The clothes we wear can make us feel confident and help us express our inner selves. Unfortunately, our culture of fast fashion produces these garments cheap and fast, adding to the ongoing climate crisis. To lead a more sustainable life regarding clothes, it’s important to consider several things when purchasing and maintaining them. With a little extra care for your clothing, you can extend the life of your garment for years and years.

Here are the five steps you need to follow to make sure your clothes last as long as possible.

Check the quality

Making sure your clothes last starts in the store. Before buying anything, check the seams of the garment you want to purchase. This may sound a little strange, but it can make the difference between a good and a bad purchase. Turning a garment inside out and pulling on any loose strings should tell you if the seams are strong. If anything starts to unravel, don’t buy it.

Inspect the fabric

Hold the garment up to the light. If you can see through it at all, it won’t last. Thicker, heavier fabrics are more durable. It’s better to buy garments made from single fabric components, i.e. 100 percent cotton or wool, as these are more easily recycled. And if you have the opportunity, choose only clothes made of natural fibers since they are more breathable and make you sweat less, meaning you have to wash them less.

Consider how much you will need to wash it

Another way to ensure your clothes last is by asking yourself the question: do you really need to wash them? Washing is hard on clothes, so if you can minimize it, items will last longer. Materials like denim, merino, and sea-weed fiber, are being incorporated more and more into fabrics to extend their washing lives, so keep an eye out for these.

Store your clothes properly

By folding clothes properly and hanging them up nicely, your clothes will last longer.

Embrace repair

Clothes need ongoing maintenance, just as cars do. Don’t neglect that. Taking your clothes to a tailor is one way of maintaining them, but if that’s out of your budget try fixing them yourself. There are lots of videos on YouTube that can teach you how to do it and if you’re friend or relative is well versed in repair, maybe they could show you the ropes.