402

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?