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What are you supposed to do with old clothes?

theatlantic.com

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Re: What are you supposed to do with old clothes?

#71

Post by gtk40 »

pacija wrote: post #69

I wear my clothes and shoes almost until they disintegrate. Some of them are more than two decades old, still good. Harder to find quality stuff that lasts nowadays, but it is possible. Wear cotton and leather, avoid plastics. But then again I an very pretty, tall and slim, wearing old worn out black stuff gives me cool punk rocker / oldschool goth look. I know not everyone can pull this off :)

As someone who is often doing outdoor activities and sports in a very hot, humid area I can't find a good alternative to plastics for clothing. But they last a long time. I have a lot of synthetic workout clothing well over a decade old. I guess not nearly as long as you. :)

Re: What are you supposed to do with old clothes?

#72

Post by llbeansandrice »

trgn wrote: post #22

> There is simply no easy, universal guidance for the most Earth-friendly or hassle-free or socially good way for you to dispose of your old clothes But there is. In fact, the answer is right in the setup of the article. > For much of American history [...] most of the population considered the endless accumulation of material goods unseemly, Basically, don't buy so many clothes to begin with. And then you don't have…

I get your point but this is just the StackOverflow stereotype: "Hey I need help doing $thing, any advice or help?" A: "Why would you want to to $thing? Nobody does $thing. My advice is to not do $thing." _Accepted answer_

It's also this fallacy[1]. The topic is disposing of old clothes in a Earth-friendly, hassle-free, and socially good way. Putting up barriers to consumerism further upstream is an entirely different topic.

[1]https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/095679762210753...

Re: What are you supposed to do with old clothes?

#73

Post by tedunangst »

TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #53
zerocrates wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article here describes Goodwill's operation in the US, where better-quality items are sold in the stores, lesser at outlet, and eventually things are bundled up and sold in bulk, as scraps, and for other uses like that. The idea is to just maximize the monetary value of the donations and then turn around and spend that money on their actual charitable mission. It removes some of the "romance" of donating items, b…

> It removes some of the "romance" of donating items I mean, what did you expect? Honest question: what romantic views did you have about donating used clothes (or anything) to Goodwill? Did you think they handed them out for free at the local soup kitchen for the homeless?

I do think people have the idea that they donate a tie to charity, they give it to a homeless man, who wears it to an interview, and lands a job as a bank teller.

Re: What are you supposed to do with old clothes?

#74

Post by kenned3 »

bigfudge wrote: post #38
CPLX wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This may come as a shock as I admit the extent of it surprised me as well, but the speed with which children change size soundly outstrips the lifetime of the average piece of clothing. And I’ve heard rumors that adults change size quite a bit as well. Sometimes they move from one place to another too.

Right, but there tend to be other children who are smaller not far away. It always strikes me as weird how many parents seem to have something against passing on clothes between kids.

I have three kids (two daughters an a son).

The boy is the oldest and we would still "hand-me-down" until they became a bit older and didn't want to wear "boys clothes" anymore.

With three kids, costs add up and so we would get the boy things the girls could wear as well (future planning).

Say he needed new t-shirts and one had a large tractor on it, and the other was just a T-Shirt with nothing on it..

The problem as they age becomes "social norms".

To this day, I continue to push both my daughters to try boys jeans. They constantly complain girls pants lack pockets, yet refuse to even try on boys jeans to see if they work?

The other issue is some kids REFUSE hand-me-downs and too many parents take the easy road, and buy new clothes?

Our youngest had hand-me-downs from both her older brother and older sister and simply didn't care that she was wearing "boys clothes". This really helped our budget.

Re: What are you supposed to do with old clothes?

#75

Post by caboteria »

a1pulley wrote: post #54

I'm willing to spend, say, 5 or 10x what one would at Uniqlo or Old Navy to buy quality garments that will last a long time and be socially acceptable in upper middle class west coast cliques—i.e., I don't need tailored suits in my world. Where do I go?

L.L.Bean sells high-quality clothes, although it's an east coast brand so it might be a little dowdy for the west coast.

