The dressing room
The thing I hate most about buying clothes (second only to parting with money) is trying on clothes. I hate trying on clothes. I hate it so much that if I don’t have success with my first trip to the dressing room, I will often call off my shopping trip and leave. But if I manage the (rare) treat of loving the first thing I try on, I can be encouraged to try on more stuff.
This hatred of trying on clothes is why I own so much old stuff. It fits, I know it fits, it’s comfortable, so I keep wearing it – despite current trends and styles.
But (as is a common theme of this blog lately) I need to start getting rid of stuff. And that means going through all of my clothes and trying stuff on. All of it. After all, there’s no point in transporting something 6,000 miles only to find out it doesn’t fit quite right anymore.
Anyhow, I spent a few hours trying on clothes today. Lots and lots and lots of clothes. And what I’ve found is that I have a lot of clothes that I can ditch without concern. But there’s also a lot of clothes that I can’t seem to part with because I like them and I wear them – despite my owning them for more than a decade. But thanks to Facebook and a digital camera, I can get feedback on some things from my friends, which means that the “ditch” pile has grown! (Which is OK.)
As a bonus, I’ve made my foster daughter go through her clothes, too. I mean, she’s been growing like a weed since her arrival last August and she’ll be moving on to her permanent home soon. It would be unfair of me to send her there with ill-fitting rags. Right?
I made her get rid of jeans that were waaayyy too tight and ones with holes in the britches so she hates me now because she wanted to keep them. And I am evil for making her try on clothes. Bad foster mummy. Bad!
On the plus side, I’ve told her I’d take her shopping since her wardrobe has dwindled considerably because of the chore. She’s happy about that.
I suppose that I should confess at this point that I have yet to go through Paul’s clothes. I know it’s been more than two years, but I haven’t wanted to do it. A friend had [kind of] planned to come out and help, but it never happened so I have to do it alone. I’ve gotten as far as knowing that there are a couple of things I want to keep for myself and I’ve decided that I’ll offer up ties to nephews (and nieces) but I’m at a loss as to how to handle the rest of his clothes. But I’d best figure it out soon! Or maybe I just need to pack it away in storage bins. We’ll see…
Anyhow, it seems I have a lot of extra space in my closet now. And it seems that I’ll have a bit more space in my luggage for important things like gadgets and cough syrup. So that’s cool!
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I loves me a good closet clear out (and have several bags ready for thrift in the downstairs cupboard to prove the fact) so well done.
I do not, however, envy you sorting through Paul’s clothing. Not at all the same situation, but I do have some pieces of ‘memory’ clothing which I don’t wear, will not wear but have some lovely history. I can’t address the actual physical sorting through of his possessions but I would say to you, it’s worth keeping stuff which has value to you; if you can, don’t get rid of things just because of space issues.
I am lucky that I can store things if I need/want. But I’m also lucky because I know without a doubt that Paul would be completely OK with me getting rid of things (if I was ready/wanted to). I think that helps because I don’t have [as many] guilt issues to deal with that way. Some of the things I’m keeping are things that Paul would roll his eyes over, I think. But that’s OK.