-By Elizabeth L. Cline

-Self Help -Fashion & Style

The Conscious Closet wants us to do good while looking good. And there are different ways to do this. This next part talks about showing love to what you already have in your closet.

 

Take care of your clothes. I love the ‘Level Up Your Laundry’ chapter in this book. In this section of the book, the author pointed out a study that says millennials lack skills in caring for clothes- thanks to the lifestyle of fast fashion. This means, we rarely think about cleaning clothes properly and fixing minor clothing problems because we can go buy another $20 fly T-shirt or $30 swag joggers. This is called a thrill of cheap. The time has come to step up our clothing care game and stop buying clothes over and over to just throw away.. 

This next phrase was a little over the top even for me… Our basic clothes should be worn at least a hundred times, or for three years of regular washing. Whoa, right. Without even getting caught up in those hard to imagine numbers, let’s just start somewhere.

 Before we get to the clothes-caring part, consider this,

When we go to our laundry rooms at home or to the laundromat, we’re not really thinking about the environment. But we should. Conscious Closet points out that we are pulling an inglorious amount of electricity every time we wash and dry. It takes a huge amount of electricity to heat up the hot water in the washing machine, and crazy energy to heat the air in our dryers. Not to mention the gallons of water we use when our washing machines are running. The idea is to wash less, or to wash a lot more at one time to cut down the number of washing and dryer cycles.

Back to the care for your clothes. Buy clothes that you are able to take care of. Be respectful of your clothes. Treat your clothes as if they are your friends. (That ain’t hard for me to do at all). [Much of the following are cleaning routines that I live by]… When you go to wash, create separate piles. I know that seems basic. But trust me, this needs to be said. Your underwear garments should be washed with your towels and washcloths. You don’t want the clothing that wears on your most sensitive areas of your body to be washed with clothing that is exposed constantly to the outside world and uncontrolled environments. For example, I couldn’t wash my briefs with my jeans. And, I’ve had a towel ruin a few sweaters or dark jeans with lint to know the heartache.

Light colors should be washed together, colorful colors should be washed together, and dark colors should be washed together (black only with black). These tips will help eliminate unwanted color transfer and color fading. 

When it comes to the dryer much of the same tips apply. In addition though, don’t dry your denim/jeans at all if you don’t need to. If you do dry them don’t allow them to dry all the way, let it dry just enough to knock some of the heavy water off and to keep its shape, then hang them to air dry out completely (for less dryer time). Otherwise, they’re also gonna fade every time. I have ‘improperly’ thrown away countless black jeans because they faded too soon in the dryer. Wasted clothing. Wasted electric energy.

In between machine washes use other ways to clean your clothes. 

Less can be more. Instead of machine washing every week, or worse, a couple times a week, try out different freshening methods. Conscious Closet gives us a load of ideas to do this, I’ll just share a couple. Hang your garments out overnight to air dry after one wear. If you know you had a pretty light day and your clothes aren’t soiled, just hang the clothing on the back of your door to naturally air out. For me, I would not likely do this with pants, I could do a good rinse with mild soap in the sink, then hang. I read this next non-machine cleaning tip and thought, I don’t know about that, but OkSpit lifts blood. I’m thinking light blood stains. Like a paper cut and the blood got onto the sleeve of your shirt. I’m not sure how often I would use this method but it could come in handy. Apparently our saliva has proteins that will knock out blood stains. Just use soap after. Oh, and rubbing  alcohol lifts pen stains from your bags and clothes. Doing these things should help you wash twice a month.

Repair is care. Put life back into your clothing before throwing them away. Use dry cleaners every once in a while. Alterations and professional cleaning or repair will redeem and restore your clothes and shoes. Do this instead of buying new stuff and adding to the textile landfill crisis. Keep what you got in tip-top shape. Get a zipper fixed, a button reattached, a small rip sewn back together, a stain professionally removed, and or a steam press to make it look like new. Even better, learn how to do some of these repairs yourself. Keep in mind that people get paid for this type of work. You never know what skills and business you may discover within yourself. Also, get creative and turn a clothing mishap into a new look.

Finale…  Next Wednesday 12:30