I was recently impulsive. (Cue: shocked gasp. Wait, was no one surprised?) I agreed to do a spring cleaning. It’s pretty simple and I’ve done it before. You remove 27 items from your home a day for 9 days. Why 27? There was some elaborate numerology thing, but my last experience told me that 27 items is more than just surface junk. It forces you to deal with stuff without spending hours at it. And by the way, if you miss a day, you have to start over at day 1.
Yesterday was day 6 for me. I sorted my dress pants into 3 categories. Category 1: they fit. Category 2: clothes from an era called “When I weighed less.” And Category 3: why the hell do I still own that? Because of my earlier purge, the never-in-a-million- years category only had 5 items. Which then caused me to dither. Do I keep? Do I toss? What am I going to do?
My partner in this exercise is military romance author Cindy Dees. Her response to the question was this: You should only wear clothes that make you happy, and if the unworn stuff made you happy, you would already be wearing it. It’s not about style, it’s about joy.
Clothes = joy? Really? OMG what a revelation! My dress clothes are about appropriate presentation for whatever event. Thanks to some selective shopping, I do have some lovely dress clothes that reflect my joy. I also have a mound of other clothes that are just fine, just not that much fun. The idea that they could be was a shocker! And then I started extending that to all the other stuff in my house.
So guess which items below I’ve given away (or tossed) and which I’ve discovered because I’ve cleaned house.
- Highly rated sci fi thriller book
- Lovely Asian style clothing that carry too much emotional baggage
- Pants that fit-ish.
- Signed celebrity pictures. Anyone else love Nathan Fillian?
- Tournament tee shirts perfect for working out
- That dress that others like but always makes me think I’m dressed as a ‘60s reject
- A Jade Lee caricature.
Answers (one at a time)
- Highly rated books are great. But I don’t like thrillers. So out it went.
- I fit into some of my mother’s beautiful clothing, but her style and mine are not the same. I decided to let others enjoy them instead of having them sit in my closet.
- Unless I love them, even pants that sort of fit are going.
- I adore Nathan Fillian, but it turns out I have no desire to frame and hang his photo on the wall. But a friend of mine has over 300 signed celebrity photos. I gave Nathan to him.
- I threw out most tournament tees, though I kept some as workout clothes.
- This dress has lovely memories. It still goes. I feel too chubby in it.
- A Jade Lee caricature – Found it! Isn’t it lovely?
What have you let go of recently?