All of us wear clothes...I hope. I haven't seen any people out there without clothes and I hope that doesn't become a trend. Anyone who wears clothes also knows that those clothes wear out over time. It doesn't matter what it is, those clothes are made of short, individual fibers of material which are strung together into thread which is then woven into fabric and then cut and sewn into clothes. Anyone who has had a favorite towel, or bathrobe or socks know that occasionally they wear so long they go threadbare. I mean, the lint in the dryer doesn't appear out of nowhere. That is the loose fibers sloughing off of our clothes bit by bit until they are closer to window screens than clothing anymore.
Sometimes, the clothes are just fine but they have shrunk or we have grown (*ahem*) and there is nothing wrong with them. Most places have good secondhand stores such as Goodwill, Deseret Industries, St. Vincent DePaul, all places I have been. If you can donate them there. If not or if the clothes are less than usable, keep reading.
One of the key things to build up your emergency supply arsenal is in repurposing items from everyday life. Whoever has a garage and doesn't have a few washed out, tin cans for holding miscellaneous little stuff. Who doesn't have a pair of demoted tennis shoes for gardening? And how many people even remotely related to Boy Scouts haven't made a firestarter out of wax, wood shavings and a paper fiber egg carton. Clothes fall into the same realm.
Look at the clothes you wear. Some are spandex,wool,rayon, polyester, nylon, and cotton. Cotton and wool are natural fibers and both are designed to wick moisture away from the body.it is that absorbent feature that makes them so valuable. If you have old clothes that are no longer usable due to stains, rips, holes, etc. something you don't believe will be used at a thrift store, Keep them for rags. They are great in the garage and for scrubbing down things that, you really don't want to use your designer washcloths on. Here are a few tips:
DO try to pack like items together. keep jeans together, socks, together, and shirts together. If you want to demote some old towels or washcloths same thing. Bedsheets, curtains, anything made out of natural fiber is great for this purpose.
DO package them in good plastic bags and boxes. Mice and other vermin will nest in them if they know they are there. When vermin comes in for the winter they are looking for food and shelter including nesting material so bag it up and box the bags. DON'T cut them down.Leave sheets as sheets, pants as pants, and shirts as shirts. mark the bags and boxes as "clothes for rags" or "Pants for rags." or Shirts for rags" The reason behind this is say the world blows up and you eventually find yourself either out of clothes to wear or aren't warm enough, fashion won't matter. You would also be surprised what you could get in barter for a pair of pants with a stain on it. And of all of this,a pair of pants is probably more valuable to you or a barter customer as pants then as rags. It comes down to the point that if you keep them as pants, shirts,sheets, etc, then you have shorts or rags, pants or rags, blankets or rags, etc. if you turn them into rags beforehand, you have taken away the choice. Lastly, and somewhat unrelated but related, (like that!) Save shoes too. Ask any pioneer, (if you could) would they rather complete their trek across the plains with a worn pair of tennis shoes or bare feet. I think you could guess their answer. Shoes and clothes as barter items also mean there is no such thing as too much. I would rather than twenty boxes of them in my garage then two. Imagine what holes could be filled in my needs if I could barter them rather than having barely enough to tide me over for a while. Rags and/ or clothes to a person in need in an emergency, could make all the difference.
Sometimes, the clothes are just fine but they have shrunk or we have grown (*ahem*) and there is nothing wrong with them. Most places have good secondhand stores such as Goodwill, Deseret Industries, St. Vincent DePaul, all places I have been. If you can donate them there. If not or if the clothes are less than usable, keep reading.
One of the key things to build up your emergency supply arsenal is in repurposing items from everyday life. Whoever has a garage and doesn't have a few washed out, tin cans for holding miscellaneous little stuff. Who doesn't have a pair of demoted tennis shoes for gardening? And how many people even remotely related to Boy Scouts haven't made a firestarter out of wax, wood shavings and a paper fiber egg carton. Clothes fall into the same realm.
Look at the clothes you wear. Some are spandex,wool,rayon, polyester, nylon, and cotton. Cotton and wool are natural fibers and both are designed to wick moisture away from the body.it is that absorbent feature that makes them so valuable. If you have old clothes that are no longer usable due to stains, rips, holes, etc. something you don't believe will be used at a thrift store, Keep them for rags. They are great in the garage and for scrubbing down things that, you really don't want to use your designer washcloths on. Here are a few tips:
DO try to pack like items together. keep jeans together, socks, together, and shirts together. If you want to demote some old towels or washcloths same thing. Bedsheets, curtains, anything made out of natural fiber is great for this purpose.
DO package them in good plastic bags and boxes. Mice and other vermin will nest in them if they know they are there. When vermin comes in for the winter they are looking for food and shelter including nesting material so bag it up and box the bags. DON'T cut them down.Leave sheets as sheets, pants as pants, and shirts as shirts. mark the bags and boxes as "clothes for rags" or "Pants for rags." or Shirts for rags" The reason behind this is say the world blows up and you eventually find yourself either out of clothes to wear or aren't warm enough, fashion won't matter. You would also be surprised what you could get in barter for a pair of pants with a stain on it. And of all of this,a pair of pants is probably more valuable to you or a barter customer as pants then as rags. It comes down to the point that if you keep them as pants, shirts,sheets, etc, then you have shorts or rags, pants or rags, blankets or rags, etc. if you turn them into rags beforehand, you have taken away the choice. Lastly, and somewhat unrelated but related, (like that!) Save shoes too. Ask any pioneer, (if you could) would they rather complete their trek across the plains with a worn pair of tennis shoes or bare feet. I think you could guess their answer. Shoes and clothes as barter items also mean there is no such thing as too much. I would rather than twenty boxes of them in my garage then two. Imagine what holes could be filled in my needs if I could barter them rather than having barely enough to tide me over for a while. Rags and/ or clothes to a person in need in an emergency, could make all the difference.
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