Ode to My Closet

Once, you were stuffed with clothes
some delightful, some spiteful I suppose.
And the laundry would double
Increasing my trouble
at finding peace and repose.

Well, what is one to do?
When quite clearly and so nearly
each shirt
must match
each shoe?

"Purge!" said I with determination.
So then commanded my station
and sorted sweaters, shirts, and pants.
"Be gone with you!" I cried.
"In this bag you will hide!"
Then in my closet, I did a dance.

Yup, I finally realized that finding the magic laundry system was not the problem. The problem was having too many clothes to manage. And this applies to 4/5 of my household! No wonder I couldn't keep up! Inspired by another blogger, whose name and blog I of course can't now remember, I realized I needed to drastically downsize our wardrobes. I've completed my closet and Alli's so far. I will finish the boys' sometime this week. I'm not sure how many of each item I kept. I think it was something like this:
7 pairs of bottoms (skirts, jeans, etc.)
9 tops
4 shirts for layering (we have cold winters and live in a very drafty house)
3 sweatshirts
5 sweaters
a couple dresses for church
3 pair jammies
1 pair grubby clothes
4 pair running clothes (me), dance stuff for Alli

That looks like a lot, but was still a significant reduction in our clothing. I filled three large garbage bags between my clothes and Alli's. While I'm not getting rid of them now, if I find we really don't need anything I took out, I will pass them along.

Here were my reasons for doing this:
1. I couldn't keep up with laundry.
2. I re-evaluated my reasons for having all of it to begin with and found those reasons were not valid at this time.
3. I was constantly fighting the clothes battle- keeping it washed, picked up, folded, organized, and put away.
4. I want to wash less clothing so I save on all the costs associated with laundry- environmental and otherwise.
5. I'd like to start line- drying again. Fewer clothes might make it more doable.

This seemed a bit overwhelming to me at first, but this was how I did it. I'll use the same strategy in the future.
1. Identified 3 pair jammies
2. Decided which bottoms to keep.
3. Decided which tops, sweatshirts, sweaters to keep to coordinate. I pretty much made sure the tops could be worn with at least 3 different bottoms.
4. Found layering shirts to go with tops and bottoms.

It wasn't too painful, but that may have been because I was still numb from doing (pre- purge)laundry for three days straight. : )

Anyway, that is my VERY exciting closet news. I'm thrilled.....I think I'll go pick out clothes for tommorrow. Or maybe just dance in my closet.

Blessings,
E