2023 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

weenancyinAmerica

@Cherryfudge - I only travel with three extra tops, 1 extra pair of trousers, shorts and t-shirt for sleeping, 7 pr. socks and 7 pr. knickers, one extra bra or camisole, plus one jumper in cooler weather, and 1 cardigan, besides the clothes I am wearing - no matter how long I plan to travel. Everything fits in a rolling backpack. I don't trust airlines with my luggage. If I need a skirt while traveling, I will go to the charity shop for one. I have traveled for up to five weeks like this for years. I do take one extra pair of walking shoes - but travel in my crocs. When I went to Hawaii, I took one holomu (a heavier material type muu-muu), one extra top and trousers, and a pair of sandals, plus underwear and shorts and tee shirt for night, rolled in a large rattan handbag. Wore a pair of trousers, top, and lightweight cardigan. No luggage at all on that trip. I've had over 80 trips by air and I have learned to travel really light. No one knows you are wearing the same clothes except you as you are traveling around. If I get too tired of the clothes, I stop in at a charity shop and pick up a new-to-me top as a reminder of the trip.

flamingo747

Cherryfudge that's a nightmare of mine. I'm quite a big girl and finding things spontaneously in a charity shop is a bit difficult. Excellent that you found a good solution 

Laura, yep, the quality definitely isn't there  and the volume we own is massive. Just like on Sort Out Your Life, all those rails and rails of clothes! Even after a purge this week I have significantly more than women ever used to have

skogar

Wee Nancy,

My list is very similar to yours (only 3 pairs of mid weight walking socks and 5 prs knickers), other amounts are very similar, thin fleece top rather than the jumper and a fleece rather than the cardigan. I do have crocs but use something easier to pack when travelling as 2nd shoe option - exactly what depends on the trip (this time it will be a pair of water shoes which I can use as slippers or on the water). Depending on the trip the main footware is either good walking boots or shoes. I always travel in these - big relief when went away for the week and the luggage (which had the spare shoes in) didn't arrive till the last night! If the crocs are your main footware travelling in them makes a lot of sense. When travelling place to place a lighter bag is a real luxury.

Laura_Elsewhere

I have friends who occasionally fly to a historical re-enactment event abroad, and of course the easiest way to travel with 17th century clothing is to wear it... So they check in their (properly, legally, packed-up) muskets and pikes and swords, and then their fellow passengers are treated to half a dozen 1640s soldiers queuing at check-in...  

@flamingo747, I love Sort Your Life Out! We binge-watched all of them, and the similar Nick Knowles series (I prefer Stacey!) earlier this year to help me with sorting out all the stuff I had to tackle at my parents' house... 

maryb

I've lost quite a bit of weight since last year and I had three pairs of M&S cord trousers which are now falling off me.  So I have been altering them which has involved so many tweaks it has felt like remaking them.  And I had two identical pairs in navy bought at the same time but one needed taking in two inches and the other one just one inch.  Their quality control is rubbish.  But I will keep them going for another year anyway.  I'm not sure they will last any longer than that, the quality of the fabric is not that great - I gave a wry smile when I read that Guardian article that Laura Elsewhere posted.  They have certainly embraced the use of elastane!!

I'm wearing skirts much more these days as I can get decent quality fabrics and they are easy to make.  But I do need a couple of pairs of trousers for activities where a skirt would be an encumbrance and where I need to wear sturdy shoes

flamingo747

Laura, I haven't seen the Nick Knowles one, but will have to look were you a fan of the Marie Kondo programme too?

Laura_Elsewhere

flamingo747 said:

Laura, I haven't seen the Nick Knowles one, but will have to look were you a fan of the Marie Kondo programme too?

No, not at all! The whole Marie Kondo thing makes me recoil and shrink away, almost physically... the Stacey Solomon and Nick Knowles programmes are based around the fact that people with this amount of Stuff have emotional problems letting go of things, and simply telling them to let go of something that doesn't 'spark joy' is pointless and silly. 
It's like telling someone facing terrible health problems because they are morbidly obese to a point where they can barely walk to just start running and eat less! 

If it was that simple, I wouldn't have the Stuff that I do - it isn't just disorganised clutter, it's a major hoarding problem which is exacerbated by living with someone who has normal levels of disorganised cluttering in a very small space. I am far better now at not hanging onto everything, but I have 45 years' worth of hoarding back at my (almost as bad) parents', which is what we tackled this summer, and the flat simply has two or three times as much Stuff in it as it can hold, so we are tackling that slowly too. 

There is a photographic scale, with text descriptions, used by mental health professionals 
https://hoardingdisordersuk.org/clutter-image-ratings/

The kitchen was a 4, but is now a 2, verging on 1 (very proud of this).
The bedroom is typically around a 3 on a bad day, 2 on a good day; the sitting-room is around a 6 much of the time with only two desks and chairs accessible via narrow pathway through the piles of clutter. 

I hate living like this, but I can't tackle it alone, so have to keep on using up my poor husband's precious weekends to try to tackle it. He's excellent at it, but has to be cattle-prodded into doing anything as, although most of the stuff is mine, he isn't particularly bothered by it so long as he can get to his desk and the bed... 

So yeah, Marie Kondo's methods would be beyond useless... 

Here is a before-and-after of the room we tackled over fopur long weekends at my parents, which had been neatly packed and boxed-up but which had been unpacked and strewn loose (NOT by us) thus becoming mouse and moth infested so the first job was throwing out hundreds of pounds'-worth of silk and wool which I had carefully packed up to keep it from infestation until we have a larger home and could use it. 

Cherryfudge

I have my crochet hook! I can highly recommend Jedburgh’s hardware store which sells not only crochet hooks but almost every ‘hardware’ item known to humanity, and a few others, too.

I also popped into Sue Ryder where a lovely chambray top called my name. It’s got colder so its long sleeves may be needed. £5 and no coupons.

@weenancyinAmerica, that’s an impressive travel list. I normally have an interchangeable range of blue or green trousers and tops and perhaps a pink hoodie that goes with both, so as long as the greens go with each other, I can just count the days and assume that number minus a couple will work. I don’t mind wearing things more than once but this is the UK so I allow myself enough if something gets wet or muddy! I do admit to too many clothes though: I’ve bought lots this year, nearly all off the ration, and some are getting a lot of use. A few have been donated but I find it hard to judge what I won’t wear again, hence the build up.

Marie Kondo worked for me for de-cluttering socks (I remember a dull yellow pair that I was so relived to be rid of!), also pants and shoes but I didn’t let the method loose on anything else. I have sometimes wondered if for instance I was going to live abroad and had to reduce my clothes by half (and climate wasn’t an issue), what would I choose? Right now I’m considering leaving the red merino here for when my sister returns in case she wants it. Or maybe not… 😄

Wraithlady

Coupons to declare - 4 yards of  heather-coloured wool fabric from Laxey Woollen Mill in IOM.

12 coupons, but worth it - genuine loughtan wool, enough to make into a tailored jacket (out of my comfort zone, but one has to stretch oneself!). I bought what was left on the bolt, so probably not enough to make a skirt as well.

flamingo747

Laura that sounds really challenging. I struggled a great deal with maintaining a clean safe home when Mr Flamingo and I moved in together (I was only 16), and my bedsit was easily a 5-6. For me, it was a lack of having been taught to have a system, poor mental health, and undiagnosed ADHD. Over the last 20 years I've gotten much more able to cope with it, but it still gets untidier and dirtier than I'd like