Today, it looks like everyone is obsessed with fashion and having plenty of clothes in their wardrobe, most of which they will end up not even wearing. Sadly, we live in the world of fast fashion, with mass-market brands having up to 12 collections a year, and this can’t do anything but affect our planet in a negative way. If you want to help both the environment and yourself by making your clothes last longer, there are a few simple steps that you can take.
Reduce, reuse, recycle
If you want to put together a new wardrobe and make sure that you are minimizing your carbon footprint as much as possible, remember the rule of the three Rs: reduce, reuse, and recycle your old wardrobe so that it can cause as little harm to the environment as possible. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, and maybe someone is desperately looking for that Hawaian shirt that you’ve only worn once to a party or your suit from your college graduation. Give your clothes a new life and donate them or recycle them if they’re way too worn out and washed out to be worn by anyone else.
Choose the right fabric
Whether you want to create a capsule wardrobe or you are simply in need to get a new pair of jeans or a sweater, the first thing you should pay attention to is the fabric that the clothes are made of. Natural fabrics like cotton, linen, wool, and silk are sustainable and biodegradable, while synthetic textiles can take hundreds of years to decompose. For example, if you buy these famous Aran sweaters https://www.tarairishclothing.com/collections/mens-knitwear for yourself you can wear the sweater up to decades if you take care of it correctly, and when it will be the time to toss it away, it can take as little as four months for it to be completely gone.
Don’t wash your clothes too often
Another popular mistake that many people make is washing their clothes too often no matter the fabric they’re made of. And if during summer cotton shirts really need to be machine washed more frequently because of the high temperatures and sweat, now that the temperatures drop there is really no need to do laundry every other day. The same Irish sweaters that we’ve mentioned above can last a long time without being washed due to the merino wool with antibacterial properties that they’re made of. Make sure to read the labels and to inform yourself on how often your clothing can be washed, as some of them can stay clean up to 5 wears.
Separate your laundry
Speaking of washing, another thing to keep in mind when doing laundry is the need to separate your clothes, and not only the whites from the darks, but also depending on the fabric that they’re made of. There’s no need to say how many of us got their clothes ruined because of a red sock that got thrown in the washing machine with the white clothes or the favorite sweater that shrunk and is now perfect for your dog or your 2 year old niece. To avoid these unpleasant situations and to make your clothes last longer, separate your laundry and wash it on the cycle of the washing machine.
Wash the clothes with the right detergent
Many of us buy detergent in bulk and use the same one for all the laundry that we need to do. Although it can save us a lot of money in the short term, in the long term it can lead to us spending more on clothes because the wrong detergent can deteriorate our garments, especially fine ones like wool, cashmere, or silk. We recommend getting a special mild detergent for these types of fabrics, as well as one made for white clothes only, as this will assure that our white garments stay clean and fresh for a longer period of time.
