Following one of those sudden impulses, I decided to count my shirts this morning. I seem to have far too many cluttering up the wardrobe - some of them must be quite old now. My favourite black denim shirt is at least ten years old - I confirmed that by trawling through some old photos.
But is ten years a great age for shirts? To my eye, that denim shirt looks as if it should be okay for another ten years at least. Maybe it's an age thing, hanging on to old shirts.
Trousers are a different issue entirely. Chopping wood, hacking trees back, gardening and general DIY seem to age them quite quickly for some reason.
10 comments:
I find proper shirts last for years because I rarely wear them. T-shirts, though, it's about two years at best. The onslaught of near misses with craft knives, soldering irons, saws and bottles of superglue takes its toll!
I had to buy two new shirts yesterday (well, charity shops - £8 each). The last of my old "office shirts" gave up the ghost recently, six years after my retirement.
I think shirts last longer because in my case I normally wear them under a pullover or sweatshirt. As for trousers, kneeling for gardening and cleaning, keys and other objects in pockets, and pet ownership seem to do them in quite quickly.
My sorts: (i) short-sleeved, (ii) long-sleeved, (iii) long-sleeved, winter-weight, (iv) night-shirts.
I could do with a new (iv) but the others will see me out.
Trousers: they don't last, do they? Even tracksuit bottoms die quite quickly. Maybe I should buy a new kilt.
Jannie - old T-shirts make good polishing cloths though. Good for treating doors with Danish oil for example.
Sam - when I retired I threw out my office shirts. I thought I might start talking about health and safety policy and diversity if I kept wearing them.
dearieme - I've been thinking about wearing tracksuit bottoms around the house and garden because they can be cheap and it doesn't matter what they look like.
I retired 23 years ago. I just looked in the wardrobe, there are still six shirts there from my earlier life. As I live like a hermit (especially since covid) I seldom wear a normal shirt in winter. To protect my throat I wear polo-necked shirts
DAD - I could never get on with polo-necked shirts although when I tried them I had a beard which seemed to pluck the neck of the shirt.
Shirts: far too many, the last batch I bought were six years ago, before my retirement to the country, they are still in the movers packing case, never worn, as yet unwrapped. And those were weekend/country shirts, the city shirts, some must be 20 years old and unworn for the past 10, there is another box-full.
Shirts, and shoes, has a roll-call a few weeks ago, still three pairs city shoes (black), and half-dozen brown-for-the-country but certainly not for muddy fields. At least the four pairs of wellies are justified by normal conditions around here.
djc - blimey, I don't think I've ever owned that many shoes... although maybe I ought to have a roll-call too.
They are good, very good shoes. Which last, if you can bear the ongoing expense of maintenance. If you wear them all day they need to rest; one day on and two days off. Hence a justification of three pairs city shoes. But no, so many brown shoes for weekend occasions and travels… Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher.
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