HOLY Shirts & DEMONIC Shoes

 Bet that title got your attention!!!   Well, let’s get started cause I got a lot of 'splainin to do!

    Remember when Desi would say that to Lucy?  (Showing my age!)

Let’s start with my HOLE-y SHIRTS.  A couple of years ago I began to notice that some of my shirts & sweaters (mostly shirts) had 2-5 tiny holes…and they were always in the same general area around my belly button.  At first I was just aggravated but then as I found more and more hole-y  shirts I also became flabbergasted.  What in the world was going on?  Before I knew it I had had to discard more than a few very good shirts and two or three sweaters. 

I began to research (via Google) to try and solve this mystery.  Lo & behold!  I found that I was only one among MANY that had the same problem but yet no one could come up with a conclusive cause or a solution.  At least I wasn’t in the boat by myself! I also found 2 friends and a niece were having the same problem!

Some of the many thoughts about this “hole” situation were:

*abrasion from car seat belt

         BUT!  I had traded cars and still discovered new holes

*rough place on counter top or sink area

         BUT!  I went over every surface where I knew I leaned against it…and

         I mean I went over it like a detective looking for clues to a serial

        murderer….and found nothing

*a mysterious little bug that….warning! this is yucky!...liked the smell of your belly button

         BUT!  I keep my belly button clean and dust bunny free

*moths

         BUT!  do you really think a group of moths would all get together &

         say, “Now let’s eat holes in this gal’s clothes but let’s only go for the

         belly-button area”???????  I don’t think so!  And besides…I took

         everything out of that closet & washed or dry cleaned EVERYTHING…

         and also fumigated the room (just in case)!

*cheap fabrics

          BUT!  I had it to happen with some rather expensive items

Absolutely nothing seemed to fix the problem.  Well, after discarding at least 20 (if not more) perfectly good shirts & sweaters (both expensive brands like from Talbots and less expensive from places like Old Navy), I thought my problem was solved😊  For the past few months, NO NEW HOLES!  I was elated!  But this week the wind was taken out of my sails because I found holes in two basically new shirts.  One I bought recently from Old Navy; the other earlier in the summer from TJMaxx.  And by the way…why doesn’t my husband get holes in his shirts????

Evidently I like stripes A LOT!

As I was researching solutions yet again today I came across an article you can read here: http://www.cleverly.me/t-shirt-holes/ .  (sorry but I can't get the link to work!)   It basically gives 5 different possible reasons for the #@$#% holes, but I’m not really buying any of them because of the exact reasons I gave in the earlier part of this post.  I’m just still not convinced. 

I also came across a product that is “supposed” to be the cure-all for the problem, but I’m not buying it…literally or figuratively.  It’s these button covers called HOLE' (hole-ay) that you are supposed to put over your buttons/snaps on jeans & pant fronts.  (Reviews say they are hard to get on & off.)  But... (yes another BUT!), I have had holes in tops that I wear only with pants that are slip-ons…no buttons or snaps in sight. 

https://holebuttoncover.com/

I don’t really know what I can do about this problem, but if anyone discovers a cure-all I’ll be first in line to buy it. 

                                    

                             * * * * * * *

NOW….on to those demonic  shoes!  Well, that’s just my term for them because they too have given me the devil in the past year.  

A better term would be crumbling shoes.  Have you ever been walking down the street or in the mall (or in my friend’s case the airport) and you look down and see all these little black pieces of “something” following you like Hansel & Gretel’s trail of crumbs????  If so, you have had crumbling shoes.  (As if crumbled potato chips or crumbled cookies aren’t bad enough!)  

*Disclaimer:  these are not my shoes...borrowed from internet!

Or have you gotten all dressed, ready to go, but have to quickly put on matching shoes before running out the door….only to pull the shoes out of the box and realize they have disintegrated???  

Yep!  I’ve had both situations happen…not pleasant. 

Again let me say I have had this problem with both expensive brands and less expensive ones.  And I’m not in this boat alone either.  GOOGLE “crumbling shoes” or “disintegrating shoes” and you’ll see what I mean!  Many folks have dealt with gooey, delaminating, or cracked shoe bottoms including Clarks, Crocs, and other "comfort" shoes.

But there is an explanation for this phenomenon…just no real solution!!!!

The basic culprit is polyurethane that is inside the soles & heels of shoes (and sometimes upper parts).  The polyurethane degrades through a process known as hydrolysis.  It also seems that storing shoes for a long period of time aids the process.  I have for years stored my shoes in plastic shoeboxes (all nicely labeled, thank you😊)  but now I’m wondering if that is the best thing to do.  (They sure look nice & neat all stacked on my shelves though!!)

One of the main (maybe only) solutions to the issue of crumbling shoes is to WEAR THEM FREQUENTLY.  Seems that wearing them squeezes all the chemicals in there together & this slows down the breaking-down process.  However, I have read in several places that many shoe manufacturers say we should only expect 4 to 5 years of wear!  Are you kidding me???  I still have my BE-BOPS (saddle oxfords) from high school and that was….well, more than a few years ago!  My problem is I have sooooo many pairs of shoes, by the time I get around to wearing all of them the first ones will have disintergrated!!!  (But my shoe inventory is a post for another day.)

A good article to read about the shoe problem is here:

https://www.iol.co.za/dailynews/consumer/want-your-comfort-shoes-to-last-1310918  

I love clothes & shoes in particular, but it sure is disheartening to go to your closet to look for a favorite shirt or just-the-right pair of shoes for an outfit only to find they are no longer wearable.  I’m beginning to think it’s true what we often hear:  They just don’t make things like they used to.  After all, right now in my closet I have 2 pairs of my 90-year-old mother’s high heels that she wore many, many years ago and they look like they just came from the store!

So….have you had either of these problems?  I’d love to hear about it if you have.  And if you find a long-term solution for either situation, bottle & sell it cause you'll end up with more money than if you'd hit that billion dollar lottery...and I'll be your first customer:)