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Sunday, November 27, 2011

Cleaning the closet

At the beginning of the year I made a pledge to myself that I was going to eliminate, reduce and cut back clothes.  I had way too many.  

I pledged to not buy any new clothes.  Running shoes and bras were excluded.  I didn't really need anything, based on my closet and didn't buy anything UNTIL my neighbor invited me to a charitable event at Chico's in October . . . I purchased a sweater set and shirt.  Then when I vacationed in Florida, I purchased a black sweater and black skirt from the Black& Whilte store.  Although I had pledged to not buying anything . . .  I only purchased 5 items . . . so I feel pretty good about that.

The clothes in the closet were piled high - they were jammed packed - they were on the floor  - they were put away in plastic storage containers under the bed and in the closet - they were packed into the dresser.  These next pictures are embarrassing - but I need to show you just how bad it was.
stuffed to the gills
shirts and sweaters on upper rack 
skirts and jackets on lower rack

sweaters and sweatshirts stuffed on shelves
and last but not least -tee shirts, shorts, shirts piled high on a small table and on the floor
The past couple of weeks I have been slowly but surely cleaning out the drawers and closet.  It started with a drawer an evening and then about a week ago, I started on the closet.  My plan was to finish it up with the 4 day week end.  Well that happened today.  It took a good 4 hours - hubby and I just finished loading it all into bags.  ;-(

Here is a summary of what was pulled out of my drawers and closet.  I admit there are still too many clothes left - but this is a good start.  I also have to consider that we have extreme seasons in Wisconsin and the sweaters that I wear in the winter to stay warm - have no use in the summers.


Item
Donating
Pants
29
Jackets
14
Shirts
53
Skirts
4
Sweaters
22
Jeans
3
Shorts
12
Tee shirts
52
O/S Jackets
5
Shoes
16
running tops
7
running bottoms
4
total items
221
During the cleaning process

Clothes and bags on the floor
The finished closet - upper rack with shirts

Lower rack with sweaters, skirts and jackets
Shelves that previously were full to the brim!
Table is now visible
All stuffed into 8 kitchen garbage bags!

It took 8 tall kitchen bags to fill up . . . seeing this in bags literally makes me sick.  I can not even imagine the money sitting in those bags . . . such excess . . . such waste! 

I feel conflicted . . . Happy that it is cleaned up . . . Sad that there was that much stuff to be cleared out. I will be heading to Goodwill tomorrow to drop off the bags full of clothes.  

I will be making another pledge for 2012 . . .  I wil try and not buy any clothes again for another year.  
 
How does your closet look?  


Enjoy the moment! 

4 comments:

  1. You should feel good about donating your clothes. So you spent money buying all that stuff but now it will be serving somebody who may not have had the money to buy to buy such clothes in a regular store.

    (I am glad I am finally able to read your blog now. For quite a few weeks I was getting a message that the site was infected by some malware and my browser would not open your posts.)

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  2. wow! i'm impressed with your generosity. My closet looks a lot like your before pictures...except i've got extra sweater spillage in the kids' closets, the garage, etc. Yeah, it's kinda pathetic, but i doubt i could be strong enough to not buy any clothes for a year! A month would be pretty amazing, actually, for me. Way to go!

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  3. Way to go on cleaning it out! I'm on a "no buying spree" right now too. I have about a third of that closet space, but it's pretty much bulging with clothes...

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  4. Wow! I bet you feel a huge weight off your shoulders getting everything donated and organized. I pretty much have a one in, one out rule because I only have a tiny amount of closet space. I think it is a law of the universe that clothes expand to fit the space they have to fill.

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