Last week I was home with a sick kid for a couple of days so I had the luxury of "nap time" to spend a couple of hours going through my closet, for what feels like the 20th time over the past year. I was shocked at how much more came out, two large shopping bags worth of clothing! And most of it was "hidden" because at first glance the closet doesn't look too much different.
My strategy was to think about a type a clothing (running clothing for example) and think about how many running outfits I really need. On a good week I'm running 4 times a week, on a bad week probably 2, usually in the non-freezing-my-ass-off months I run one or two times outside and the others indoors (although I'm hoping to run more outside, it's been a function of exercising at night time and not wanting to do that outside). I figured we do laundry at our house daily, so it would be reasonable for me to keep 3 indoor/warm weather running outfits and 1 outdoor/cooler weather running outfit (and even that might be more than I need but I'm trying not to make this too painfully hard!). Ends up I had 7 sets of running shorts/outfits and I didn't even know it! Having the limit made it easier for me to pick my top 3 favorites and get rid of the rest.
Another thing I looked at was "lounging around clothing." Apparently I want to be doing more of this than I do because again I had about 6 options for lounging around yoga type pants (2 pairs were from college, which is really just stupid, I haven't worn them in over 10 years!). I allowed myself to keep 2 figuring I could have one for each weekend day (which in reality is the only time I wear them). In addition I got rid of several pairs of pajamas. For some reason I get a little sentimental about pajamas and they generally don't wear out as fast as other clothing so I hold on to them a long time. A few pairs were "matching" with Avery's pajamas, and her sets have been long gone for a few years now and so I don't know why I was holding on to mine! Especially when I'm one of those people who wears old T-shirts to sleep in, why do I have any pajamas at all???
Ok, so here was the biggest (and equally hard) thing to get rid of, but it has been also been the biggest relief, sort of like getting the monkey off my back. I'm getting rid of a velvet quilt (and matching pillow shams) from our bed. I got it from Pottery Barn a few years ago. It was on sale but it still felt like a significant chunk of change for something that essentially served no purpose. When I bought it I did "think" it would serve a purpose but then when I got it I realized how incredibly heavy it was (we already have a duvet and putting the quilt on top was like being smothered). So it got relegated to sort of looking fashionable folded in half at the end of our bed. EVERY NIGHT the heaviness of the quilt pulls the duvet off the bottom of the bed, which means I will wake up with the covers at my waist, shivering and have to sit up to try to forcibly haul them back up which ends up pushing the quilt onto the floor, then in the morning it is a process to get it back on the bed and straightened up. Additionally Howie loves to sleep on it, and it collects cat hair like nobody's business and so I'm always delinting it. I hate doing all of this! For a quilt! Yes I "paid good money for it" (a frequent line in my head that prevents me from getting rid of things from time to time) but it has made me cold and cranky every day! So maybe someone out there who needs a heavy quilt will find it at Goodwill and it will make them happy and warm.
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