402. One day to go before the end of January and I've given away 402 items of clothing, one for every day of 2011, and some. There isn't a wardrobe, cupboard, drawer, shelf, basket, hamper, bag or box that I haven't been through at least once if not twice. Feels good to have a bit more space and have rediscovered some old forgotten favourites that have now been promoted to the wardrobe from their lonely storage box outposts.
And in these 30 days of January, have I missed going clothes shopping on the high street? I can honestly say that with the exception of one time, the answer is a resounding 'no'. That one time was last Friday: the end of a stressful week AND payday to boot. Normally this would have me out of the door and off to Leeds to catch the shops before closing time. This time, I just observed the desire to do this and sat on my hands. And thought 'Hmmm, interesting'. I did go to Leeds yesterday, to meet a friend for lunch and watch a film, and did not feel the need to check out the shops that I would normally, without thinking, waltz into on the offchance. I was almost inside Coast, and I stopped myself. What would be the point?
I've contined to enjoy searching the limitless caverns of ebay, but have not let myself look at anything that's clearly not been pre-owned and/or pre-worn, in other words, in a 'shop' - you can always tell, more often than not its a 'Buy It Now, BNWT, check out other colours/sizes' listing. I've hunted down and won one glorious Karen Millen number, one careful owner, whose lovingly washed it after wearing - you can smell the Persil!
I've also enjoyed rooting through my dressmaking patterns and I found two lovely new ones in the latest books in the Bombay Stores. Hunting for the perfect material has also been good therapy - although I've been very careful and selective here. No point in offloading 12+ bin bags of stuff just to bring bales and bales of fabric into the house, now is there?
Sunday, 30 January 2011
Tuesday, 25 January 2011
366! and..............breathe!
and that's No 366 - one for every day of 2011, plus one for the quarter day - in the bag, and out of the house. Included 26 pairs of shoes, all unworn for years.....even so.
The last bit was hard. I got stuck at 339 and had to go and actively find 27 things more, so the last bag has stuff in it I wasn't actually planning on ditching, but i was so determined to make it that they had to go. I guess at the end of the day, even that's not stuff I'll actually miss, probably, so what's the problem?
The last bit was hard. I got stuck at 339 and had to go and actively find 27 things more, so the last bag has stuff in it I wasn't actually planning on ditching, but i was so determined to make it that they had to go. I guess at the end of the day, even that's not stuff I'll actually miss, probably, so what's the problem?
almost there!
Out: 314, high street: still zero!
More fun and games in the loft, pulling out boxes of put away clothes and making decisions what to keep, what not. Looking at the piles and PILES of actually really quite unattractive rummage-sale fodder that's spread all over, I begin to realise that this is not that far from sorting through someone elses clothes: HELLO?! to which unchic, ambassador of non-style does this lot belong?
In jealously hoarding everything, including moving ridiculous quantitites of stuff in 3 house moves since the early 1990s, I have neglected to appreciate that the person who bought (and loved, lets be honest - and could fit into, lets be even more honest) those long Gap jean-shorts (no, not cool Crusoe ones, nor nice rolled-up-at-the-knee worn with long boots ones) just doesn't exist any more. I loved them, and wore them often - in 1991. Its 2011. Not only has my body changed (i am 44 now, i was 25 then), but i no longer like high-waisted, loose on the thigh, tapered leg jeans, or jean-shorts, of this nature, in khaki denim. It should be a no-brainer, not take 20 years to get to grips with. Anyway, shorts were out. both pairs. I am not sure that i ever really fitted into the black size 8 ones even when i was relatively skinny. Maybe i kept them (mostly unworn for 20 years??!?) because there is an aspirational me that always planned on being that small? Plus they're Gap, and Gap's nice, isn't it? {;)} And they belong to a time when I was living and working in London as a young carefree, long shorts wearing twenty-something........
It really does just boil down to applying this 'No TYVM, now obsolete item' logic to a procession of unlovely unwanteds, and seeing the Oxfam-labelled bin bags grow. Now filled 9, and we're talking proper quality, large bin bags, not your goes-into-holes-if-you-so-much-as-look-at-it B&M black cling film rubbish.
