30 Days of Tips - Modifying Clothing

Tip #3: Let's face it, there are some great deals to be found at The Crap & all its associated venues. The regular stores have decent clearance racks, Old Navy stores have great end-of-season clearance racks & The Crap Outlet almost always has something on sale for 99 cents. Just tonight, they had all women's & girls' sleeveless & tanks on sale for 99 cents & all men's short sleeves for the same. Problem is, when you get them home, they just hang blandly in the closet along with all the other Crap clothes that look the same as the one next to it as the one in the next house over as the one in the house after that. What to do?

Some ideas:

• dye it, one color or tie-dye
• add vintage elements picked up on a thrift or garage sale budget
• add an image to the front using ink jet iron-on transfers
• add an embroidered or knitted shape to the front
• add a fuzzy collar to a plain sweater from that old boa in your daughter's dress up clothes
• cut jeans into capris into shorts
• use advanced sewing skills to turn a dress into a shirt or a tank into a toddler dress
• buy the "tent dress" for $1.99 & use the fabric for a skirt and a shirt and a tablecloth and a dress for your daughter (I must wonder, who really thinks they can wear a "tent dress" well?)

30 Days of Tips - Nine In Nine Out

Tip #2: Who thinks they could use some more space, raise your hand. Who wants a larger mortgage payment, raise your hand. Now who wants more space with the same mortgage payment? Ah ha, now we're talking.

This is your new rule, whatever comes in, the same number goes out. Nine new articles of clothing at Christmas time? Nine articles to Goodwill the day after. Food & other consumables can be an exception.

On a practical note, the system works best if you keep a box somewhere unobtrusive & fill it with your outgoing items, then donate when full.