The Great Closet Clean-Out!!!

As I am packing up all my things and sorting through so much since our flood, and cursing my hoarding tendencies daily, I have not faced my master closet until now.

It is true that the more space you find yourself with, the more you accumulate in terms of clothing. (Right Elissa, my wonderful daughter who is so much like me when it comes to closet space?)

As I have written about before, I am admitting I am a hoarder, and I am also a clotheshorse, a shopaholic, and I have been blessed for many years with a closet all to myself that is roughly the same size as a small third bedroom. It had lots of build-ins too, such as purse and shoe racks, dresser, cabinets. It was a dream closet.

Closet blog

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This is it now as I pack it up – a shell of it’s former self. It is long and even goes around a corner for even more space. (Hard to take photos of all of it.) It measures 21 feet long, and at the widest in the rear of it, 10 feet wide.

Of course the dream closet is now a goner, like the rest of my home. It is time to pare down my life, pare down my clothes. I know I can do that. In fact if I live out my running away to Hawaii fantasy, I will only need bathing suits, sarongs and flip-flops, and I have admitted to being willing to do that.

Now, understand, I have done a ton of giving away clothes through the years. Don’t ask me how I still ended up with more and more, but I guess it has to do with those all too frequent shopping trips that ended up with me finding something adorable that I just HAD to have. Note, although I may be 60, that doesn’t mean I have to dress matronly. I love to find cute clothes that make me appear as youthful as I feel, and clothes that are not just ordinary, but have a flair of some kind – that is my specialty because I like unique in every aspect of life.

Except that happens WAY too much. Too many cute things or things with a flair. And sometimes those very things get lost in the shuffle of other things, hardly to be worn, let alone even looked at.

In fact, last year when we had a record number of weddings to attend, instead of buying new formal gowns, I just shopped in the far reaches of my closet and pulled out gorgeous things that thankfully still fit, and recycled wearing them. Everyone thought they were new as they hadn’t been seen on me in a very long time.

I am now finding things worn just a time or two, things with price tags still on that seemed like a good idea at purchase but never saw the light of day for one reason or another.

How ridiculous is that? Well, no more ridiculous than the five 55-Gallon capacity trunks of toys, collectibles and other memorabilia I could not part with. (I’m trying, really I am, and I did get rid of a bunch.)

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So I have taken the great closet clean-out much more seriously than other more sentimental things. I would say I am clearing out at least 50 percent of my stuff, possibly more. I am only keeping the absolute favorites. Of course, there are still way too many of those, but trust me, this is a major accomplishment.

Tons more stuff to donate, to worthy causes. A major lightening of our moving load. A closet that will have room between clothes so they can breathe. And I will still have more than enough to wear through all the events in our lives, and in our busy social life.

So far, this is the ONLY task I have come across where I feel that less is more, while sorting through my life’s belongings. Baby steps I guess, and I am feeling pretty good about it.

 

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