FashBlog.com

By Christina VanGinkel

Teenagers seem to spend a ridiculous amount of money on clothing these days, but with many of them working part and even full time jobs, parents are often reluctant to cut their spending habits. What many could and should be doing though is to make sure that their teenagers learn the value of this money earned and subsequently spent. Teach their kids to take care of their possessions so that in the event their run of money comes to a bump in the road or even an end, they at least have what they did buy, and that it is in a well cared for condition.

Teens often freely share and lend their possessions, and this is fine, but a lesson needs to be learned when lending out items of clothing and accessories. Help your teenagers to come up with some method to keep track of who has what. Something as simple as a notebook can teach your teens how to conveniently know where one of their possessions is.

Laundering clothing is not always as simple as tossing it in the laundry basket. Your teens need to know not only how to read the individual labels on different items of clothing, they need to know how to operate the washing machine and dryer. Take the time to show them the different settings on each, and if there are any attachments that go with them, such as sweater drying racks and no heat cycles. Give them a run down on the different cleaning products also, such as stain removers and bleach, and explain why it is not ok to dump a cupful of bleach into a load of laundry that has even one item of color. Explain to them what may happen if you drop a brand new red shirt into a load of light color clothing.

If storage of their clothing in not optimum, tell them that few items they may wish to invest in are items such as better hangars. Teens often think a hangar is a hangar, period. What they need to know is that a wooden hangar with a wider surface may keep the clothes hanging on it from creasing or snagging as the same item may do on a cheap plastic hangar. Better quality hangars will also keep the clothes on the hangar and not sliding off on top the floor. If shoes are stacked, explain to them about shoe racks and holders. If you live where moths are a concern for stored clothing, go over the effects of cedar and other similar storage options. Make sure they understand if they purchase an item that needs to be dry-cleaned, that this means there is a continual outside cost for cleaning those items.

Do not be quick to pay for all of these upgrades though, because if your teens are spending the money to buy these expensive clothes, they need to learn the cost of the upkeep on them at the same time. You may choose to share in the cost, especially when it comes to something such as cedar lining for a closet, but let them experience the cost difference between plastic hangars that cost 99 cents for a ten pack to $3 or more a piece.