Throwing away new clothes

is not something I do. The idea that young Downunderites throw away fifty-five million of them each year when people are going less than adequately dressed leaves me stunned. Is the article in the paper really right? 

Apparently 347.2m garments are bought each year, an average of seventeen per person. Then 25% of them get returned and 65% go to landfill. Even if those percentages were reversed I would be concerned.

I thought of my wardrobe. I am a very conservative cat when it comes to dressing. As I have worked from home for years I have almost nothing "smart". I do not own a dress or the shoes which would go with it. I don't need to own those things.

So far this year I have bought myself two new long sleeve polo tops. One cost me $5 and the other $7. I bought two t-shirts for Middle Cat at the same time. I added two new pairs of the jeans I like (they have a pocket which fits the phone and cards)  and added a number of other things for other people so that none of us needed to pay postage. We bought them during an on-line sale from a reputable company. We probably paid about what they were actually worth. 

I passed an old t-shirt and an old polo top over to my BIL to use as rags in the work shop. I committed the grave sin of throwing out the old jeans at a recycle place because, unlike the young, I do not wear jeans with air-conditioning in strategic places.  It was a big year for clothing.  

In my wardrobe I have an Aran style pullover I made in 1984. It is definitely rather worse for wear but it is still fine around home. I have a Liberty print shirt I bought in 1987 from the rack at a factory outlet. I thought I was being extravagant at the time but, despite a great many wears and washes, it is still good.

Buying clothes is one of my least favourite activities...and do not even ask about the business of buying something to wear on my rear paws.  I would much prefer to buy books or knitting supplies. There has never been a year in my life when I have managed to buy seventeen new pieces of clothing. I don't need that many.

I still have the denim jacket I bought in a local charity shop. It was brand new, still with the shop tags on it. It was marked at a tenth of the original price. I actually gave the charity more than they were asking for it because - well because it was brand new and not something I would ever have bought at full price. It replaced a previous second hand one from the same place. Between them they have lasted me almost twenty years.

I suppose I am not "hard on my clothes". The reality is that I just wash and wear them in a very normal sort of way - but I do wear them. They don't hang in the wardrobe forgotten. I don't have that many clothes. 

I suspect most people do not need all those clothes...maybe I don't need all those books (but I have read them).