Source: Unsplash
Everyone loves shopping for new clothes. However, most of these clothes only end up at the back of the closet after the next shopping spree. In addition, you might lose interest in a piece of clothing because the color gets faded or the fabric gets loose.
People usually get rid of old clothes because of this dip in quality. Unfortunately, this is not good for the environment because making clothes uses many natural resources. According to research, it takes over 2000 liters of water to make a single t-shirt and a pair of jeans.
Here are some eco-friendly ways to maintain clothing and different methods to revamp old clothing to make it look and feel new again.
The Proper Way to Maintain Clothing
According to The Guardian, the average lifetime for clothing in the UK is estimated to be just 2.2 years. In numbers, this translates to a whopping $190 million ending up in landfills every year. However, a proper maintenance culture can help you keep your clothes longer and reduce the number of clothes wasted every year.
Maintaining clothes for a longer period would reduce the demand for new clothing, reducing the volume of critical raw materials used in making them. Doing this would reduce the environmental impact on society. Written below are different habits you could imbibe to increase the lasting period of your clothes.
Don’t Overwash Clothing Over Their Lifetime
Overwashing clothes could quickly reduce the quality of clothes. Washing clothes too often can lead to overstretching the fabric or washing the color off, decreasing the clothes’ lifespan. This is because detergents sometimes contain cleaning agents that act on the clothing material. Often, a piece of clothing simply needs a steam bath or spread out in the open rather than washing it.
Use Gentle Detergents
Detergents are made using chemicals that can be harmful to clothes. Many cleaning agents used in producing detergents attack the fabric of clothes and degrade them over time. Using gentle detergents reduces the risk of attack and prolongs the lifespan of your clothes.
You should also pay attention to soft fabrics like silk which is very vulnerable to attack from harsh chemicals included in detergents and heat. With fabrics that require special cleaning procedures, read and follow the care labels diligently.
Air Dry Rather Than Using a Dryer
Spreading clothes in an open breeze has many perks. It oxygenates the fabric of your clothes, keeping them fresh. Dryers might stress the fragile fabric of materials like silk, cotton, and linen.
Many dryers use spin technology to remove the moisture forcefully from the fabric. This consumes energy that could be otherwise used in different, more productive activities. In other words, drying using air is environmentally friendly, cheaper, and better for your fabric.
Wash Clothes Inside Out
This ensures that the friction involved in washing clothes isn’t applied directly on the side the world sees. This ensures longer-lasting colors, brighter clothing etc. washing your clothes this way would preserve any artwork printed or pasted on the clothes.
Making Old Clothes New Again
Many people would decide to sell their clothes because it is a great way to make quick money while keeping their closets fresh and up-to-date. However, this may not suffice for emotionally attached clothes or too old to donate.
There are many creative ways to reuse and upgrade old clothes to fit into a new style. You can even merge more than one cloth to create an entirely new piece of clothing. By putting your creativity into upcycling your old clothes, you might just become your fashion designer.
Stated below are various ideas you could try out when upcycling your old clothes.
Resize Clothing
You can repurpose old clothes by cutting, slim-fitting, or joining old clothes to give them a new look. Do you have boring plain sweatshirts from 3 years ago? You could cut it into an oversized crop-top. Repurposing old clothing is akin to bringing them back to life.
Dye Your Clothes
You can re-dye old clothes that have lost their color. You could use the clothes’ original color or experiment with new colors to give it a new look.
Tye-dye is also a good idea. This is becoming a popular fashion trend among the young population in America. Creating your tye-dye clothing is a cheaper alternative to buying them, and it is easy to do.
Replace Buttons Straps
Instead of disposing of perfectly good clothes because of a missing button or strap, you could incorporate basic sewing skills to fix them. Replacing loose buttons could also be artistic. For example, you can vary the color of the buttons to create a more exciting piece.
To create your unique fashion piece, you can decide to add pieces that weren’t in the original clothing, such as loops, buckles, straps, etc.
Pair Modern and Fashionable Accessories
Using newer fashion items like ripped jeans, weirdly shaped shoes, and stylish glasses with your older clothes can make them feel fresh. Likewise, pairing old clothes with new fashion accessories can give you a distinct, more interesting look.
Rimless glasses are a new fad. They can be a fashion statement when paired nicely with an oversized tee-shirt and shorts. You can browse rimless glasses for men online to get the best deals. You can also rock these with socks and cool sneakers to give a casual fly-boy look.
Revamp Your Closet!
The increasing demand for new clothes and the constant disposal of old ones creates an environmental issue. Proper clothing maintenance could increase the lifespan of clothing.
Reusing and upcycling old clothes reduces the environmental footprint made by the demand and disposal cycle.
