1 years worth of Clothes?

[judicatr]

I happened to come across this article and it got me to thinking about clothing following a crisis.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/12/living/mi ... =allsearch

I think it’s possible that following a crisis event your clothing may be damaged, or destroyed, or otherwise unavailable. As clothing is the first level of protection against the elements; what clothing following a crisis (anywhere from personal to global – you choose) would you want on hand? What if you’re traveling, at the office, or away from home?

In my profession I teach and have been taught to think about this question in terms of environment: Cold Wet, Warm Wet, Cold Dry, Warm Dry. Each environmental condition requires a different “ensemble” to be sure but here’s a few things I almost always try to wear when I’m out in the bush. Mostly this list was developed from my back country experience – following a disaster things would likely have to be adjusted depending where I am and what I happen to be doing. I offer it for your consideration.

1) Footwear – A good pair of walking or hiking shoes – for obvious reasons in either a back country camping or post SHTF. I’ve worn out a good number of military style boots hiking; some are much better than others. For the summer months like now I’ve really taken to my Merrel Moab hiking shoes.

2) UDT Shorts - If I’m going to be doing a lot of water crossings on a river or be in places I may need to (try to) dry my clothes like a rain forest, or a beach; I generally wear a pair of UDT shorts under my trousers. My companions generally appreciate me parading around in those more than they would my undies or, God help us all, a pair of tiny Speedo swim trunks (why are they so popular on European beaches?).

3) Riggers Belt and “Drive On” Rag - I generally wear a riggers belt to hold up my trousers, but I also run a “drive on” rag (military triangular bandage) through my belt loops. I’ve found that the drive on rag is terribly handy for dealing with everything from handling hot pans on the fire to a sling for an injured arm to a bandana for protecting my neck from the sun.

4) Flight or shooting gloves - I also carry a set of nomex flight gloves or something similar. Whether I’m in the desert around my home or in the rain forests near the Columbian / Ecuadorian border it seems like everything has a thorn on it, so a pair of thin gloves saves my delicate paws. Be warned though, these sorts of gloves are expensive and wear out quick when put to hard use. Luckily I can snag an extra pair from work from time to time.

5) Hat & sun glasses – My local area of operations sits between one to two miles above sea level and the sun is intense. A ball cap or bush hat is a necessity if I’m going to spare my increasing bald head skin cancer. Flipped over it makes a nice if somewhat leaky sink for splashing water on the face from a mountain stream. At night a watchman’s cap is essential – in the summer assuming your cloths are going to be mostly dry I carry it in place of a jacket. Mostly because I lose a lot of heat from my head (again for lack of hair). As for glasses I carry a stylish but cheap set. I got tired of seeing my expensive sun glasses ruined or lost, which I sadly did a lot of.

6) Desert Rag or Shemagh – Do you know where your towel is? Thank you Douglas Adams. Seriously though a desert rag or a Shemagh is a lovely bit of kit back county or post SHTF. I use mine as a portable evaporative cooler, just wet and wrap around neck or head – lovely in hot dry places. But I’ve also used them as a scarf and as a, you guessed it, a towel.

Well that’s probably good enough for now. Any thoughts on clothing for back county or post SHTF events? And, back to the article, could you go for a year with only 10 items in your wardrobe?

Your American Friend

[Hamradioop]

As usual an interesting post from judicatr.

In my car I keep a holdall with my emergency clothes in a Water proof jacket and trousers, several base layer t shirts, 3 mid layer Fleeces , underwear x3 and socks x3 This is an additional item to my BoB and has several back up BoB items.

[sfcfinchrs]

Good post - judicatr

Sometimes we forget somethings as important as this.

We have been buying up surplus stuff for this for a while now.

[Mally]

Great post this.
I often think about what would happen if the shtf when we're at our most vulnerable.
Maybe on a night out or at a wedding reception ot something.
Although not ideal, I have trier to compensate somewhat for some of the vulnerabilities there would be.
I always wear good strong boots. They may not be my boot of choice for my ventures but I'd be happy to be wearing tem in a crisis.
Coats. I have 3 different khaki coats for different types of event. They are all 'water resistant'. My oldest and scruffiest I wear for gigs and stuff. Next one up for the pub and then a smartish one. They are all load carriers with lots of pockets. In the pockets are a thermal hat, a cap for my bald head, gloves and sometimes a scarf, along with othet bits of kit.
I wear a fleece under the coats. Summer makes it mote difficult to stick to this of course, with the exception of the boots.

[redskies]

Clothes are not a problem for us. I have my own loom (a home built, very simple one) and know how to process things like nettles to produce a good fabric. Also have a spinning wheel and carding drum to produce the threads needed. There isn't much I couldn't make if we needed it.


