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[thburns]

It may be a simple answer but it's eluding me.
Is there any way to separate x or XX clothes from the rest? ya know have them in their own stockpile and bins, other than this disorderly mess of taking every clothing bin to the trader to get rid of old clothes. I know I could set a refuse pile so they deteriorate but... I want ma trade goods. 

[FuzzyZergling]

There's no way to sort them, that I know of.

[Vndetta]

Unfortunately not. You can search for "x" in the trade goods screen, but it's been my experience that anything in a bin (and possibly anything marked as "owned", actually on a dwarf) will not show up. To fix this you could disallow bins in the clothing stockpile, I suppose, but I always end up finding a ton of worn clothing in all my dwarves' cabinets that doesn't seem to show up to trade anyway.

I take the difficult route and go to the Stocks menu ("z") and visit each category of armor, headwear, etc. and manually scan the list for anything starting with x, then I mark it for dumping. I've got a 1x1 dump zone next to my trade depot, so all the worn clothes get taken off and dragged up there (and then forbidden so no one else claims them). It can take quite a while, but if you do this periodically (or when a caravan shows up, for example) it gets a bit faster.

[thburns]

I don't have a problem finding them in bins. Honestly the bin bugs are something I haven't run across yet, woohoo!
Hopefully this is something they will implement though.

[Hyndis]

If dwarves have personal rooms they will endlessly hoard clothing in their rooms. If a dwarf has been living in the same room for 75 years in a long running fortress, its like an episode of Hoarders. Its seriously bad.

If an item is laying around on a tile that is not in a room the dwarf owns, ownership will be revoked after a month or two. Then it will be hauled to a stockpile like any other regular clothing item.

There are two ways you can go about clothing. One way is to have a stockpile that accepts clothing, bins, and it also a refuse stockpile. Be sure all refuse options are disabled. All clothing will slowly and quietly rot away in this stockpile over time. However you must also be continually producing new clothes. The idea is that when a new clothing item is made, it is instantly claimed if there is a demand for it. If no one needs it, or there is old clothes laying around, it will go into the stockpile where it quietly rots away to nothing and vanishes.

Downside to this is that you must continually produce cloth and clothing. Upside to this is that you very quickly get legendary weavers and tailors, and cloth items can be an extremely valuable trade good.

The other option is to not flag the clothing stockpile as a refuse stockpile. Clothing will accumulate here, but that is okay. Produce new clothing as needed, but also decorate clothing with cloth or leather. Then use this pile of masterfully decorated tattered clothing as an export good. The traders don't seem to care how tattered it is.


IMO, dwarves should discard worn clothing in favor of new clothing. A dwarf should not want to keep tattered socks around in their rooms forever. If they get new socks, old socks are no longer needed. Clear ownership of old clothing so it can be hauled back to a stockpile.

Also there should be an option to repair clothing. A new job that requires some portion of a piece of cloth or leather and done at a clothes making workshop or leather workshop. It should return worn items back to full quality by fixing any damage to them. Also this should be an [AUTOMATIC] job, so tailors will automatically patch up any old clothes. Once repaired, it will be returned to a stockpile. If a dwarf needs new socks, they will swap out their old socks with freshly repaired socks, and then the old socks will go in for repair.

[Finn]

Of course you can do it, this is Dwarf Fortress!

There are two different ways to separate old clothes from new clothes.  Which one you use depends on whether you are trying to sort clothes that are already combined, or if you are trying to keep them separated as they are manufactured/used. 

Keeping newly made clothes separate from old worn clothes:
Normally this could be accomplished with two stockpiles, however because of the bin bug if you want to store the worn out clothing in bins you need to use three stockpiles.  It is pretty simple.

Step 1:  Clothier -> Stockpile A
Stockpile A accepts clothing (obviously), is linked to t)ake from the clothier and is set to a)ccept from links only.  Now this stockpile will contain only brand new clothing that comes out of the clothier.  No other clothing will be put here.  This stockpile can be set to allow bins or not, depending on your preference.

Step 2:  Stockpile B
Stockpile B is a clothing stockpile that a)ccepts clothing from anywhere.  Because of the bin-bug this stockpile must have bins disabled.  Now all the other discarded clothing in the fortress will be carried to this stockpile.  Voila, new clothes in stockpile A, worn clothes in stockpile B

Step 3 (Optional):  Stockpile C
Stockpile C is optional and only used if you want to get the worn clothing into bins without triggering the bin-bug.  Stockpile C is a stockpile that allows bins but is linked to take from Stockpile B and set to a)ccept from links only.  This is the stockpile that would be located next to your depot.

The general concept to avoiding the bin-bug, is that any stockpile that allows bins cannot be an "a)ccepts from anywhere" stockpile.  It must be restricted to "a)ccepting only from links".  Otherwise the dwarves will pick up a bin half-full of XTroll fur sockXs, march over to your new clothes pile, fill the bin and carry it back to the old stockpile.  Very annoying.

How to separate new clothing from worn clothing after they are mixed:

There is a little labor in this, but it works.  Let's assume you have a bunch of bins that have a mixture of new and worn clothing in them.  Here's how  you can separate them out again.

