How Much is Too Much?

Well, I got one of the items on my long list taken care of. I've gone through all of the clothes in my room, and significantly reduced the size of the collection.

I live in a small house, built in the 1950s when people apparently had a lot less stuff than now.  I get the master bedroom to myself, but its still not a lot of storage space. I've decided, however, that it should be enough space. I am not going to let my clothes take over the rest of the house.  I simply have too much stuff.

I have lived in this house for coming up on 15 years now, and so I haven't been forced to touch everything for a while. And during that while, I lost 50 pounds, gained 40 of it back, and had some ups and downs in between. Add to this having to dress like I'm testifying before Congress most week days, wanting to work in the garden and be active in a variety of outdoor activities that each come with specialized needs on weekends, and then top it all off with what I would consider normal clothes - what I wear to be a soccer mom - and it can add up quickly to large piles of clothes.  And lately, that is what my bedroom has become: piles of clothes  everywhere because there is no place to put them away.

I have an old antique four drawer chest, two small Ikea dressers, six feet of closet rod, and an inaccessible top shelf deep storage over the closet rod.  I know the closet space can be made more efficient, but I also know I have lot of stuff I don't wear ever, and even more I wear rarely. Or - I did, this morning. It's much less now.

There has been a fad in the past couple of years about cutting back on stuff. "Six Pieces" was one trend - you should be able to make every outfit you need with only six well-chosen pieces. I read a blog for a woman who was living with just a few black, white and grey pieces every day. When you read beyond the headlines, though, it appears they actually have quite a lot. I was awed by the way the Six Pieces people must be dedicated to their laundry every couple of days - until I read they considered multiples of the same thing to be ok. If a black t-shirt is one of your six pieces, its ok to have six of them (and even in slightly different styles). So what's the point of that? Why not have a rainbow, if you are going to have a bunch of stuff.  But who needs six black tshirts?  Laundry every couple of days is excessive, but presumably things eventually get washed and put away. So how many is enough?

I started at one corner of my room and went through everything in every drawer, getting rid of as much stuff as I could in order to make room for the stuff piled on top. I buy Tshirts as souvenirs; but how many do I need? How many souvenir Ts, how many stylish trim girl cut Ts for work, how many stylish Ts not quite good enough for work but perfect for the soccer sidelines, how many athletic Ts, how many thermal Ts as base layers?  How about the Christmas, Fourth of July and Halloween clothes?  It was easy to get rid of things that are old, stained, otherwise not quite perfect. But I have lots of pieces that are perfectly fine. They are not worn out, I like them well enough, they fit fine, I wear them occasionally, but there are just plain too many of them. So I went with the technique I learned from watching de-clutter TV shows:  I could keep X number in a given category, and out goes the rest.

This was really hard.  Each item of clothing has a story. I know when I got it. I know when I wore it. And what if I need it again some day? What if the occasion arises for which they are the absolutely perfect solution to the fashion needs of the moment? And, the stuff I'm keeping will wear out some day. I could use this other good stuff then, right?

But my house is just plain too small to keep all this stuff just in case.  I'm donating to Purple Heart, which will pick up and take everything, sell most of it to resale shops, and bundle the rest to become recycled rags.  Let's just get this stuff out of here, and maybe someone who needs it will get to use it.

I ended in the top inaccessible reaches of the shelf at the top of the closet, where plastic storage boxes from the Container Store have housed items since probably 2002.  I had found the box with my long underwear this summer before my trip to the Arctic, but today I found a box filled with khaki pants, skirts and shirts from the last time I went to Africa, in 2002.  I also found a box with the dresses made from bright wax-dyed african cloth during my first visit to Africa, in 1989, when I stayed in the mud hut with my Peace Corps Volunteer sister.  I kept both boxes. I'm ten pounds away from being able to wear the khaki, and there aren't a lot of places I would wear the african dresses, but they are too precious to let go just yet.  On the other hand, the box full of tshirts from my air show days as a new pilot all got tossed out.

I did find a fair amount of stuff I had forgotten I have, including a number of pairs of tailored wool slacks in the very back of closet from when I last weighed about what I wear now.  If they fit, I kept them for now. If they were too big, out they went. If they were slightly too tight, I kept them as well.  I really want to get down to goal weight and they could be a good motivator.

I feel virtuous, and it will be easier to keep things organized for a while. But hanging on to stuff that is slightly too small.... Not if I eat the way I have the past few days.  I've been eating as if it didn't matter, as if there were no rules, as if there were no consequences.  I'll feel the consequences soon enough and regret the very closet purge that right now has me feeling good.  It does matter what I eat, there are rules I should follow, and tracking is rule number one. Why I'm eating the way I am is a topic for another day. For now, I'll just be glad at the ability to easity access all the clothes I care about.  What should I wear tomorrow?