are no longer waterproof, thanks to washing. I use them when it is windy but dry and the oldest one is kept for gardening duty. I have tried various waterproofing products to no avail.

You need to re-proof outdoor gear about every 4 -5 months and we use Nikwax TX-Direct Wash-In – a wax-like elastomer – which works perfectly but you do need to either tumble dry the clothes or iron them lightly. That gives the best results.

Thanks for that, Ian. I treated two coats with Nikwax several months ago. I wonder if it’s too late to iron them. 😟 Last time I used it I did have a tumble dryer.

Get an Indesit dryer to create a lot of warmth.

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I did a lot of mountain climbing and walking some years ago and used to employ the layer system; two thin items of clothing work better than a single thick one. But when climbing you don’t seem to get that cold. It’s when you stop, or when you start a descent that things can become dodgy, to use a technical term.

A bit of activity makes all the difference. You probably won’t feel cold walking for a bus but standing there waiting can be unpleasant even when well wrapped up.

Years ago when I helped on a milk round it was when is cold you could move faster to keep warm but when its wet all you could was get wet and did

Currently in my house we have rooms ranging from 7C to 18C as we have do not have central heating – and no plans to fit any. Therefore we dress for the weather starting with the thermal underwear and add and take-off as necessary.

I am sure Which? at one stage did do a survey of Damart etc, and of electric blankets, and with people struggling with electricity bills perhasp it needs to provide some useful advice.

I am afraid the quality of the article is poor. It is recent but for at least two years I have been pointing out the benefits of air exchange units. A Which? staffer reported on the effectiveness of the Drimaster in her very damp house last year. This is not mentioned directly despite it being a cheap and sensible permanent solution.
which.co.uk/reviews/damp/article/dealing-with-damp/drimaster-heat-first-look-review

Dehumidifiers are a poor solution for excessive moisture. ” A dehumidifier can help cure damp issues.” – It can remove moisture but it is in no way a cure for the underlying problem.

Also not mentioned is the existence of the humidistat connected extractor fan which is so very useful for shower and bathrooms. They have been around for a couple of decades and work until the humidity is down to reasonable levels unlike extractors working on a timer or lighting.

The exchange circulation rate necessary for healthy air is not mentioned, nor the effects of excessive moisture, or carbon dioxide on human health. This report is quite useful
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ina.12254/full

It references high CO2 levels – as in an indoor pollutant and here is the underlying research:
thinkprogress.org/exclusive-elevated-co2-levels-directly-affect-human-cognition-new-harvard-study-shows-2748e7378941/

As for the electric blankets there are eight tested in 2011 and the number of complaints about the Which? Best Buys suggest that the area needs some more work or at least research to see how many are in members beds and the complaint rate. Curiously Which? lists all the eight brands/models coming to the market in January 2011 which seems unlikely.

I agree with you JW. My clothes go through the process new to rags and that can take a very long time indeed. My oldest item is a CD greatcoat dated 1952 – which I bought second-hand in the 1960’s.

Admittedly not worn very often at all now but who knows when I will have need of something sober for attending an Armistice wreath laying or a funeral. I always hope my black suit will always be little used.

Thankfully, funerals have evolved from sombre and emotional events to the celebration of a life, judging by the ones I’ve been to in recent years. I never did have a black suit and the dark grey one went a few years ago.

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I don’t know about reincarnation but unless money, greed and selfishness are unknown concepts in a future life, I don’t think I’m interested.

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I just don’t see the point of reincarnation if you come back as someone or something else. I do however believe your atoms and molecules return to their original source but wherever that is remains as elusive as does the vast expanse of the universal cosmos of which we are all very much an essential part of.

All the evidence seems to point towards the fact that, collectively we never seem to learn and historically the same mistakes are repeated over and over as Wavechange alludes to above. We have now reached a critical point where our own annihilation is a distinct possibility but mind games have replaced physical global warfare and are now the new threat to world peace.

I don’t see what all this has got to do with hoarding old clothes!

Nothing at all Beryl. 🙂 The Lobby is the place for this, and also for quite a few of my old clothes – coats the rarely have an outing, old shoes (for the garden perhaps), forgotten scarves and gloves and hats – why keep my panama with a split in the crown? Well, it might come in handy.

