There's hope

At last -- I have an appointment to bring clothes into a consignment shop tomorrow! I've picked out the best of the bunch, at least half. It's a lot of clothes. Now I have to squeeze them all into garment bags and hope that they make the grade.

Oh dear,
won't you sell my
old clothes for me!

Stop-and-drop toy consignment

What a weekend.

Friday evening: hosted in-laws for supper.
Friday night: attended party -- first non-work party without child in almost four freaking years!
Saturday morning: worst hangover ever.
Saturday afternoon: mommy & son time on the patio, at the grocery store, and behind the scenes at the local NHL arena -- J particularly enjoyed body-checking imaginary opponents into the boards.
Saturday evening: hosted friends for supper.
Saturday night: sleep, beautiful sleep.
Sunday morning: picked up my dad at the airport.
Sunday afternoon: hosted J's 3rd birthday party Part I (the family party).
Sunday evening: J's birthday party continued.. Did I mention that I was still recovering from Friday night?
Sunday night: deep, deep sleep.
Today: up at six; golf with dad; fun with J...

Did I mention that I'm an introvert?

Where did I get all this energy?

Could it be, possibly, the joy of clutterbusting?

On Thursday afternoon I took a huge volume of toys to a consignment shop. Their stop-and-drop system rules. Basically, I dropped my toys off, no questions asked, no appointment necessary. I was in and out in five minutes.

They promised to review my stuff within a few days and call me to pick up anything they didn't want. I figured there were bound to be a few rejects, which I would then drop in a donation bin. But no. I got a message the very next day thanking me for the great toys which will all be displayed for sale in their shop(!). I'll get 40% of any sales within the next 90 days. After 90 days anything unsold will be returned or donated. This system is a thing of beauty.

I can't wait to see how it turns out!

Blockage

No one wants to consign my clothes! They haven't even seen them.

Apparently I'm not the only one who's been purging her wardrobe around here. The local consignment stores are full...

"Call me in two weeks."
"Call me in August"
"... in September"

Argh.

Still playing with clothes...

I was pretty disappointed with the prospect of returning two big bins of clothes to the basement, so I gave them another look. 


I realized that there's room for my off-season, business, and too-small clothes in three small, recently-emptied, drawers in the guest-room closet. 


I'm much happier with this, because I did not want to put any clothes back in the basement. When it comes to clutter, out of sight isn't out of mind.


Then I turned to the "rags" bin. 


Since I wanted to keep a painting outfit, I put a pair of jeans and a couple of tops back in my closet. Better to keep them with the rest of my clothes, instead of hidden away in a (packed) basement. 


I took the wearable "rags" out of the house and dropped them in a donation bin. Getting them out of the house felt great.


Now, instead of two full bins going back into the basement, I have just a dozen rags. 


This feels much better.

On the consignment front, I discovered that the local consignment boutique isn't taking anything until August. What a drag. I've got call in to two other shops.

Now what do I do with it?

I finally finished going through my clothes yesterday. 

I started last week, ran out of time, and then took a break.

When I returned to the task, I was a lot faster.

In the meantime, I'd been to a business-social function. In the past, this would have meant lots of outfits on, outfits off, and general angst. This time, I was able to see everything in my closet knowing that it all fit me. I picked out my clothes and got dressed in less than five minutes. This was great motivation.

Here's how I tackled my clothes.

I dragged all my clothes out of the bedroom closet, the armoire, the laundry area, and two bins and a portable "closet" in our basement. I hadn't really noticed before how many places I had clothes stashed away.

I gathered it all in our guest room.

Then I went through everything and put it into one of these categories:

1. Garbage. (I put these things directly into my son's diaper bin, for obvious reasons.)
2. Give away or sell. (Initially these were separate categories, but I kept getting caught up trying to decide whether to give away or sell.)
3. Keep and mend. ("Do you want it enough to actually mend it?") (Nothing went into this category!)
4. Keep and store -- Halloween. (Two things: a black silk skirt that would make a great Batman cape; a black velvet tunic.)
5. Keep and store -- business clothes. 
6. Keep and store -- off-season clothes.
7. Keep and store -- too small. (Wear-dated for one year.) 
8. Keep and store -- too big. (In the end I kept just one thing in this category. A pair of gorgeous black wool pants with a black satin stripe down the outer seams. I should ditch these because I don't ever want them to fit again, but they are really great, flattering pants...when I was two sizes bigger than I am now. Hmm.)
9. Keep and wear now.

I went as fast as possible and tried to imagine myself shopping. I'm a slow shopper, so I asked myself, "Do you love it?" "Does it make you feel good?" Also, "Do you ever put this on only to take it off because you don't feel good in any way?" That's an easy good-bye.

I did 5 loads of laundry at the same time. Distracting but surprisingly effective. Every time I ran to the basement to switch loads, I witnessed the incredible amount of crap down there.

