Found Clothes

Only recently I found out that I am not alone, so it would appear, in picking up lost clothes, and other such things, that are laying about.

I had always thought that I must be alone and strange as regards to doing this – not that that would have surprised me one single bit – but, it would seem, that I am not alone. There is even a website, a Typepad Blog, dedicated to the activity of rescuing orphaned clothes, teddies and other items found lost or abandoned. It is rather nice, in a way, to know that one is NOT alone in this after all.

The purpose of this little dissertation, aside from letting you, the reader, know that there are rescue services about for orphaned articles, it is to have a look at and maybe a little discussion about as to the activities of adopting such orphans and what to do with them in the end.

First of all let me say that I find it always amazing to see what does end up left laying around in the way of clothing items, as well as other things. How some people forget things such as those always bets me.

I must say that, even though I do draw and attract some strange looks at times, I tedn to pick up most orphaned items of clothes (toys, dog leads, etc.), as and where feasible and healthy, whether I can personally make use of them or not. Children's clothes, for instance, get washed and stored to go into boxes for Gypsy families in need.

I must say though that I doubt that anyone could make use of the lovely woolen hat (real wool) that I managed to ruin the other day. Why? Well, it was found in the woods and in an attempt to clean it up a little I washed it, even though I used only warm water, in the washing machine and I shrunk and felted it rather heavily. Mind you, it will make a great liner or an egg basket, though, I am sure.

On a more serious note, however, I find that at least by picking the things up and where possible bring them back into use, for myself or others, after cleaning, they are kept out of the landfill sites or the refuse incinerators, in addition to the fact that they are still being used, thus reducing a little the impact on the environment.

Like with many things, if we would not throw them and find a use for them instead we would have far less of an adverse impact on our environment, on Nature, than we do.

Many of those items of “orphaned” clothes, as well as soft toys, and other items, that are being found should never be there in the first place. It beats me how anyone can lose a shoe, as in a single shoe, for instance, or boot. I can understand that one may find a single small child's sock floating about, so to speak, for we all know what little ones, when in their prams, do. They often pull them of and before Mom notices one or both socks are lost. Obviously, Mom is not going to go back looking for one or even a pair of baby's socks: well, seems to be the attitude, we just buy another pair. We shall be looking at uses for such orphaned socks in another article.

In general too it is surprising how such items of clothing – toys again get there often in the same way as the child's socks, namely that they get dropped by the child on the way and no one can be bothered, generally to look for them again – end up where they do end up in the first place. When I pose this question now it is a rhetorical one but, “what is wrong with people nowadays?”

I must say that, when one was raised the way I was in that, firstly, we did not have much, whether in way of clothes, or toys or other, and secondly, when one has the environment in mind and also those less fortunate than oneself, the adopting of orphaned clothes, and other such items, becomes an addiction and an obsession. So, beware. The are now Lost Clothes Adopters Anonymous around; well, not as yet, anyways.

© Michael Smith (Veshengro), March 2008