too many clothes & six impossible things
I have A Plan for Dealing with the Clothes Situation. I have far too many clothes, but every time I have ever tried to weed them out, it doesn't take long before I get bogged down in an awful, fuzzy-headed can't-make-another-decision inertia. So it just cannot be a task to be done all at once, like cleaning up my dining table.I talked to my sister last night about getting rid of two things for every one piece of clothing I want to keep. I was thinking about doing this in conjunction with doing laundry, but I think even that would be too big a job. I've come up with something else that just might work for me.
Every day, when I get dressed, I will "pay" for each item of clothing I want to wear by getting rid of two. And I decided to start today:
I am "paying" for my jeans, black shirt and vest by discarding six things. I am very happy to say that two of the items were kind of tough to let go, including a purple vest I knitted.I am not going to include underwear or socks in the plan.
I am also going to try to wear things that I rarely (or never) wear but keep because I like them and believe I will wear them. Someday. Today's vest is one of those things. I got it at Goodwill months and months ago, and I think I've worn it once, maybe twice. If I don't start wearing it more often....OUT IT GOES!
Ooh, I thought that "OUT IT GOES!" with the same feeling I imagine the Red Queen had when she cried "OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!"
Writing of the Red Queen reminds me I wanted to mention here something from the Marilyn Paul book . In the chapter on visualizing, she wants you to imagine the kind of life and home you want to have.
She anticipates that you might feel you are imagining the impossible and quotes the exchange between Alice and the White Queen when Alice is asked to believe the Queen is 101+ years old.
Alice laughs and says "There's no use trying....one can't believe impossible things."
"I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."
As a book person, I love the reference. And I also love it as a directive -- to visualize six impossible things before breakfast, six wild and crazy visions of that orderly, joyful, creative life I want....
and here's the ironing board - freed from clutter to be useful once again!
posted by 'Zann at 11:38 AM
3 Comments:
'zann,
Great idea! I thought about doing something similar. For everything I haven't worn at least twice in a season, it goes in the trash.
Or, for every new clothing purchase, one or two items has to be thrown away in exchange for it.
Lemme think about this one, but your progress is great!
I employ what I call "the law of limited space". If I get a new piece of clothing, It has to fit in my dresser, or in my part of our relativly small closet. This is simple for me to do because I have extreemly limited space. The only thing that is an excecption are things that are obviously "summer clothes", like shorts and tank tops, and things that are obviously "winter clothes", like long underwear and wool socks. These get switched from their box when the seasons change. Rule of thumb is I can't put anything into the box that I haven't worn that season. And seeing as I mostly shop at second hand store and church rummage sales, I mentaly don't have a huge dollar amount attatched to most of my clothes. It makes it so much easier to say good bye.
Keep it up Zann! I think that you are doing great!
Jackie, I'm afraid I'm a scofflaw -I have broken 'the law of limited space' all my life. In face, my bookseller signature quotes me:"There's never enough shelf space, but there's always room for more books."
I could easily substitute for "books": yarn, fiber, art supplies, tarot card sets...
'z
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