It could be well worth your time to look up warp weighted looms, drop spindles/rakestraw spinners and fibre processing. If you build a 6ft tall, 60ins wide frame loom, you can produce almost anything you need on it once you understand how it works - and it's not difficult either. Such looms have been used for thousands of years and can, with practice, produce some very good textiles. The Navajo would make a loom using a tree with a branch at a right angle to the trunk. Add another branch and you've got a frame, and that's your loom, ready to use.

[damaralenoire]

I have in my car boot a good pair of walking shows, spare t shirt and spare pair of jeans, but in fact a couple of weeks ago i was at a local auction and actually purchased a box of 25 t shirts for £8 whoch are now vacumn packed and in my prep cupboard. i have been keeping a look out for bargain buys like this for a while as my prepping plans also cover local disasters / emergency and they could very well come in handy for others.

[bladefalcon]

Here I'd like to make the case for Levi Strauss jeans.

Some consider them "the real deal", and having bought a pair three years ago I'd be happy to agree. They've been with me everywhere, alpine climbing, on the farm, hiking.

The black needs re'dying to be honest as it's started to fade a bit, but I can vouch for the fact that nothing else I've worn has withstood a battering of three years like those Levis!

[Arzosah]

Brilliant posts here thanks for starting it, judicatr ...

I've not done a huge amount of prepping in relation to clothes, actually, other than not throwing anything anyway for a while what I need to do is get everything out of the wardrobes and the chest of drawers and *choose* whether or not to put it back. That will be a good start.

Then ... conserving/mending what I've got so that I can spend as much as possible on stuff that fills the gaps - I can't walk that far, because of arthritis in the balls of my feet, but I need walking boots. More quality socks to go with ... more trousers/jeans too, I think.

Oh dear. I think I should stop here and repeat: I've not done a huge amount of prepping in relation to clothes Must do better.

[judicatr]

Arzosah et. al.

I concur a lot of good posts here.

Hamradioop wrote about having three of this and three of that so far as clothing goes. That caught my attention. Once again I point to my professional experience...

On occasion my agency deploys to assist in natural disaster response operations, when we do we operate on the rule of 3's. 1/3 of the team is working, 1/3 is on "ready" status to immediately assist as necessary, and 1/3 resting. Also we can deploy and operate for 3 days completely independent of any outside support from FEMA, etc.

And finally, and why I mention it in the context of clothing, we mandate that one full set of clothing is worn, one is ready and one is being laundered (plus a few extra pairs socks and undergarments)

I've used that system quite a bit when traveling (personally and professionally) and would recommend that as a base line when considering how much clothing one might be need post SHTF.

Just a thought,

Your American Friend

[FEISTY]

Here I'd like to make the case for Levi Strauss jeans.

Some consider them "the real deal", and having bought a pair three years ago I'd be happy to agree. They've been with me everywhere, alpine climbing, on the farm, hiking.

The black needs re'dying to be honest as it's started to fade a bit, but I can vouch for the fact that nothing else I've worn has withstood a battering of three years like those Levis!

I've never come across a pair of 8 petite Levi Strauss jeans, so I can't say personally they are better, although I would not disagree. I would make the comment that, in all my dealings with the Guides, Scouts and DofE, jeans are a definite no-no when it comes to hiking and camping, mainly because they either take forever to dry or mightn't dry out at all. My daughter is soon off for a fortnight 5,000 miles away and will be doing a wild variety of things, including camping and the edict is, as always, don't bring jeans.

Re the black jeans, I wash most things inside out, especially jeans (if you've ever had those white crease lines appear, you'll know why). Some things, including black jeans, I wash on 30 degrees with non-bleaching detergent. Higher temperatures seem to leach out more of the colour, faster. My daughter was given designer black jeans from John Lewis at Christmas. They are still inky black. Ladies, the only way I've found to keep white bras white is to wash them separately in the machine at 30 degrees with Bio detergent and a little white fabric conditioner. I add half a scoop of Vanish Crystal White, but that's overkill. If there is any colour in there at all (ie a white bra with red hearts), add a colour run sheet, just to be safe. After years of washing at 40 degrees, hand washing, you name it and still getting grey bras, this works. I think the biggest factor is the temperature affecting the elastic. I believe if they are already grey, you can dye them "nude" with a tea (used teabags) solution. I'm quite proud of being able to keep clothes going for a long, long time, by sewing buttons and hems, fuzzball shaving. etc, etc. I don't know whether it's old-fashioned to take laundry so seriously , but even though we can afford nice things, we don't take them for granted and I can't believe how much stuff people toss out.