As contemplated, my remaining too-small clothes are now in a wear-dated bag. It's practically a minimalist's closet: three pairs of pants; shorts; a turtleneck; a cardigan; and ten pairs of new cotton undies, which I look forward to wearing five pounds from now. 

If these clothes don't fit in a year, I'll throw in a t-shirt and eBay the lot under the heading "Complete Minimalist Wardrobe".

My own wardrobe is far from minimalist, but it's much trimmer now and it fits me.

I still have a bin that holds off-season and business clothes (unworn since I quit my job but definitely keepers), along with the wear-dated bag.

Although I threw out lots of other clothes, I kept a bin of "rags". That is, clothes I'd be happy to rip up or paint in. Why, oh why? Possibly because my hubby recently bought a 10 lb. bag of rags!  I'd rather toss those purchased rags and use my own. And I'd like to have something I can wear to paint a room...

I just realized that "rags" was not one of my nine categories. How did this happen? This bin is pretty much as-is. I guess I got lazy. Or rushed. Added a label and felt good about it. Fell for the organization trap.

Clearly, I have more culling to do there. And apparently writing about this process has some use for me. In the meantime...

... I now have all of these clothes that I've decided to sell or give away!

Going Soon

Yes, this picture makes me smile. 

I'll be even happier when it's gone. It's all in good condition, since the worn stuff either went out in the garbage or into that "rags" bin. The easy thing would be to put it all in donation bags and be done with it. But I like the idea of a little cash in my pocket. While I'm tempted to Craig's List it, I'll probably compromise and consign it. I won't get as much for it, but I'll be able to get rid of it quickly.

So, next steps:

1. Divide it into three sets -- dressier consignment; casual consignment (for a different consignment store); charity.
2. Move it on out.
3. Do something about that "rags" bin...

Freezer burn

So mundane, but I finally emptied out my freezer today. Somehow it seemed easier to buy more meat than to reach into that cold, cold box. I finally took the plunge.

It's surprising how quickly frozen food spoils. I'm throwing out expired mini waffles, mini pizzas, and a Lean Cuisine entree; two mostly-empty freezer-burned tubs of ice cream; a piece of breaded fish in an unmarked baggie; and a half-full bag of frozen beans that tasted like dust.

Happy discovery: a bag of Mediterranean mixed veggies that I must have bought when I wanted to spoil myself. Perfect for tonight's supper.

To ensure that we eat all of this soon I'm making an inventory to print and post on the freezer door:

• Ground beef (2 unlabelled freezer bags, about 3 pounds total).
• Stir-fry beef strips (2 packages each >1 pound).
• Rib roast.
• Boneless pork chops (5).
• Bone-in pork chops (2).
• Pork roast.
• Boneless chicken breasts (6).
• Mini hamburger buns (11).
• Regular hamburger buns (4).
• Mini hotdog buns (10).
• Regular hotdog buns (6).
• Bagels (5).
• Waffles (4 2).
• Lean Cuisine entree (1).
• Pie shell (1).
• Mini tart shells (12).
• Vanilla ice cream (unopened).
• A tiny amount A full container of my husband's favourite ice cream.
• Homemade beef stock (4 x 2 cups).
• Cooked pasta for J's lunches (5 x 2 cups).
• Chopped spinach (500 g and 300 g).
• Peas (about 500 g).
• French fries (about 300 g).
• Blueberries (about 300 g).

An embarrassment of riches in our kitchen. Looks like it's burger time.

Nancy Drew's shoes

We interrupt this week's clothing clutter-bust to bring you an extra-large bag of clutter hauled out of the basement today.

Contains three large stuffed dogs, one promotional monkey, and one stuffed bunny with x-shaped eyes that recites "Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep..." in the creepiest voice imaginable.

Yes, I'm throwing out five of my son's toys. He has lots more. As a precautionary measure, and due to lack of space, I've stored them in the basement for the past few months, without complaint.

I'm also throwing out a pair of incredibly comfortable mid-heeled patent leather pumps, which would have been perfect for the original Nancy Drew, until the leather got scraped. I wish I could say they got scraped in an old mine shaft, but it was probably just a parking lot.

Also five empty shirt-boxes. "What if I need to gift-wrap a shirt?" protests my clutter voice. I'll wrap it without a box, that's what. Check out Clutterkiller's piece on The "What If's?". I took her advice and moved quickly when I got the urge to toss these boxes.

I'm pretty sure that I put a couple of other things in the garbage bag that I've already forgotten. Amazing how that happens.

Now it's all on the curb with the rest of our garbage and recycling, waiting for the garbage and recycling trucks...

In the meantime, I'm resisting the urge to run outside and retrieve the pumps to make a kick-ass Nancy Drew Halloween costume. As if I could pass for a teen-aged crime-stopper anymore. As if I even go to Halloween parties anymore! But maybe when Nancy grew up she became a clutter-buster, hm?