My plan is to reach No 365 at the end of this evening -we're tackling shoes. And I will only count a pair as one, not two, things. Then I'm going to stop, at least for a while. Firstly, my resolution (to find one piece of clothing to give away for each day of the year) will be acheived. Secondly, having just gone through everything - really, honestly, everything - with a fine-toothed comb and done a lot of decision making, not sure i'm ready, or that it would be profitable, to go though the whole lot again straight away. Leave it for 6 months and I'll be ready to start again. Perhaps achieving a give-away of 500 by the end of 2011. What feels good is that even if Oxfam only gain an average of £2 per item, that's a donation of £1000 that's just been crammed into the loft for years. How. Utterly. Shaming.
But lets NOT look at the maths of what I've spent over the years on stuff that i haven't had good wear out of. I'm beginning to see that that's a key part of hoarding - the initial financial investment plus the emotional investment of keeping it (and in my case, moving house 3 times) ramps up the extent to which you think you SHOULD keep it. That might be a warped form of thrift - a version of 'can't afford to give away'. I can, and have.
More fun and games in the loft, pulling out boxes of put away clothes and making decisions what to keep, what not. Looking at the piles and PILES of actually really quite unattractive rummage-sale fodder that's spread all over, I begin to realise that this is not that far from sorting through someone elses clothes: HELLO?! to which unchic, ambassador of non-style does this lot belong?
In jealously hoarding everything, including moving ridiculous quantitites of stuff in 3 house moves since the early 1990s, I have neglected to appreciate that the person who bought (and loved, lets be honest - and could fit into, lets be even more honest) those long Gap jean-shorts (no, not cool Crusoe ones, nor nice rolled-up-at-the-knee worn with long boots ones) just doesn't exist any more. I loved them, and wore them often - in 1991. Its 2011. Not only has my body changed (i am 44 now, i was 25 then), but i no longer like high-waisted, loose on the thigh, tapered leg jeans, or jean-shorts, of this nature, in khaki denim. It should be a no-brainer, not take 20 years to get to grips with. Anyway, shorts were out. both pairs. I am not sure that i ever really fitted into the black size 8 ones even when i was relatively skinny. Maybe i kept them (mostly unworn for 20 years??!?) because there is an aspirational me that always planned on being that small? Plus they're Gap, and Gap's nice, isn't it? {;)} And they belong to a time when I was living and working in London as a young carefree, long shorts wearing twenty-something........
It really does just boil down to applying this 'No TYVM, now obsolete item' logic to a procession of unlovely unwanteds, and seeing the Oxfam-labelled bin bags grow. Now filled 9, and we're talking proper quality, large bin bags, not your goes-into-holes-if-you-so-much-as-look-at-it B&M black cling film rubbish.
My plan is to reach No 365 at the end of this evening -we're tackling shoes. And I will only count a pair as one, not two, things. Then I'm going to stop, at least for a while. Firstly, my resolution (to find one piece of clothing to give away for each day of the year) will be acheived. Secondly, having just gone through everything - really, honestly, everything - with a fine-toothed comb and done a lot of decision making, not sure i'm ready, or that it would be profitable, to go though the whole lot again straight away. Leave it for 6 months and I'll be ready to start again. Perhaps achieving a give-away of 500 by the end of 2011. What feels good is that even if Oxfam only gain an average of £2 per item, that's a donation of £1000 that's just been crammed into the loft for years. How. Utterly. Shaming.
But lets NOT look at the maths of what I've spent over the years on stuff that i haven't had good wear out of. I'm beginning to see that that's a key part of hoarding - the initial financial investment plus the emotional investment of keeping it (and in my case, moving house 3 times) ramps up the extent to which you think you SHOULD keep it. That might be a warped form of thrift - a version of 'can't afford to give away'. I can, and have.
Sunday, 23 January 2011
202!
