Just in Case (19 page)
2 pairs of jeans (1 flannel lined)
Most of us have an embarrassment of clothing. Current practice often involves two or three different outfits a day, worn for a few hours and then tossed in the hamper to be laundered before another wearing. We have office clothes, gym clothes, party clothes, and clothes to clean the garage in. It is estimated that most people wear 20 percent of their clothing 80 percent of the time. That sounds about right to me. In a crisis, our clothing will be much more than an ornament. We will rely on it to protect us from the elements when the comforts we are used to may be in short supply. You will want to acquire a supply of clothing that is warm and durable and won’t need fussy care to remain presentable. The list given above is my own, appropriate for an adult in a northern climate in the winter.
When we were kids, we were expected to fold our pajamas and put them under our pillows each morning. We washed them by hand and hung them on a drying rack each Saturday. We washed our socks and underwear out each night and dried them next to the parlor stove. We changed out of our school clothes every afternoon and put on our play clothes. Play clothes were washed once a week. Church clothes were worn for two hours on Sundays and rarely laundered. My mother always wore an apron when cooking. Today I have an amazing washing machine and dryer, but I spend more time doing laundry than my mother did. I am not about to give up my laundry room, but I do think we would all do well to ask ourselves how many of our conveniences have actually created more work for us and how many of them we could do without if we had to.
BEDDING