random thoughts – Day 1,940 – (Wednesday) – closet purge

Before the day's purge.

Progress for moving is slow going but steady, with hiccups and side quests. The curtains that hung outside the closet were taken down, laundered, and packed yesterday, exposing the contents. Today, there was another wave of purging that involved trying on more items, evaluating when they were worn (if ever), and if not worn, why not. There is a lot of guesswork taking place. Will I ever need an office jacket again? I dunno. 

A recent fashion trend was the reason for today’s excommunication of a stack of skirts and dresses, not worn for several years, since the big shift to bare legs became a marker of age and only old ladies were still wearing panty hose or tights. There are many reasons why I don’t go barelegged in work dresses and skirts and they include office air condition that always had me freezing, perpetually pasty, pale lower legs with scars, fat knees, and a hatred of being barefoot in shoes or the alternative, no show socks that dig into my feet or keep popping off.

Rather than looking like a relic in my beloved pantyhose with light support that evened out the leg skin tone and smoothed out bumps, I stopped wearing my beloved dresses and skirts to the office when the rest of womankind stopped wearing hosiery. I wore long pants and capris and waited and hoped the legwear fashion cycle pendulum would swing my way again, but I have now given up hope. It seems pointless to keep dedicating space in the closet for things that most likely will never be worn again.

Now, there are just a few very select knee length dresses and skirts remaining after today’s elimination round (just in case). So far, the long summer dresses and skirts have survived a series of cuts, but they are on borrowed time.

The shoes got a tiny inventory trim today, too. Pumps that were worn with the purged pencil shirts, some sandals, and a pair of boots were set into the donation bag. Baby steps.

Downstairs, there had been a critical evaluation of coffee mugs and drinking glasses for a couple days. A set of juice glasses from Mummu, in my possession for decades and never used, were wrapped and packed. Mummu’s old beer mugs were tested against a more modern mug. The lone factor under consideration was capacity, and the mug that holds the most would stay. It was a tie, so the newer mugs with no sentimental ties were wrapped for donation. A few coffee mugs were weeded out, along with four drinking glasses I never use. The glassware was easier to evaluate than the closet contents.

Both bags of items were delivered to the bins at St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store before there was time to reconsider. A quick trip through the store led to the discovery of a tiered spice rack for the pantry in the new-to-me kitchen, and two sheer storage boxes with lids because there are never enough of those. Another thing there seems to be never enough of is moving boxes. Dang, they fill up fast.

There also needs to be a shedding of some larger stuff in the shed. The racing bike I had to have while in Tennessee has seen thousands of miles, but only ten of them involved actual riding and the rest were logged while on the bike rack on the back of the car. And the fate of an outdoor chair, a patio set, and few other things may be decided by a coin toss.