Step 1:  Get your dwarves to d)ump everything.   Build a dump in a convenient spot and disable all your other dumps.  Mark all the items for dumping.  If they are in bins, you can use d-b-d which will mark the bins and everything inside, and then k) over the bins and press d) to unmark the bin itself.  Your dwarves will empty all of the bins/stockpiles to the dump and carry the empty bins away to wherever bins are stored.  Note: it is important that you unmark the bins themselves, otherwise the dwarves will just carry the full bin to the dump without emptying it. 

Step 2:  Getting the new clothes out of the dump and back to Stockpile A.  This is a little tricky so be careful.  Temporarily break the link between Stockpile B and Stockpile C.  (Remember, Stockpile B accepts clothing from anywhere but does not allow bins.)  Ideally Stockpile B should be empty when you do this, but it's not necessary.  Now link Stockpile A to take from B.  Then k)ursor over the dump and go through it and un-forbid all of the new clothing.  Each piece will be carried to B and then subsequently to A.  Wait until all the new clothes are out of the dump (or until A is full).  Unfortunately, any worn clothing that happens to be discarded while this is happening will get caught up in this cycle and also moved to B and then A.  So put the links back the way they were, and then go through stockpile A and re-dump any worn clothes.  When your dwarves are finished with that, all the new clothing will be back in Stockpile A and all the worn clothing will be forbidden in the dump. 

Step 3:  Getting the worn clothing out of the dump and into Stockpile C.  This last part is easy.  Make sure you put the links back the way they were before Step 2, so C takes from B again and A only takes from the clothier.  Now reclaim all the worn clothing in the dump and your dwarves will move it to B and then C. 

[Rutilant]

I do this:  My clothes output goes to one stockpile, that only accepts from links.  That's my in fortress clothing supply.  It's the only place unforbidden, unbroken clothes are available.

I have another stockpile that accepts all clothes but is also a refuse stockpile.  Any clothes that has its ownership expire gets moved here and they rot away to nothing in weeks.  Requires very little micromanagement, aside from cabinets if you're bothered by clothes on the floor.

Bonus points - have this refuse-clothes stockpile get minecarted to dump into magma.  Foreign or broken clothes show up?  They automatically go away without any intervention besides unforbidden.  Make sure you disable artifact level quality on this stockpile if you do this, in case of fey socks.

[thburns]

It's so simple. Thanks guys (especially ya last two). It's actually pretty obvious once your told, because it's just the same as sorting other things. Haha, my forts from now on will be even ore efficient. Hmmmm, Dwarfficient!

[Hyndis]

Only problem with magma is that masterwork items will cause an unhappy thought if they are destroyed. If a masterwork item rots away on a refuse stockpile it does not cause an unhappy thought.

You could have a mine cart dump onto a tile that is a refuse stockpile, where the clothing will rot away.

Alternatively, have only a single stop on the mine cart route. The mine cart is loaded with clothing from a clothing stockpile that doesn't use bins. This is so bins do not go into the mine cart. Zone a 1x1 refuse stockpile under the mine cart.

The clothes will then rot away inside the mine cart. While clothes inside bins inside a mine cart will also rot away, the problem with this is that eventually the mine cart gets filled up with empty bins and can accept no other clothes.

[Sutremaine]

Step 1:  Clothier -> Stockpile A
Stockpile A accepts clothing (obviously), is linked to t)ake from the clothier and is set to a)ccept from links only.  Now this stockpile will contain only brand new clothing that comes out of the clothier.

You could also make the stockpile not accept clothing, and then the goods will stay in the clothier's. As they get claimed and removed, any clutter will slowly decrease.

[Vndetta]

Well, the original poster mentioned wanting the clothes for trade goods, so while letting them rot away is a great solution to be rid of them, it's not quite ideal for trading, as the value decreases steadily as they become more tattered. For trading purposes, the best option is to trade them away as soon as they hit the first tier of wear.

I spent the last couple days setting up an elaborate jeweler area with minecart quantum stockpiles and so forth, setting everything up meticulously to give/take clothing so all worn clothes get decorated before trading. No matter how careful I was, though, there was always a problem. I really wish there was some sort of option that we could enable to tell a workshop to "Give" to a stockpile and still allow it to "Take" from anywhere... right now it seems as soon as a workshop is "Giving" to a pile it won't "Take From Any Pile", any longer, even if you have no "Take" stockpile set at all.

[thburns]

Yes that is rather annoying. Almost killed a fort early because of that. Set up stills with a stockpile of plants giving to them. But couldnt figure out why the brewing kept getting cancelled when i had plenty of empty barrels. Took a while to figure out they also need a stockpile that has empty barrels giving to them too.

[Sutremaine]

I really wish there was some sort of option that we could enable to tell a workshop to "Give" to a stockpile and still allow it to "Take" from anywhere... right now it seems as soon as a workshop is "Giving" to a pile it won't "Take From Any Pile", any longer, even if you have no "Take" stockpile set at all.

You could use an intermediate stockpile.

Workshop -> workshop's private stockpile -> general stockpile <- anywhere