The other day we all woke up in the morning a little chilly and something inside me leapt for joy - fall is in the air! Fall is my favourite season. I love when the weather has a little nip, enough so that the air is crisp and fresh and I get to pull out favourites jeans and sweaters. Yes, fall clothing is one of my favourite things.
It also meant it was time for the semi-annual clothing switch. Because our house is older, the closets are tiny and the room small, which means there isn't space to keep all of our clothes out all year. So now I must put away shorts and t-shirts and summery wear and pull out sweaters and pants and pullovers. It means lugging up 9 large totes and emptying them of their contents and refilling them. It also means culling the closets of clothes that no longer fit or are no longer worn.
This year I tried to be extra vicious with the culling. I used a method that worked really well. For the summer stuff going to be packed away, if I didn't wear it this summer, I donated it. This might seem obvious, but there were a couple of things that were favourites from years gone by (some I still had from high school) that fit fine, but that just didn't make it into the rotation. Gone.
The second method was even better. Because I love sweaters, I've got lots. They are big and bulky and take up lots of room, and I couldn't believe I actually had 4 big bins of fall/winter clothes that were just mine. When I opened the first tote, I pulled out the first sweater and my heart smiled and my face smiled and I couldn't wait to wear it. The second sweater did not illicit the same reaction. Aha! And so my method was born - if the item didn't make my heart sing and excited to wear it, it went into the donation pile. I now have a HUGE garbage bag full of clothes to donate.
The boys' culling was easier. Stuff Benjamin outgrew is now in a box for hand-me-downs. And anything that couldn't fit into the boys' drawers went also. Three boys' clothes in one laundry basket means I'm doing laundry before they can go through two drawers of clothes, so there really is no need to have more than that. Easy-peasy.
And so challenge #5 went fairly well and was pretty painless. I have also told myself that as the season goes on, anything that I don't wear at least once a month must also go to a better home. Because my goal of less stuff outstrips my desire for a big collection of outfits.
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