How to Start a Community Clothing Closet

I got mine started by first, finding a place to put it. Second, I started putting out word in my neighborhood for donations, going through my own closets, and asking friends to bring me their unwanted clothing.Third, I asked friends and family for any tables or bookcases that they no longer wanted. I also had a couple folding tables and an old book case. I was ready to get started! If you don't have a garage or building on your own property, try checking with local churches, food banks, and community centers.

I decided to use my garage at our apartment complex. I asked the landlord for permission first and was able to work with her so that I could have people from off the property come by and park in front of my garage to look through the clothes. She told me that as long as I didn't impede apartment traffic and didn't use one of the marked parking places, it was fine. I also agreed with her to not put any signs on the property or outside of the garage door.

I cleaned out the garage and made a sign on a white pillowcase that I hung from the garage door. I tuck it into the edge of the door when I close it up so it stays clean. I placed tables and book cases around the walls in the garage and I was set! I started putting out clothes on the shelves and tables. I was able to use an old metal hanging rack that was used for drying clothes and was able to use hangers, hung from the rack, to hang shirts and children's dresses. I also hung the longer items, coats, and shirts from the tracks for the garage door. I hang a few items from the bottom edge of the door to showcase them. I have a chair I can sit in and a TV tray to set my needlework, book, or whatever I use that day to stay busy.

It doesn't have to look like a retail shop to be able to do good for your neighborhood! As I handed out flyers and explained to people what I was doing, people responded by opening their hearts and donating. Before I knew it, I had more clothes than room!

I love doing this and it helps my neighbors out at the same time. I enjoy sewing and making things that I give away. I advertise on Facebook and Twitter and through word of mouth. Not only does it help people in my area to be self sustaining and consume less, it also keeps clothes out of landfills. What I don't hand out or that is too damaged or stained to donate goes towards making bags, rugs, and baskets that can be donated as well. Here is a picture of shopping bags made from old t-shirts.

To go to my facebook page for Peg's Community Clothing Closet https://www.facebook.com/PegsCommunityClothingCloset/

My Clothing Closet is in Full Swing!

 It's been a few months since I opened my clothing closet and it's going great! I had a couple months (September and October) when I had to close it while my daughter was in the hospital, but now that she has recovered, I'm back in the swing of things. I still feel very much that the best way to get through hard times is to pull together as a neighborhood and help each other. It's a sentiment that got a lot of people through the depression and I've seen it since in military communities, but now that we have so much turmoil in our government and programs are being cut left and right, people are having to turn to their communities to get through.

Enter Peg's Community Clothing Closet! Not only am I offering free clothes, but I also have a basket for people to donate canned and packaged food and household items and linens. The people living in my apartment complex and the neighborhood have been wonderful about donating. I started a facebook page and have had a great response from everyone! Peg's Clothing Closet

Here are some of the items I have available right now

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If you live in the Tacoma Washington area, come in and check it out. If you don't, but would be interested in starting one in your own town, do it! It only takes a space (mine is my garage) and some old bookshelves and/or a couple folding tables and you have all you need to get started. You would be surprised how generous people are in donating and how many people in you neighborhood need a little hand up.

A Clothing Closet

I believe that we live in a time when part of being frugal is learning to live within a community and help each other out without relying on government agencies as much. We need to pull our neighbors and ourselves together and look beyond our small differences to a bigger sameness that we all share. I remember living in a neighborhood, while growing up, when we would hand down clothes to families with younger children, give casseroles to the neighbor that just got out of the hospital, and watch each others children when there wasn't time to find, or money to pay for, a babysitter. We seem to have lost a lot of that social ability to live with one another lately.
In that vain, I have started a community clothing closet. I live in a large apartment complex that caters to low income families and they are families that are strapped for money for buying clothing for their children and themselves. My clothing closet has clothes in it for men, women, and children, as well as warm hats and scarves, socks, etc.
So I started by cleaning out the garage and throwing sheets over the items that are stored there and are pushed to the side and back of the garage. I put out some tables and racks that clothes can be stacked on and then raided my closet for what I could give away. I had a bag of clothes that were donated and, even though there wasn't much, it was enough to get it opened. I asked my friend, Steven, to help print me some flyers, set the times I would be open, and then sat and knitted between handing out flyers to people walking by..
At first I was greeted with suspicious glances and people attempting to scuttle past without my noticing. Then people started to stop and chat about what I was doing there. Most were a little confused that I wasn't selling something.
My plan is to be as self sustaining as possible to keep clothing out of our local landfill. I made sure to let people know that I would take clothing that was damaged as well as things that are in good condition, but I made sure that they were aware that the things that I deemed as non-wearable would be reused as crocheted rugs and soft sculptured baskets and that those would also be available for free for people to use in their homes. I also plan to cut down adult sized clothing that is stained or torn and use the good parts to make children's cloths that can be given away. What clothing does not get selected by people will be donated to our local drop off box for clothes instead of thrown out. Only severely soiled clothing that is unsanitary for me to handle will be thrown out.
I started the clothing closet yesterday and handed out flyers, but no one came in for clothes. Today I had a couple people actually look and select things for family members and I got a donation of clothes from a lady. I'm excited that people are taking to my idea!
I also got most of a sock done. I plan to donate them to the cause when they are finished.

Laundry without machines...

