Use Your Neck to Try on Pants

The weather is still great for taking advantage of yard sales and gearing up for the fall. What’s a mom to do when she wants to outfit her brood without the luxury of a fitting room? A tried and true method of checking whether a pair of pants will fit you is to zip and button the front and wrap the waist around your neck.

While you may look silly pretending the pants have turned into a cape, this method really works. If you can get the sides of the pants to meet comfortably, the pants fit! If the sides don’t meet, the pants will be too tight. 

How does this work? It might not be scientifically precise, but the size of your neck does tend be approximately half the size of your waist. Additionally, as a person gains or loses weight, the proportion remains consistent. A body builder or a really thin person might not fit these sizing parameters, but for the rest of us, this is a great way to ensure that a good deal on pants is really a good deal.

My sister has known of this method for years and has advised her yard sailing buddies about it. In fact, some of the sellers in the New Jersey flea market she shops at are now dishing out this advice - because it really does work.

This article first appeared as one of Maribel's blog posts on Chesapeake Family in September 2010