With no New Year’s resolutions, this was unplanned but a very significant event in our household. A visiting friend offered to help me do something that I have been unable to do for a long time, clean out my closets (and boxes) of long unworn clothes.
I have moved households five times in the past 15 years, but have been quite unable to do major purges of clothing in those moves. What this means is that I have so many clothes that are old, outdated and unworn for years. Every time I have attempted to get rid of them, I have found that I have too many emotional or other ties to them. I was a bit of a clothes horse when I lived in NYC and had pretty expensive taste. There are also clothes of my mothers, additional beautiful things, that she gave to me when she could no longer wear them. And then there are things like a sweater my grandmother knit for my dad when he was young and it is still in perfect shape. I I wore it for years as a funky winter dress.
When Rich and I made the last move 2 1/2 years ago, I searched high and low for the organization that took clothes for women returning to the workforce. Finally I contacted them and was told that they no longer do it and to just bring it to the Salvation Army.
So, after putting this off for many many years, Debbie and I spent hours going through closets, storage containers and boxes. My husband was thrilled beyond belief. We are now well on our way to taking back the “box room” and gaining a second guest room in our house. It was a very trying and emotional thing to do and probably hard for many to understand that. These clothes had a lot of memories associated with them of my many past lives. Debbie was astonished at the gamut that ran from Italian linen skirts from Paul Stuarts to the London designer clothese from Charivari. Who would have guessed I would end up in flannel lined jeans from Eddie Bauer and fleece socks? 🙂
In addition to this I actually unpacked a lot of other boxes that have been untouched for these 2 1/2 years, finding places for what Rich likes to call my knick-knacks.
Had we planned this – put it on a list of New Year’s resolutions, it would probably not have happened for many many months to come. It was an amazing thing to do. I got to visit my past and let go of a lot of it as well.
Don’t Forget: www.acehaid.org
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