Re: What are you supposed to do with old clothes?

#76

Post by nerb »

WillAdams wrote: post #5

I wear old clothes when doing yard work or woodworking or metalworking --- by the time I'm done, they're only suited to be cut up for rags, and I have a jar which I clip the buttons into --- if a zipper is YKK and still in good condition I'll cut around it in case I need to replace a zipper on something. I've tried to convince my wife to take up quilting, but she has zero interest, and I don't have the time.

you could take up quilting yourself

Re: What are you supposed to do with old clothes?

#77

Post by trebbble »

trgn wrote: post #37
pwinnski wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% agree on reducing! Still, are you suggesting that clothes should be kept forever? Because whether you're talking about someone who discards entire wardrobes at the end of every season, or someone who rotates the same very-few items until they no longer fit, at some point people still need to do something with old clothes.

> Still, are you suggesting that clothes should be kept forever? Fair point! > Because whether you're talking about someone who discards entire wardrobes at the end of every season I would assume these people buy high-end garments, and you'll find more boutique second hand stores that will take it. I suspect, if somebody is that devoted to fashion, it's more of a hobby or a passion, and I think we're all allowed a fe…

> I think the natural end point for heavily worn clothes would be as a rag?

This used to be a super-common middle class (and under, I suppose) habit, at least in the US.

But synthetics make shitty rags, so that rules out a high percentage of modern cheap clothes of the sort that don't tend to get repaired or sold used, and material costs are so low that more people can easily afford to just buy cotton rags that'll perform better than strips of denim or old cotton t-shirts. Plus I don't think people do things that call for nigh-disposable cloth rags as much anymore (in our house they were mostly used for cleaning up engine grease or motor oil, but folks worked on their own cars and lawnmowers and such a lot more back then, and they were all ICE, not electric)

Re: What are you supposed to do with old clothes?

#78

Post by stonemetal12 »

jjulius wrote: post #57
trgn wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And at some later point, I have to dispose of them. I somewhat disagree. You do have to get your clothes, but what is about the disposing of perfectly fine clothes that's necessary? It's only because we have too many of them. Wear the clothes until they're worn. Use the rags.

I don't disagree with the general concept of reducing/reusing, but... >Use the rags. ... OP said your comment doesn't seem to address the inevitability of disposal. You only responded with another method of reuse, but let's be honest here - rags need to be disposed of at some point, too.

Yeah but a rag isn't clothes, so it is outside of the scope of how to dispose of clothes. /s

Generally if they are made of natural stuff they should be bio degradable, so compost?

Re: What are you supposed to do with old clothes?

#79

Post by notahacker »

Scoundreller wrote: post #25

I never really understand these articles and many of their points. The claim gets made that exporting the clothes to developing nations is bad, but it’s usually products made for developing nations that can be low quality from the factory gate. Claims are often made that 2nd hand clothing disrupts a local clothing industry, but in reality, it’s going to be difficult to compete with global manufacturing. Clothing isn’…

It does seem like the author got asked to shoehorn as many different potential downsides of doing fairly sensible things as possible into an article

If items are sufficient quality to be resellable to remote US buyers on Depop but mailing them out individually is too much work, you really, really don't have to worry that if donated in bulk to a network of charity shops they're all going straight to African landfill...

Re: What are you supposed to do with old clothes?

#80

Post by gidorah »

gtk40 wrote: post #71
pacija wrote: post #69

I wear my clothes and shoes almost until they disintegrate. Some of them are more than two decades old, still good. Harder to find quality stuff that lasts nowadays, but it is possible. Wear cotton and leather, avoid plastics. But then again I an very pretty, tall and slim, wearing old worn out black stuff gives me cool punk rocker / oldschool goth look. I know not everyone can pull this off :)

As someone who is often doing outdoor activities and sports in a very hot, humid area I can't find a good alternative to plastics for clothing. But they last a long time. I have a lot of synthetic workout clothing well over a decade old. I guess not nearly as long as you. :)

Merino wool is great for this.
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