Closet Clean-Out: How to Assess the Condition of Your Clothes

If after last week’s post, you’ve decided you’re going to try to sell some of your excess activewear, the next step will be determining the condition of that item.  Accurately representing the condition of your clothes is crucial.  Buyers want to know what to expect, and you as a seller want a smooth transaction and a good reputation.  Accurate and honest disclosures about item condition is pretty much the foundation of the online secondhand community.

If you’re listing an item for sale, you should always, always write a few words about its condition.  Don’t leave potential buyers guessing!  I once made a mistake of buying a pair of shorts on eBay with no description except “lululemon speed shorts”.  They were a great deal, so I wanted to jump on them before someone else did.  Sure enough, they arrived looking like they’d been through the nuclear holocaust.  Stains, chipped zipper, the whole nine yards.  It was awful.  Don’t be that person.

Here’s a checklist of what to look for when you’re inspecting your clothes for wear:

1 | Fading, stains, marks, and discoloration

Starting with the obvious here.  Give each item a good once-over and check for any spots.  Check for sweat stains at the armpits or neckline.  Check for discoloration in areas like sleeve cuffs, pant hems, or waistbands.  Also take note if the colors aren’t as vibrant as they used to be.

Before you call it good, be sure you turn it inside out!  The inside of your clothes can hide signs of wear that you might not notice at first, but a buyer just might.  Check the inside of the hem of a pair of shorts for discoloration.  Make sure there are no pit stains on the inside of your hoodie.  You get the idea.  If you do find a stain, it’s worth taking the time to try to remove it, if you haven’t already.

2 | Snags and holes

Pretty much the same rules apply as above.  Look over the whole body of the item and make sure there are no places where the fabric has been snagged or where a hole might be forming.  Likewise, if there’s a hole that’s been mended, make sure you make a note of that.

3 | Seams

Follow the seams along each item, looking for breaks in the stitching, fuzziness/pilling, or places where it may have even come totally unraveled.

4 | Pilling

Is the fabric still totally smooth, or has it become a little bit fuzzy?  Is there fuzziness all over, or just in places?  Are there places where it’s progressed to all-out pills, i.e., little balls of fabric that are sticking to the fabric?  Check hot spots like underarms and inner thighs.  If you’re not sure whether your item has started to get a bit fuzzy, try comparing it against something in a similar fabric that you purchased more recently.

Another related key word is “stickiness”, which is kind of a precursor to pilling.  Stickiness happens to cottony fabrics like luon or supplex.  Something is called “sticky” when you fold/unfold an item, it literally sticks to itself just a little bit in ways that brand new fabric doesn’t.  When an item becomes sticky, it usually appears just slightly fuzzier to the eye.  A lot of my old lulu cool racerbacks and other luon items are at least a little bit “sticky”.

5 | Design features like zippers and logos

Is the color chipped off of the zipper?  Is the logo cracked or peeling off?  Are there other special design elements that are not looking so hot anymore?  Be sure you take a look at these.

6 | Alterations

Did you get the pants hemmed?  Shorten up a tank top?  Make sure you mention this.

Describing condition when you list

Now that you’ve gathered all this info, how do you actually sum it all up and communicate it with potential buyers?  Here are some key phrases you might use.

New with tags (NWT): the most straightforward of any item condition, this means the item is in flawless condition.  That said, make sure you still check a NWT item for stains and what not that it might have picked up while in your closet.

Excellent condition: if I know I’ve only worn it a somewhat limited number of times and it’s nearly new, I’ll describe it as in excellent condition.

Gently used: I’ll call something gently used if I’ve worn it a fair amount of times, but it’s overall in good shape.  This means it doesn’t have any pilling or stains, but it might show some light, general signs of wash wear.  Maybe the fabric isn’t as crisp or bright as it used to be.  In other words, it might not look like it’s absolutely perfectly brand new, but it’s still very good.

Well-loved: if your item has significantly noticeable wear, this is a gentle way of summarizing that.  Don’t stop there, though.  Be sure to actually describe what flaws it actually has.

Here are some examples of how I might succinctly describe an item:

“Excellent condition, no flaws, only worn a few times.”

“Excellent condition except one tiny snag at the chest, as shown.”

“Gently used, some signs of normal wash wear but no flaws.”

“Pre-loved with some signs of wear including fuzziness at the bum and thighs.  Professionally hemmed by lulu to a 29″ inseam.”

“Signs of wear including some discoloration at pits and sleeves.”

If in doubt, disclose it!  It’s better to say too much and have the buyer be pleasantly surprised than not disclose something and have an unhappy buyer to deal with.  We’ll circle back to this in a future post about how to take good photos for your listings.  Condition descriptions and photos go hand in hand.  We’ll also cover how to determine how to fairly price your item, where to list, and how to package and ship simply and quickly.