I just had three of my friends laugh out loud and give me the
roll of the eyes when I told them what I did yesterday. I simply took an
inventory of my closet. So I itemized each piece by category, country of
origin, source and fiber content. So it is all in a neat 4-sheet excel spread
sheet which include really beautiful pie charts and percentages (hey! On the
upside I just learned to use a whole new part of excel that I didn’t know
existed!) So it took me 3 hours yesterday, a couple at night and most of the
morning to do it, so what! So, yes, I might be a type A (which of course I have
to google because I don’t even know what it truly means). How I was able to
still get the kids from school and make supper is nothing short of a
multitasking miracle, but somehow I managed to pull it off. Now, I do not
recommend doing this unless you have time to kill and a loose screw somewhere
in your head. But I really wanted to see
where I was and what I have to work on. If I’m going to change my spending
habits I needed to see what my habits were to begin with.
I have to say that I expected to find some surprises, but
some of the things that actually did, had never occurred to me. Things like the
fact that I actually rarely look at the content label in my clothes! I just go
by feel, and I was shocked at some of the contents I found in my most basics. There
are things like a sweater in Polyester, Rayon and Wool mix that looks more like
Wool and a pair of plaid pants that I swore were Wool which are actually a
cotton/viscose mix (Apparently I need to review my wool feeler)! My Silver
jeans are a mix of Cotton and Polyester and some of my basic T’s even have
Rayon in the Cotton/Poly mix.
Why is this important, you ask? Well, I noticed that some of
the most recent items have more fibers mixes than the older ones. How does this
affect us as consumers? Well, for instance take a sweater that I thought felt
like Wool, it is actually 90% Acrylic/10% Wool. Acrylic will pill and it is way
less expensive than wool. It is also a synthetic fiber, which means it won’t
break down like a natural fibre will. Fabric suppliers are pushing synthetics with
the excuse that it is cheaper and it makes the fabric last longer, manufacturers like what it does to their profit
margins, so they give the consumer the ‘feel’ of something high end at a much
lesser cost and quality. Now, don’t go jumping to conclusions here, there is a
place for polyester and nylon in our clothing, there’s no denying that it makes
the fabric more durable and easier to wash, and there’s a definite benefit from
that. But according to an article in 2004 Textile
World, polyester production now exceeds 50 billion pounds a year, with
China producing over half that volume[1],
is it a coincidence that we are seeing it more and more?
That
brings me to another finding on my chart. This one was not a surprise. A
whopping 56% of my clothing came from China. Check out my chart. But you will
notice that the next big number is from Canada and that includes handmade
items. This is probably the hardest chart to change but working on increasing local
numbers might be a start.
The best chart by far was the one that outlines where I got
the clothing from. It turns out that my frugalness leads up to sustainability.
The fact that I welcome hand-me downs (you know who you are…thank you!) and
that I occasionally shop at thrift stores, made up a large chunk of my sources
for clothing. Things that I make as well
as my favourite pieces from artisan designers go under one of a kind. Chain
midrange encompasses anything at the mall and discount/fast fashion are stores
like Wal-mart or Superstore. What this chart did show me was that because most
of my clothing comes from random sources, it makes it difficult to keep up a
certain standard of quality and style. I think I need to be more intentional
when making purchases rather than buying what’s on sale or taking everything
that comes my way.
[1] Cline,
Elizabeth, (2012)“Overdressed: the shockingly high cost of Cheap Fashion”, Penguin Group, NY
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