Out: 202, High street: 0.
that's the sound of the 202nd piece of unwanted clothing leaving the building - ta-ran-ta-rah! It's easy when you know how, i.e. would i look dead in that? No? then out it goes. Might get a bit harder from here on in, was starting to get slightly into 'Hmmmm but i do still like that (thing that doesn't fit/thing i haven't worn for decades/thing that has absolutely vintage niceness) so i am not sure....' territory, a little bit. Slight scuffles with self as things went in and out of the bag, and there was a bit of giving myself a talking to. No, I don't need to keep a white zip up jacket bought from Chain Store Seconds circa 1995 that still has the price ticket on it (Ahhhh, CS2nds of happy memory!!). If I've had it for 15 years and never worn it, and don't even like it any more, why have I still got it? I don't go to THAT many fancy dress parties and neither is it realistic to think i will ever actually run a circus/dancing troup/theatre company.
Anticipate the last 163 things being harder. and no i can't count a pair of shoes as 2 things!
that's the sound of the 202nd piece of unwanted clothing leaving the building - ta-ran-ta-rah! It's easy when you know how, i.e. would i look dead in that? No? then out it goes. Might get a bit harder from here on in, was starting to get slightly into 'Hmmmm but i do still like that (thing that doesn't fit/thing i haven't worn for decades/thing that has absolutely vintage niceness) so i am not sure....' territory, a little bit. Slight scuffles with self as things went in and out of the bag, and there was a bit of giving myself a talking to. No, I don't need to keep a white zip up jacket bought from Chain Store Seconds circa 1995 that still has the price ticket on it (Ahhhh, CS2nds of happy memory!!). If I've had it for 15 years and never worn it, and don't even like it any more, why have I still got it? I don't go to THAT many fancy dress parties and neither is it realistic to think i will ever actually run a circus/dancing troup/theatre company.
Anticipate the last 163 things being harder. and no i can't count a pair of shoes as 2 things!
Tuesday, 18 January 2011
???
ok...........so having got rid of 100 things, might see if i can do that all over again - what are the chances?
Monday, 17 January 2011
on a roll?
Seems true that the more you get rid of stuff, the easier it is to do.
Having found 100 articles of clothing to pass on (and that in the end it wasn't all that painful) I'm wondering if i can find a further 265 this month and be done with it. Totally up my 365. Thinking of the space that this will free up! I might have to count things that are so knackered that they have to go in the ragbag: have just googled 'Do Oxfam take rags?' and yes they do, preferring these to be bagged up separately and labelled so that volunteer time is not wasted on sorting these out. That's alright then. Wonder if the same policy applies to the glitter encrusted platforms from 1990s '1970s revival' (thank you United Footwear for happy memories) that I went through? And the rest of you - you know who you are!
Am catching myself trying to remember what I got rid of last night, and whether it was a mistake, and whether I ought to have another look through the bags......and that I know I have to get over it! Honestly, when your sorting criteria boils down to 'Would I buy this in a charity shop? and the answer is categorically 'No' then you have to ask yourself why you were mad enough to line the walls of your house with it for years. That's not to say that someone else won't want it though. Hopefully. Otherwise that's just fly tipping at Oxfam.
Having found 100 articles of clothing to pass on (and that in the end it wasn't all that painful) I'm wondering if i can find a further 265 this month and be done with it. Totally up my 365. Thinking of the space that this will free up! I might have to count things that are so knackered that they have to go in the ragbag: have just googled 'Do Oxfam take rags?' and yes they do, preferring these to be bagged up separately and labelled so that volunteer time is not wasted on sorting these out. That's alright then. Wonder if the same policy applies to the glitter encrusted platforms from 1990s '1970s revival' (thank you United Footwear for happy memories) that I went through? And the rest of you - you know who you are!
Am catching myself trying to remember what I got rid of last night, and whether it was a mistake, and whether I ought to have another look through the bags......and that I know I have to get over it! Honestly, when your sorting criteria boils down to 'Would I buy this in a charity shop? and the answer is categorically 'No' then you have to ask yourself why you were mad enough to line the walls of your house with it for years. That's not to say that someone else won't want it though. Hopefully. Otherwise that's just fly tipping at Oxfam.
Sunday, 16 January 2011
question...
what is it that makes us keep things for years (and years) that we don't consciously remember we have, that we don't even actively like when we do come across them......but are afraid of being without, for reasons we can't determine. Seems very illogical and unattractive habit right now.
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