The holidays are when most people finally deal with the clothes that no longer fit, partly because the wardrobe has to make room and partly because there is a reason to look at it. What comes out falls into three piles and only one of them is obvious. The washing you do before any of it leaves the house decides whether it is useful to anyone.
The three piles
Everything that comes out of a wardrobe in a clear out is one of three things, and sorting first saves doing the work twice.
The first pile is good clothes that no longer fit. Nothing wrong with them at all. They simply do not fit the person any more, and they are worth real effort because someone else will wear them.
The second is clothes that still fit and are finished. Thin at the elbow, grey at the collar, elastic gone. These are not a donation, whatever they look like on a hanger.
The third is the pile nobody wants to make a decision about, which is why it goes back into the wardrobe every year. Set it aside and come back to it at the end rather than letting it stall the whole job.
Do the sorting before the washing. Washing things you are about to throw out is a wasted evening.
Why washing clothes that no longer fit matters
Anything going to another person or to a donation point gets washed first, and this is not a formality.
Clothes come out of a wardrobe carrying whatever was in the air where they were stored, plus body oil from the last time they were worn, which may have been two years ago.
Body oil left in fabric darkens as it sits. That is what turns an unworn white shirt yellow at the collar while it hangs in the dark, and the yellowing was not there when the garment went in.
So something that no longer fit and went to the back of a wardrobe clean can come out looking dirty, and washing it now usually brings most of it back.
There is also the plain courtesy of it. Someone receiving clothes should not have to wonder, and a donation point that has to wash what it receives mostly stops receiving it.
Wash it, dry it fully, fold it. That is the whole standard.
Worn out, or only tired
This is the judgement that decides most of the piles, and it is easier than people make it.
Tired means the fabric is intact and the surface is not. Pilling, dull colour, a stiff feel, a grey cast on white. All of that is deposit and abrasion on the outside of the fibre, and all of it can be improved.
Worn out means the structure has gone. Hold the garment up to a window. If the weave has thinned enough to see light through the elbow, the seat or the knee, that is structural and no wash fixes it.
Check elastic separately. Waistbands, cuffs and sock tops fail long before the cloth does, and a waistband that has lost its recovery is finished even if the garment looks new.
Check the seams from the inside. Puckering, a seam that has pulled open once and been sewn, and fabric fraying at the seam allowance all say the garment is near the end.
A smell that survives a proper wash is the other one. If something has been washed well and still smells when it is warm, it has residue deep in the fibre and it is not going to become anyone else’s good shirt.
What is not worth passing on
Some things should go to textile recycling rather than into a donation bin, and being clear about it is a kindness to whoever has to sort it.
Underwear and socks with wear in them. Anything with a hole, a permanent mark, or a broken zip you are not going to replace.
Anything that smells after washing, anything with fabric that has gone thin and shiny, and anything with a mark you have already tried on twice.
Most textile recycling takes all of this. It does not have to be wearable, but it does have to be clean and dry, and that is the rule that catches people out.
Single shoes, damp anything, and things that have sat in a garage long enough to smell of the garage are the usual rejects.
Getting a tired garment back
A surprising number of things in the middle pile are worth one attempt before you decide.
Start with a wash in warm water with no fabric softener and a proper rinse. A lot of what looks like age is softener and mineral built up over years of washing, and it comes off.
Half a cup of washing soda in the wash cuts through built up deposit on cotton and is the single most useful thing for a dingy white.
Pilling comes off with a fabric shaver, and ten minutes on a knit changes how it reads completely.
Something that has gone stiff usually rinses back to softness with a second rinse and less detergent, not more of it.
Give it one go. If it comes out the same, the question is answered, and it cost you one cycle to know.
What to do with the rest
The undecided pile is mostly about whether a garment will be worn again rather than whether it can be.
A useful test is the last time rule. If you cannot remember wearing it, and it has sat through a whole season untouched, it is not waiting for an occasion.
Things kept for a reason and never worn are worth naming honestly. Something kept for a size other than the one you are wearing today is a decision rather than a wardrobe item, and it does better in a labelled box than on the rail taking the space.
Pieces kept for sentiment are not a laundry problem. Wash them, dry them completely, fold them with nothing acidic touching them and put them somewhere dry and dark. A sealed plastic box in a hot garage is the one place they should not go.
Everything else goes. What you are left with is a wardrobe that fits, which was the point of the exercise.
Common questions about no longer fit
Do I really need to wash clothes that no longer fit before donating them?
Yes, and most places ask for it. Clothes stored for a year or two come out carrying body oil from the last wear and the smell of wherever they were kept, and a wash usually brings both back to a state where someone will actually take the garment.
How can I tell whether something is worn out or only looks tired?
Hold it up to a window. Thinning you can see light through at the elbow, seat or knee is structural and permanent. Pilling, dullness and a stiff feel are surface problems and usually come off with one proper wash.
What should I do with clothes that no longer fit and are too worn to give away?
Textile recycling takes them, including odd socks and items with holes in them. The one requirement is that they are clean and completely dry, so wash them along with everything else rather than bagging them straight off the floor.
Is it worth washing something before it goes into storage?
Always. A garment put away unwashed is the one that comes out yellowed at the collar and under the arms, because body oil left in cotton darkens as it sits. Washed, dried fully and stored somewhere dry, the same garment comes out much as it went in.
The Sacramento part
Hard water is the local factor that runs through all of this, and it explains a lot of what people find in a clear out here.
Central Valley water carries a real mineral load. Over years of washing, that mineral deposits in cotton and stays there, and it is the main reason a shirt that was white when it went into the wardrobe reads grey when it comes back out. That is not wear. It is build up, and it comes off with washing soda and a long rinse.
The same deposit is why so many things in the middle pile feel stiff rather than soft. A garment washed a hundred times in hard water with fabric softener has a layer on it that has nothing to do with the age of the fibre. Before deciding a towel or a shirt is finished, give it one wash with no softener, a small dose of detergent and an extra rinse.
Storage is the other half of it here. Summers are long and hot, and a garage or an attic runs far hotter than the house for months at a time. Heat ages elastic faster than wearing it does, which is why waistbands on clothes that no longer fit and have been boxed in a garage are often gone before the garment was ever worn out.
Where a clear out actually gets washed
A clear out produces more laundry in one evening than a household normally makes in a week, and all of it wants a full rinse rather than a full drum.
The machines at our self-service laundry on Watt Avenue take four or five loads at once with water to spare, and that water volume is what carries mineral and old detergent out of cotton that has been sitting in a wardrobe for two years.
Our machines and the store are cleaned daily.
Our wash-dry-fold service covers the everyday laundry.
For general guidance, The American Cleaning Institute publishes a fabric care guide that is a useful cross-check.
The short version
A holiday clear out produces three piles. Good clothes that no longer fit and someone else will wear, things that are genuinely finished, and the pile you keep putting back. Sort before you wash, because washing what you are about to discard wastes an evening. Anything going to another person gets washed, dried fully and folded, since stored clothes carry body oil that yellows cotton as it sits. Hold a doubtful garment up to a window. Light through the elbow or the seat is structural and permanent. Pilling, dullness and stiffness are surface problems and usually come off with one wash with no softener and an extra rinse.
WaveMAX Sacramento is at 2428 Watt Ave, easy to reach from Sacramento and the surrounding area. If you have a load that will not fit at home, call us at 916-873-3017.