So I’ve noticed the last several times I’ve done a load of laundry, that Nathan’s shirts are always turned inside out.  I have this thing about reversing clothes and socks.  I don’t do it.  If either the boys or John take off their socks inside out, they get washed inside out and folded inside out.  Same with shirts, underwear, shorts… They don’t like it when I do that, so they’re careful about how they take off their clothes.

But having to hang Nathan’s shirts inside out hasn’t happened in a long, long time.  So I asked him why, all of a sudden, he was taking off his shirts inside out.

“So the designs on the front last longer,” was his reply.

Most of Nathan’s shirts have printed designs on the front and, apparently he had noticed that they were beginning to fade.  Somehow in conversation with one of his friend,s he found out that by washing the shirts inside out, the design on the front could last longer.

Nathan buys all of his own clothes.  He gets a clothing allowance at the beginning of the school year that needs to last until spring when he’ll get another, smaller, allowance to take him through summer.  The money he doesn’t spend is his to keep.   The deal is, he makes a list of needed items that I approve, and then he goes out and buys the items.  That way he’s not wearing shirts with holes in them just to save the money.

So I found it interesting that since he is responsible for buying his clothes, he wants them to last as long as possible – designs and all.  And it made me wonder that, without this responsibility, would his shirts have ended up in the laundry inside out?