8/25/09 Pair of 'holy' socks, trashedAre clothes with holes in them acceptable to continue to wear?
I have always said yes. Here's my thinking:
1) Sock and underwear with holes, as long as their functionality is not "compromised," are totally fin. Nobody can see the holes, the clothes still work, and nobody is the wiser. Why not keep wearing them?
2) Pants with holes are also fine, as long as you're not using them in formal settings. For example, most of my outdoor work pants have a large hole over the right knee. Why the right knee? I had never noticed that my pants wear out on the right knee until about a year ago. The reason, I quickly deduced, was that whenever I get down on one knee to do some project in the basement or outside, I always kneel on my right knee. In fact, after I noticed this, I started trying to go down on the left knee, which had the added advantage of giving me a thin layer of denim between the knee and the ground. (The right knee is just skin on rocks/grass/etc. because of those dang holes.) Turns out I can't do it. Kneeling on the left knee felt as comfortable as putting my shoes on the wrong feet. No matter, a hole in the knee doesn't make the work pants any less functional.
3) As for holes in shirt, I simple ask: what kind of activity are you engaged in that's causing holes to rip in your shirts? I never get holes in my shirts, so that's not an issue.
Tonight I decompressed after a day-long series of school-opening workshops by mowing the lawn. One of the socks I wore had a large hole in the heel and a small one near the toe. It worked fine -- my grass looks the same as it would have if I'd worn fine, silk stockings. (Which might actually make mowing the lawn a bit more interesting, but that's for another day...) Normally, after the chore was done, I would have tossed the socks into my hamper as I headed for the shower. Instead, these socks got tossed into the trash.
To further complicate the matter, only one sock had holes, so I could have saved the other one. I didn't, but I could have. Was that the right decision?
I need to know more to determine whether it was the right decision. Like, did the other one have another potential match that it could have been used with? Or would it just have ended up that annoying mismatched sock in your drawer? Important details.
ReplyDeleteThat's the rub, Cathy. My old self would have spent all kinds of time and energy trying to determine if the 'good' sock either matched a loner hanging out in the back of my sock drawer or was a potential match to a pair. I had to make the drastic decision to just let it go... (so to speak). Honestly, I probably could have matched up that sock with another, but downsizing one lousy sock seemed pretty lame.
ReplyDeleteI have a basket of hole-y tshirts and socks to be used as dust rags, just like my mom. Except, it turns out, I have lost the 13-year-long battle to dissuade My Beloved from using paper towels and, I confess, I now dust with a swifter. I think it was the right decision.
ReplyDeleteI mean "to be used as dust rags, just like my mom TAUGHT ME" Not to say I use my mom just like a dust rag. Blurg. I've shamed myself on your blog with my poor writing! What will J think?
ReplyDeleteUsing your mom as a dust rag would seem like odd behavior. Regardless, my problem is that we already have so many rags from all the clothes, bedding, etc. that we've tossed that I can't add any more to our rag bins. As for the paper-towel argument, Joanna and I are definitely moving away from paper towels and napkins. We'll see if that lasts...
ReplyDelete