a big “thank you” and “good job!” to everyone who has been responding to these posts with their own clean-out journeys. it’s very encouraging to know i’m not alone and to feel that i’ve inspired even one person to try the same thing in their own home is highly motivating to me!

here are some thoughts that maybe everyone else will think, “well, duh” but were revelations to me:

So every once in awhile, I remember to really clean out my fridge.  When I have the time to do it right, this means taking everything out, wiping down the shelves, throwing away any mysterious things or anything else that i know will never get eaten and then putting the good food back in. This purge feels like I’m finally doing that process to my whole house for the first time ever and it’s driving me crazy to look around and see all of the stuff that’s the equivalent of “mysterious fridge things” that are taking up room in my house.  And to also realize that maybe, JUST MAYBE, instead of keeping food just because it hasn’t spoiled yet, perhaps my criteria should be, “am I (or anyone else in my house) excited to eat this food?” because if not, then it will just take up room in my fridge until it molds and only then will it get tossed. With sincere apologies to my Depression Era grandparents and to all of the people in the world who do not get enough food to eat on a regular basis, I don’t think that holding on to leftovers that were only grudgingly tolerated during their original meal is helping anyone. But this series isn’t really about my fridge or about food, it’s about my house, so in this instance, what I’m really talking about is stuff that’s in my house that no one really loves but it’s still functional. Argh.  Still flying right up into the heart of privilege here, but let’s talk about my bathroom hand towels, shall we?

I probably own about 7? And of those, most are stained or have bleach spots (which are a mystery to me.  I don’t use bleach ever.  Does whitening toothpaste also bleach fabric? And if so, which one of my family members is getting toothpaste all over the towels?). I am itching to go through the whole linen closet and get rid of everything that I don’t love (pilly flannel sheets, I’m looking at you!) because while many of these items are technically still serviceable, I cringe every time we have to use them.  But if that means replacing them with higher quality pieces (I’m really curious to know whether the Garnet Hill flannel sheets would be less pilly than the cheap-o Target ones I get once a year*.  I’m open to recommendations!), I am able at this point in my life to be able to make that choice and spend a bit more to get really quality pieces.  But does that fly in the face of my Simple Living upbringing?

*note: after writing this reflection, i did go ahead and order a set of garnet hill flannel sheets that were on sale.  i’ve washed them once (turning them wonderfully soft) and they’re on our bed now and i am loving them!  of course, the true test is how i’ll feel about them in a year or so, but they’re already behaving better than the cheap-o ones do, so i’m optimistic.

Purge, part 2:  pants, skirts and dresses

As I pulled these items out of my closet and dresser, I thought, oh, this isn’t that much…. then I’d remember another stash of items.  Some are in the “too small but I LOVE them” stash, some are in the laundry, some were in the workout clothes box…  I’m worried that NONE of my pants fit right now.  The pile is larger than I thought it would be (again).  We’ll see how small it gets….

Afterwards:

okay.  interesting. We purged three plastic tubs worth of stuff. now I have 2 pairs of jeans, two pairs of leggings (sort of three, but only two of them could also be pants), two pairs of corduroys and two pairs of colored jean-weight pants. Listing it all out like that sort of sounds like a lot of pants, but that is WAY fewer pants than I have ever owned before.  (oh, and i guess I still have some work-out/PJ pants and some summer capris/shorts if we’re listing everything)  And Mo says I can’t buy more pants without also weeding a pair.  But honestly, unlike with the tops, I don’t feel like there are any gaping holes in my pants wardrobe that need to be filled with new purchases.  weird.  We’ll see how I feel about it in two weeks.  We also sorted through skirts and dresses and I feel like I did pretty well with decreasing those.  Most of my skirts ended up in the summer box (I have only one tailored skirt for professional wear that is still in my closet) and my dresses are only the ones I REALLY love (we even got rid of two that I thought I loved, but when I tried them on, I realized that they didn’t fit me as well as I’d thought they had).

here are all of my pants, folded in the “konmari” method.

Thought-provoking quotes from Mo this time —

“if you spend less time shopping for clothes, maybe you’ll have more time to do other stuff.”

“There are enough other things in life that we can feel guilty about.  Our clothes (or other belongings) shouldn’t cause us to feel guilt.”  [so if you’re feeling guilty about not fitting into that pair of pants, get rid of them!]

“If you’re only buying one, favorite best of something (like a cozy all-the-time sweater), you can afford to spend more and get one that is fair trade or hand made where you know that the person who made it isn’t getting taken advantage of.”

Thoughts 5 days later:

will it REALLY mean I can shop less?  I mean, yes it SHOULD me I spend less time shopping, but at least for now, when I feel like there are active HOLES in my wardrobe (still don’t have a cozy but not worn out sweater to throw on for just around the house), I’m finding myself obsessing about shopping everywhere to find the exact perfect thing instead of just finding one at a thrift store that’s “pretty much” what I want.  This mindset will take awhile to shift, won’t it?

One other realization– since I didn’t actually try on EVERY pair of pants as I was sorting them, I discovered that of the two pairs of corduroy pants that I kept, one pair is a little long and the other pair is a little short.  Yes, I realize I can hem the long ones (and I might, or I might just keep stepping on them–it’s not THAT bad), but the short ones are tragic.  I love the way they fit other than the length.  sigh.  Adding corduroys to my “look for ones I really love” list.

Weird side effect: aprons!

Since I didn’t save a lot of my scruffy clothes, I’m often still wearing favorites when I cook dinner. I really don’t want to get grease stains on my faves. My first instinct was to consider grabbing something back out of the box to wear for cooking. Then I remembered–I own aprons! That I actually like! (Also, I took this opportunity to purge my apron/oven mitt/dishcloth drawer.  It’s so much nicer to open now!  And I don’t have the grubby dishrags and hotpads anymore!)

Before:

After: