I’m not feeling very productive today. I’ve been going, going, going . . . but I can’t see many results.
And . . . I didn’t clean the bathrooms.
Even though it’s Tuesday! Bathroom Day! I know. Shameful.
For a scatter-brain, I am strangely ruled by routine. It doesn’t make sense.
Whatever.
Anyway, I can NOT seem to work grocery shopping into my routine. Ever since I had to stop doing it on Wednesdays (you know, last AUGUST), I haven’t been able to find a time that consistently works. Monday morning, immediately after I drop the boys off at school, is the most logical.
But since I despise it so much, I often figure out a way to put it off until Tuesday morning.
So, today, I had no choice. I had to go. But that meant that we got home later, and I decided that I had to make a choice between exercising or cleaning bathrooms. (Since blogging time, of course, isn’t optional.)
I chose to exercise.
Anyway, on to the point of this ever-so-rambling post. I was determined to do some sort of deslobificating today. I shared yesterday about my acceptance of the role clothing plays in my inability to control the state of the master bedroom.
Though my closet is stuffed full of clothes, I often can’t find a single thing that I want to wear. Sometimes it’s because the good stuff is all in the End of the Bed pile, and sometimes it’s because the good stuff is invisible, crammed between the not-so-good stuff. Sometimes it’s because nothing fits, hence the need for exercise.
It’s starting to bug me. I had been looking with disgust at my over-full closet for a while now, and in my mind I kept thinking things like:
I bet I could get rid of 3/4 of what’s in here.
There is no reason to keep things that I never ever choose to wear.
Now that I have laundry somewhat under control, I simply don’t need these last-resort-outfits.
So, today, I thought it would be easy to just grab ten things to get rid of. Y’know, so I’d have something to blog about.
Ten little old things.
But somehow, it was incredibly difficult. EVERY SINGLE ITEM that I grabbed caused severe doubts.
The What-ifs were flowing freely through my brain. But I did it.
If I had to do ten more today, I don’t know if I could.
Sometimes, I really irritate myself.
Isn't it interesting how there are times when it seems you can really clean things out, then you hit a road block of some sort, and just can't do it?
So true!
Hi Nony,
I have been following your blog for a few months, after reading the entire thing through from the beginning! I was wondering if you are still using your daily checklist? Would you be willing to post about that aspect of housekeeping once in a while? You used to write about your daily tasks often. I understand that for you now it is an established habit, but I think it would be a good reminder to all us messies that we need to keep going on those daily things, or the bigger things can't happen. Thanks for sharing your journey!
Carlyn
Good suggestion, Carlyn. Many of the things on the checklist have become habits, but there are also some that easily fall by the wayside if I don't physically check it off daily.
I will try to post it more. Sometimes I thought it must be tedious to readers for me to post that daily, but if it would help you (and I know it would help me) I should get back to it.
“Though my closet is stuffed full of clothes, I often can’t find a single thing that I want to wear. Sometimes it’s because the good stuff is all in the End of the Bed pile, and sometimes it’s because the good stuff is invisible, crammed between the not-so-good stuff. Sometimes it’s because nothing fits, hence the need for exercise.”
I could write this! and my hubby… he is terrible at leaving clothes on the dresser or floor. I have one or two lol
I’m still a year behind on catching up on posts, so perhaps you’ve been able to declutter the clothes from the closet since then! But one idea I’ve seen in a bunch of places is to hang all of your hangars backwards (or if your closet won’t allow that, to hang all of your clothes inside out). Once you wear something, the hangar goes back to going the right way (or the item gets hung up right-side out). At the end of six months, you donate whatever hasn’t been worn (I guess with some wiggle-room for off-season items, etc.). I haven’t actually tried that, because I think I actually am pretty good about culling my closet, but I’m getting to the point where I need to do it again and I just might try that this time.
Something else that I just did in my own closet was put some command hooks on the wall. That way after I wear something once but it can be worn again (like jeans, which I always wear twice), it gets hung on the hook. Then it’s not back with the super-clean clothes but it’s also not getting wrinkled. In theory, this should work a lot better than my previous method, which was leaving those clothes on the floor!
I did a variation of that with different colored hangers before getting married I had all white hangers and when I got married my husband had miss match and then we moved in to a place with have the closet space each of us was use to having to our self I figured out the number of hangers that fit without cramming to be about forty which happen to be about the number of white hangers so If I knew it was something I loved I put it on a white hanger other wise a different colored hanger and when I washed and put hang up clothes away I always put them on a white hanger slowly I started to notice what clothes I would pass up over and over and as soon as it was easy to get rid of that item I would put it in the giveaway box. the closer my closet got to not being stuffed the better. this also was at the same time we started doing laundry sooner the washer was smaller and two peoples laundry. when my husband got use to his clothes being washed twice a week rather than every week and a half he admitted to having a distaste to a lot more clothes than when he moved in. He loves that he was able to get rid of that one pair of underwear that he hated but he had to keep the pair that let him know it was laundry day. that pair is long gone. I am still a slob.
I also used the method of putting hangars in the closet backwards. At the end of 3 months I took everything still on a backwards hangar to Goodwill. My husbands pile of clothes was MUCH bigger than mine. And I still do that little trick to this day. In fact, I need to go through hubby’s clothes before he comes home on Friday as I’ve seen a few shirts in the same place since about March.
For my girls, when I do laundry I hang all the clean clothes on the left side of the closet, And then when we want to clear out, we start looking from the right side. I hang up all their tops, where I fold mine – so this works better for them than me.
I lost weight so had to buy new clothes to fit. I was having a hard time getting rid of the old, bigger clothes “just in case” So I got a small bin that would hold 5 outfits. I went through all my big clothes & just kept what could fit in the bin. It eased my mind knowing that if I did gain weight I had something to fall back on without overcrowding my closet.
I also do the backwards hanger thing. It has really helped me notice what I really don’t wear, even though I like the item. It’s usually because it doesn’t fit right or it’s uncomfortable.
One more thing, when I wear something once I put it back on the hanger inside-out. That way I know I can wear it one more time before I toss it in the dirty wash. Thanks again for all your inspiration & humor.
I just today finished purging my closet. I managed to give for donation enough items that I actually can hang ALL my clothes again… and WITHOUT it being so tight that everything is going to fall when I take something out!
Sorry I know this post is really old but your “container” thing really helped me. Having the principle “everything should fit in there, begin by putting in your favourites and the rest has to go”was amazingly effective. I got rid of all the clothes that make me say “oh I haven’t worn that in a long time so I SHOULD wear it now”. Nope, I want clothes that makes me say “oh that’s a really nice one, I WANT to wear it”. So thank you!!