We’ve moved a lot in the last few years. A little more than 4 years ago we lived right here in Marblehead. Then, we moved to Vermont. Two years later we moved to Connecticut. And then, about a year ago, we moved back to Marblehead. A lot of packing, and unpacking, and packing again and unpacking again.
People say that the best thing about moving is that it forces you to weed through the stuff you don’t need so you wind up with just the essentials. Not us. We wound up with an entire room in our basement that’s full of boxes. Full. And, its not a small room. We moved into this house in June and still that room sits. I hate it. And, most of these boxes have moved with us from one state to the next (some even remained sealed) and just continued to move to the next location.
Come on. Clearly, this is sh*t we don’t need.
Nice, isn’t it? Dontcha just want to come visit me? No. You don’t. You want to call “Hoarders” and turn me in. Admit it.
So, we’ve committed to this: On every Saturday going forward that we are home for the weekend, our plan is to remove two boxes from that room and take them to the dump. Whatever is in those ridiculous boxes hasn’t seen the light of day in years. And, sure, we could go through them meticulously, post things on craigslist and eBay and host a profitable tag sale. We could donate things to worthy charities. But, we won’t. The boxes will sit there. Probably making their way to our next house in our next move. Enough. Judge me as wasteful, as lazy, whatever. It’s probably true. But, damnit, those boxes are outta here.
The other night out to dinner, Husband and I had a conversation that led to this question:
What percentage of clothes in your closet do you think you actually wear?
Husband thinks his is somewhere around 7%. Because, he mostly wears suits and I’m a laundry maniac. He never has a chance to get down more than one or two levels of boxers before I’ve washed them and put them right back on top in their drawer.
I’m closer to 15% but you wouldn’t know it to look at me because I have a number of the same style (it’s generous using the word “style” in any sentence pertaining to myself) of clothing that I just wear over and over. My daily uniform is a pair of jeans (I have three in rotation at the moment), a turtleneck sweater (three again) and a fleece overshirt (two black, one red).
But, don’t those percentage numbers seem really low? As though we have a giant closet full of items we should never have purchased? But, we are not fashionable people. We don’t have a whole bunch of nice things that we just buy because we think they’re stylish at the time but then we never actually wear. Nope. Like the boxes, there are piles of clothes in the bottom of our drawers and the back of our closets that get packed up, and moved, and packed up, and moved. That we haven’t worn in years. Still, in the back of the closet they remain. (With my mirror, I might add.) I think they like it in there.
So, how about you?
What’s your percentage?
Confessions of a Serial Swooper 
Why – oh WHY can't I just sit there and go through your things. You are… KILLING my joy here. I'm STILL grieving over the loss of the vegetable bin…
All that whining aside, we use a good percentage of what we own. Mostly because I constantly cull, and in large part because our house is so small. The most unused are the former cocktail dresses, work suits and trendy commuter coats. Slowly I weed through them, and to be fair, most are now 2 sizes too small. I have a few vintage dresses bought in Baltimore for postbaby wearing. My husband wears virtually everything he owns. Since we met. **sigh**Now ask me about the ELECTRONICS in our house that we don't use and you got yourself a whole 'nother blog post…
Funny – I just went through a bin of clothes the other day and made myself throw out a Bahamas shirt from back in the day (the pink and green ones). I was sad to see it go but had to ask myself – would I really wear it again? Thanks for the laughs Cindy – keep 'em coming!
Hi Marcy's friend,I read this once and have yet to do it: turn all of your clothes hangars backwards in your closet and, when you wear an item, flip it the right way. Do this for one year, going through all four seasons. Whatever is still facing the wrong way, bye bye. And, you are an obsessive clothes washer? Wow. I so wish I had that gene. My piles of laundry wish it too.