In any case, if you are reincarnated, none of your clothes will fit you.

Like all storage places (try my garage) we sometimes just have to attack it with a tidy up to uncover things that really should be consigned to the dustbin, or elsewhere. But, well, if there’s room, and they are not worn with holes, they might come in useful…. If only people would stop the practice of buying me a new new shirt, jumper, gloves, socks (no, they are always useful and odd socks are in fashion, well they are here) for birthdays and Christmases I might then make some headway.

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We are all different, Duncan, and I don’t think that anyone has suggested otherwise in this discussion.

I was wondering if there is the elements of a game here. What question would you ask to get the responses provided.

For instance the answer is 47% was the survey question :
” How many of your clothes have you not worn in the last six months?”
” How much of your wardrobe has been unworn and was chosen by your wife? ”

🙂

Been watching Mock the Week, by any chance? 🙂

: )
… and I even buy the books!

I have read that much of the clothing put in charity bags is recycled. It would be good to know which charities do sort out donations and ensure that as much as possible can offered to those who need it or at least sold via charity shops.

Before we moved five years ago we had a good clear-out and sent a large amount of clothing and accessories to two local charities which each have several shops – several large box loads. When I received the annual Gift Aid statements I was astonished to see how little was achieved by reselling what were all good-condition garments, some with top labels, most not out of fashion, and all in popular sizes.

I was so concerned that one of the charities was not doing justice to donors’ contributions that I wrote to the chief executive who sent me a spreadsheet showing what each article raised. In the first place the spreadsheet was far from complete and I had the suspicion that many items had been diverted away from resale. The prices obtained were generally in the £2 – £5 bracket even for the very best clothes that a year or two previously had three-figure price tags.

I think the charities get so much stuff they can’t shift it quickly enough so it is either marked down for a quick sale or sent to a textile trader at so much a kilo regardless of quality or style. I think we could have done much better selling the best clothes ourselves and giving the proceeds to charity. I wish now that I had kept an inventory of what we had consigned so that we could have challenged the results.

I think the basic problem is that there are far too many clothes in circulation for the population’s reasonable requirements so they mostly get dumped. If the charity shop workers were paid a wage the shops would be unsustainable, so effectively the system is letting down the donors, the workers, and people who cannot afford decent clothing but don’t get a full choice, only the cheaper, poorer-quality clothes that the traders don’t want.

Depending on the charity shop, workers might get first choice at the pickings and pay nothing or next to nothing for them. Perk for the unpaid perhaps?

If we sell our old clothes ourselves, how do we do it?

I did a car boot sale once, good quality clothes all freshly laundered and hung on a rail. Practically zero interest, I sold one item.

There is a second-hand clothes shop not far away, but they keep 60% of the sale price, and I consider that too high.

We could try ebay, but that is a flooded market and probably more hassle than it is worth.

So we donate items to a local charity hoping they make the best they can out of them.

I think that just about sums it up, Alfa – there’s no mileage in trying to sell clothes on-line or at a boot sale. My wife tried selling some clothes through a local dress shop but, as you say, the shop wanted too much and then didn’t sell everything so the charity didn’t get much more than if they had sold them through their shops.

The only answer is to buy fewer clothes and make them last. Wearing things once or twice only – or not at all – should be a social crime [unless they no longer fit, of course].

Is the answer to reject the idea that it is a problem to wear the same clothes repeatedly? Older men seem to have no problem in doing this. If you have clothes that you like and are comfortable, why not keep using them until the combination of wearing and washing them means that they are no longer fit for the purpose?

I had that problem, Wavechange. I have discovered that I have more pairs of unworn shoes than worn ones. I found one pair in a box where the soles had become detached from the uppers! Shame, because they looked quite good, but perhaps they were a bad buy originally and would not have lasted long the way I wear shoes. All my shoes tend to crease badly and the welt splits long before they are no longer presentable. A few weeks ago I paid about £30 pounds to have a pair of leather shoes re-soled and heeled; two weeks later the welt split on the left shoe so no good in wet weather [plus looking a bit disreputable] so only good for the garden now. I am determined to get my money’s worth from that repair! I wouldn’t wish my old shoes on anyone, even if they live in the desert or the jungle, so they all go in the bin.