Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Who knew I had so much?

Why is it that my house always gets messier before it gets clean? In the book I just finished reading, The Rewards to Simplicity, Mrs. Pierce recommends cleaning out closets before tackling the rest of your house. At first, this seemed backwards, as no one but myself and hubby ever see the closets. Once I finished reading the chapter, her advice made total sense. When you clean out the closets, you have room to store and put away the stuff around your house that should be in your closet.

With that objective in mind, I started cleaning out the closet in our master bedroom. I should have taken a picture first. We had stuff piled up on the two shelves so that they couldn't be utilized. Two long racks were stuffed full of clothes. I had stacked two boxes on the floor and one on the shelf that was full of winter clothes and clothing that didn't fit at the time I packed the box. Too bad I forgot where my winter clothes were packed and went through this winter with only half of my sweaters.

I discovered that our cats picked a big hole in the carpeting to the rear of the closet and one of them had peed on a jacket that had fallen on the floor (that explained the cat pee smell that we couldn't pin down). That will teach me to not pick up my clothes. The cats are no longer allowed in the closet.

I pulled out all the clothes that fit in one of these categories:
1 - They don't fit and I don't like them anyway.
2 - I don't like them.
3 - They don't fit my standards of modesty (my skirts have gotten longer and I rarely wear pants).



The clothes on the right side of the chair are those that I'm keeping. Most are winter clothes and need to be packed (and remembered) for next winter. I'm also keeping the clothes draped across the back of the chair as they finally fit again. Yay! The huge stack on the floor is getting donated to charity, all in great condition.

I'm not sure what to do with the jeans... there are five pairs sitting on the chair right now, most too small but in good condition. Even when I reach my ideal weight, I won't wear them. I've been collecting jeans for awhile to make a denim quilt but I kind of feel like I should donate the pairs that can still be worn. I'm not sure what I'll do with them.

I have a lot of clothes and I only wear a small portion of them. Is this where the 80/20 rule comes into play, only wearing 20% of my clothes 80% of the time? In my need/desire to simplify, I'm cleaning out the closets. I can't wait until I can actually find the piece of clothing I am looking for!

2 comments:

Shelley Kubitz Mahannah said...

I have always wanted to make a denim quilt. Seeing how many pairs of jeans are always in the thrift stores, I'd say to keep your jeans and make them into a quilt. You'll be getting great use out of them.

Cassandra said...

Good point! I think I will hold on to them. :) You should make a denim quilt!