Some would argue that hand-me-downs are one of the best ways to acquire new clothes and they are a great way to enhance an existing wardrobe for free. And I agree, so long as the clothes that you receive are ones you would wear and suit your personal style.
But there is an underlying guilt that gets attached to hand-me-downs. Sometimes the receiver feels they must keep what they’ve been given because it would be wrong to offload this generosity somewhere else.
Firstly, I best explain what hand-me-down clothes are. They are the clothes that your mum, sister or girlfriend no longer wear, can’t fit into or don’t like anymore. If you are a mum, they are more commonly known as the clothes you keep for future or current siblings to wear. Hand-me-downs work well for kids because it saves money and as a mum I like to get the best wear out of little clothes because children grow so fast.
When it comes to adulthood, hand-me-downs can work for you or against you.
To make them work for you, you have to sift through what you are given and ignore the urge to hang every hand-me-down in your wardrobe. Especially if you don’t even like the clothes, or they don’t fit your properly.
The gems worth keeping from a hand-me-down pile include
- Clothes that fit you or have the ability to be altered to fit you
- Clothes without pulls, marks, stains or fading
- Staples like white shirts, block colour t-shirts, jeans, fitted jackets that fit you well
- Clothes that fit with your personal style or can be worn with something already in your wardrobe that is your personal style.
Hoarding hand-me-downs is a wardrobe nightmare and I have done wardrobe analysis on clients who have kept every hand-me-down because they haven’t worked out their personal style. Factors like , having no money in the bank to purchase new clothes and feeling guilty in passing the clothes onwards to someone else can cause one to hang on to hand-me-downs.
The next time you are given a bag of hand-me-downs, don’t hoard the contents and fill your wardrobe with clothes that don’t suit you. Keep what you like and fits you well, and then pass them on to someone else who could use them.
Have you ever scored a fabulous hand-me-down? I’m linking up with Essentially Jess for IBOT.