Ever have one of those days when a dirty clothes pile has gotten out of control and then realized when folding laundry that comfort clothes suitable for tasks ranging from sleeping to painting to hard labor outnumber regular clothing 5 to 1? Out of embarrassment and/or shame, the jobless will head straight to their closet and try on whatever they’ve shunned in their unemployment (anything without elastic waistbands and buttons) and realize with horror they can no longer fit into their clothes due to unemployment weight gain. With no real reason to invest in a new wardrobe of fancy clothes they have no occasion to wear, and no money to pay for it anyway, unemployed people will resort to crafty means to obtain “new” clothes. Because sometimes all it takes to feel confident and human is a nicely assembled, non ill-fitting outfit.
The problem with attending a clothes swapping party is that after months of prolonged unemployment and having no money to buy clothes, whatever the unemployed own that fits well enough for them to wear on the rare occasions they leave the house have a tendency to be worn out. Then all the ill-fitting outfits either have too pungent of a “closet or musty drawer” smell to be brought to the party without first doing laundry, or they’ve been nicely modified by hungry moths. And of course actual work clothes, no matter how much the unemployed muffin top out of them, can’t be swapped because if and when a new job is obtained, there’s going to be lag time before receiving the first paycheck so old work clothes will have to be worn until new ones can be bought. In the end, the unemployed will usually show up to the clothes swap party late, hoping all the other participants will have consumed enough alcohol to not notice what they have to offer. While the other swappers reach for another drink, the unemployed will sneakily go for the good stuff and pray that someone else will take mercy on their offerings and find their Google - I’m Feeling Lucky shirt worth trading for, “because wouldn’t it be hilarious to wear this to bed?”
Tags: clothes swap party, desperate and unemployed, unemployment shame, unemployment weight gain
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When my post-grad unemployment started, I exercised like crazy and got into the best shape of my adult life. Then I realized that the vast majority of my clothes no longer fit — even the important ones like my one pair of interview slacks — so I promptly gained it back. I fantasize about the Salvation Army shopping excursions of days past.
You have described my wardrobe exactly! My work clothes are out of date and worn, and I can’t afford new ones so I’ll have to find something from the old ones if I ever get an interview. However, I’ve gained weight and can’t even wear most of the ones I have. I wear t-shirts and jeans every day, something I have never done in my life, in order to “save” the few nicer things that I can still get into. It’s embarrassing! I was feeling all alone in this dilema. Thanks for your blog!
I recently lost ~15 pounds due to an illness, and while I should probably gain at lest 5 back to be healthy, I think I’m just going to gain it all back so I can actually fit in my clothes. There’s no way I could afford to replace all of them… and besides, I LIKE my clothes. Maybe if I had a regular job… but then again, being sick for a month straight probably would have cost me any full-time job I might have had anyway, so it was well-timed (other than the medical bills my family is now shouldering.)