My daughter researched online and found this method for washing clothes with a homemade man power washing machine. You buy four big buckets with lids, a pvc pipe gasket and a plunger at the local hardware store. One bucket and lid is used for washing the clothes. You cut a hole in the lid and put a plumbing gasket in it. The stick your plunger through it and put the lid on the bucket. When you get ready to wash the clothes, you put your water and soap in and then put in a load of clothes, put the lid back on and use a churning motion to wash the clothes. We found that putting holes in the plunger helped it agitate the clothes better. I do one round of washing, drain it into the tub, then fill the bucket with water to rinse. I do two rinse rounds before transfering the clothes to the wringer bucket. To wring out your clothes you use one of the buckets without a lid and you drill a few holes in the bottom to allow water to drain out. Inside that bucket you place another bucket with holes in the bottom as well. You fill that bucket with your washed clothes. Then you set the last remaining bucket in on top of the clothes and you put the lid on it. You simply sit on that bucket (I put a cushion on it to make it easier on my rear). When you sit, it pushes the top bucket down onto the clothes which then drain into the bottom bucket and finally out the holes and into the tub to drain. I read while I sit, or wash the next load of clothes. Then I take them into the kitchen where I have my clothes drying rack set up over an old towel and I hang them. It takes about a day and a half for everything to dry (I wring them out a little bit while hanging them because I don't like to sit on the buckets for long).

This is my set up:

My homemade laundry soap is made with:
1cup Borax
1cup washing soda
1cup baking soda
1 grated bar of hand soap (I use Ivory because it's cheap and I do a lot of wash around my place.LOL)
I put all the ingredients in a large plastic tub and stir it together really well. I use an old starch can lid as my scoop.

Turning Old Socks into Gloves

A couple days ago my daughter was wearing some old socks on her hands. She had cut off the foot part of the sock and cut a hole for the thumb and had some instant fingerless gloves and It put the idea into my noggin that I might be able to re-purpose old socks this way. So yesterday I came across some old socks that my son had given me. They were some that a friend had given us a year ago and they were 100% wool, but had been washed and had shrank. They were also felted, but not on purpose, so they were really thick and too small for anyone in the house to wear. I don't know why I hung onto them, but they were definitely ready to be remade into something useful!
First, I cut off the bottom of the sock to just above the heel increases and then cut a hole for my thumb. 
Next, I pulled up stitches with my size 5.0 mm double pointed needles, using some worsted weight yarn. I evenly spaced the stitches around the glove, but didn't need to count them. I knit the first round in stockinette and then did four more rounds using k1,p1 ribbing. Then I bound them off.
Then I used the same worsted weight yarn and a size "H" crochet hook and crocheted one time around the thumb hole in single crochets. I weaved in the ends and I had a fingerless glove! Here's a picture of the finished item!

A Lull in my Blog

I've had a bit of a lull going on lately. Not because my financial life has changed any, I'm still on my tiny fixed income, but because I've been seeking ways to make it grow a little. I opened up my online store again and I've been attempting to get a business going and it's been all consuming. I started by putting a few of my knitting patterns on Ravelry and then decided I should sell the items I've made in order to write the patterns. The problem is that I shared my work on facebook and was inundated with people making orders. I ended up with so many that I ended up closing my Etsy store, just so I could concentrate on the private orders. I'm still playing catch up and had to take a day off today in order to keep my sanity.

I have made a goal that I will not buy any more clothing from a store, with the exception of shoes (I have diabetes and can't afford to take a chance on rubbing a sore on my feet). I bought a pattern to make bras and have found a couple online to make my underclothes. I have a ton of extra fabric that I can use to make my cloths and I'm a notions pirate (I steal things off old cloths to use for new ones; buttons, zippers, etc). I have a working, though not perfect, sewing machine and two old Singers that I keep threatening to fix up. I believe that our society has become too dependent on industry to make our clothing, grow and cook our food, and give us the things we need to clean and maintain our homes. It's time to bring some balance back by doing everything we can to take care of those needs for ourselves.

By the end of this year I hope to be growing and providing some of my own food, making all of my own clothing, and providing all of my own cleaners and cosmetics.

Here is my basic sock patter in case anyone likes to knit and wants to start making their own socks:
Basic knit cuff down socks

Tightening the Belt...again

Things have been a bit tough the last couple months. With Michelle cutting down to a part time job and my check being what it is, we've had to be EXTREMELY frugal. We found a new
market in town, Saars Market, that has bottom of the barrel prices for fruits and veggies and we do a lot of shopping at Wenco where we can shop in the bulk section. We already stay away from processed foods and do most of our own cooking so we can save money (and be healthier).

I made a batch of homemade croutons last night (nothing goes to waste here at the Parson home). Just basically cut up your bread ends and "getting old" buns into cubes, seasoning them, then mixing them by hand with melted butter and spread them on a cookie sheet. I put them in a 400 degree oven and let them bake for about 10 minutes. I let them cool, then store them in an old pickle jar on the counter. They are good on soup, casseroles, and salads.

I'm also on a fix it instead of replace it kick for my family's clothing. That means that I'm doing a lot more mending and sewing as well as reusing old clothing for new things. I made a throw rug for the kitchen and fixed some clothing. I've been researching and bookmarking sites that give mending and sewing advice and have hit the library as well. Michelle had some old work shirts from her previous job that were going to waste so I cut em down and made bags from them. I also cut the sleeves from full to 3/4 length on several button down shirts that I own and that makes them more practical to wear around the house while I work. I researched how to make near invisible patches on jeans and fixed some of Michelle's old pants and took in some skirts that needed repairs done. It is possible to make clothes wearable and last.