The big purge
Any purge is messy, isn't it? Jon and I have had our third day of garage sale fun in a month, and I have come to the realization that I need to let go and move on a little faster when it comes to stuff. Especially this morning when we were setting out items on my dad's driveway, and I spotted a ten-year-old tanktop and thought to myself, "oh, that's where that went." No... I cannot hang onto ten-year-old clothes, even if they are still in good shape. It was a helluva tanktop, you know, the way they made them ten years ago? Faded, yes -- but not threadbare. No holes. No rips.
I'm the kind of person that buys something and expects it to last ten years regardless of what it is or how much I paid for it. Maybe I enjoy the familiarity of my stuff too much because I don't think there is an emotional attachment to my stuff. Hell, after having that tank top for ten years I'm sure it had not just one memory attached to it but dozens...none of which I can remember. My coworker Mini told me today that she goes through her stuff once a year or so and donates whatever she hasn't worn in a few months to Goodwill. Ouch. That is what you're supposed to do, isn't it? Because a lot of that stuff in our garage sale is stuff I have had for YEARS and haven't worn. Or worse, it's stuff I've been wearing for years.
Yes, I need style help. I've been working in radio for almost a decade. It's not an industry in which you need to look very good. Jeans and a t-shirt work fine. You can get snazzy if you will, but coworkers get suspicious. Does she have a date? A job interview? A court date? We don't get dressy, really. We get funky. Or we just clean up good when we have to. That's it. But it occurs to me now that I have no sense of style and I don't know when to get rid of clothes.
I sense a new year's resolution coming on.
I could probably throw away half my closet still.
Maybe I should.
Maybe tonight at 12:30 am as I get home from a night on the air at the Peak, I will fill up a couple bags and let go and sell them in my final day of garage saling tomorrow, with whatever I don't sell going to Goodwill. I swear I only wear a few things anyway.
There are a few embarrassing things that probably need to go before April catches them in my closet someday because I was too much of a coward to get rid of them.
That dress the girls made me wear for a night in Berkeley back when I was underage and writing non-paying reviews for Nighttime.net, which folded rather quickly anyway. (And had a horribly complicated web design to boot?)
Some things naturally will stay, like my mother’s wedding dress, which I will never wear because I haven’t fit in it since I was age 13. But I keep it. It was hers and she is dead. It’s what you do.
Three-inch boots? Shall I show you the MRI of my left ankle? Gotta go.
Maybe it’s time. How often do you get rid of stuff? Do you sell it? Donate it? Then what do you do? Enjoy the extra closet space and re-organize your stuff, which I am likely to do, or do you shop and buy new stuff to fill its place? What are you hanging onto that you won’t get rid of ever?
I'm the kind of person that buys something and expects it to last ten years regardless of what it is or how much I paid for it. Maybe I enjoy the familiarity of my stuff too much because I don't think there is an emotional attachment to my stuff. Hell, after having that tank top for ten years I'm sure it had not just one memory attached to it but dozens...none of which I can remember. My coworker Mini told me today that she goes through her stuff once a year or so and donates whatever she hasn't worn in a few months to Goodwill. Ouch. That is what you're supposed to do, isn't it? Because a lot of that stuff in our garage sale is stuff I have had for YEARS and haven't worn. Or worse, it's stuff I've been wearing for years.
Yes, I need style help. I've been working in radio for almost a decade. It's not an industry in which you need to look very good. Jeans and a t-shirt work fine. You can get snazzy if you will, but coworkers get suspicious. Does she have a date? A job interview? A court date? We don't get dressy, really. We get funky. Or we just clean up good when we have to. That's it. But it occurs to me now that I have no sense of style and I don't know when to get rid of clothes.
I sense a new year's resolution coming on.
I could probably throw away half my closet still.
Maybe I should.
Maybe tonight at 12:30 am as I get home from a night on the air at the Peak, I will fill up a couple bags and let go and sell them in my final day of garage saling tomorrow, with whatever I don't sell going to Goodwill. I swear I only wear a few things anyway.
There are a few embarrassing things that probably need to go before April catches them in my closet someday because I was too much of a coward to get rid of them.
That dress the girls made me wear for a night in Berkeley back when I was underage and writing non-paying reviews for Nighttime.net, which folded rather quickly anyway. (And had a horribly complicated web design to boot?)
Some things naturally will stay, like my mother’s wedding dress, which I will never wear because I haven’t fit in it since I was age 13. But I keep it. It was hers and she is dead. It’s what you do.
Three-inch boots? Shall I show you the MRI of my left ankle? Gotta go.
Maybe it’s time. How often do you get rid of stuff? Do you sell it? Donate it? Then what do you do? Enjoy the extra closet space and re-organize your stuff, which I am likely to do, or do you shop and buy new stuff to fill its place? What are you hanging onto that you won’t get rid of ever?
posted by Heather Larson at 2:53 PM
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