Cupboard love

There are valuable lessons to be learnt from organising wardrobes, discovers Pankaja Srinivasan

May 20, 2015 04:29 pm | Updated May 23, 2015 03:34 pm IST

Sari.

Sari.

It was a spiritual experience as I watched a dear friend organise my cupboard for me!

She did not just pull everything out, fold them and put them back. I do it that way. She counted the number of saris I had, silks, cottons, with zari, without… and piled them up separately on the bed. She then wiped down the inside of the cupboards with first a wet cloth and then a dry one. She spread old sheets on the shelf and placed camphor in the corners. Then she studied the space long and hard and decided I needed more hangers. We bought them. She wiped the hangers clean and began the main operation. My ‘heavy saris’ were separated from the rest and lovingly put into zippered cloth bags. This way they did not hog the hanging space and yet were easily retrievable if I needed them for the rare grand occasion.

First, the silks were hung up. The tussars and the crepes, followed by the lighter and more easily crushed Chanderis and Maheshwaris and finally the malmal’s and other fine cotton saris. My low maintenance workhorses, the sturdy Chettinad and Dharwad cottons that would survive without hangers, were placed on the shelf below. Oh yes, the hung saris were colour coded. They ranged from blacks to the darker shades all the way to my gleaming whites. The fancy blouses were either hung up with the matching saris or put away in another cloth bag, safe and easy to find. Petticoats were discreetly placed in another pile.

I never knew I had that many saris. And I must admit I had a pang of guilt. There were saris there that I had fallen in love with and bought. I had worn them well, but somewhere along the way they had been relegated to the back of the shelf and eventually forgotten. But they were in great shape. I had since bought so many more that I doubted I would wear them again. So when my sister and my friend went oooh and aah I gave them those saris. It comforted me to know that they would wear them and care for them.

As the saris got sorted, hung up and folded and we sipped tea in between surrounded by heaps of cloth, we exchanged stories. There were so many sari stories recalling precious memories… And when we were all done and dusted, we made a pact then and there not to just buy saris on a whim, but to cherish every sari as a salute to those memories and to the art of the weaver. And, just like that, what began as a simple clean-up operation ultimately restored my prized collection of wearable art.

Sari care

Use plastic hangers for the saris. Metal ones may leave rust stains on them

Put away saris that you wear rarely. Like your wedding sari and so on

Choose the way you want to hang them up – by colour, texture or frequency of use

Try and hang up the lighter saris as the creases will fall out more easily

Ensure you do not put a sari that bleeds colour next to a lighter sari

Put your whites away in a separate sari bag

Block printing is a great way of giving an old sari a new look. Or dyeing.

Give away saris that you will never wear, even if they are brand new. Or swop them with friends and sisters who may love them. Sometimes we buy saris that are beautiful but somehow do not work for us. Give them to young women who have just started work and begun to wear saris.

Upcycle those saris that are torn but precious. Turn them into quilts, frame the gorgeous pallus, use the usually sturdy sari borders to attach to other saris or blouses. Turn them into bags or cushion covers or dupattas. Or soft old saris can be turned into baby sheets or even diapers.

Some of the old zari in saris that are falling to bits can actually be sold

There were saris there that I had fallen in love with and bought. I had worn them well, but somewhere along the way they had been relegated to the back of the shelf and eventually forgotten.

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