I'm Getting Rid of 90% of My Clothes

What if?

What if you threw away (or donated) 90% of your clothes. 4.5 months of living out of a single suitcase provided perspective. The 3 weeks since I fully unpacked, have provided more.

Fashionista

I am not a fashionista in training. Denise will be the first to tell you that. And from time to time, the look she gives me shortly before we are to leave the house, tells me that too. I know that look. It causes me to turn and retreat to my closet…most often with her in tow.

I also don’t own the most clothes in the world. Every house we have ever lived in Denise had the larger closet. And as discussed before, we are less attached to stuff than many people. In fact, typically twice a year I would go through my closet and drawers at home and fill bags with items that were donated to a woman’s charity.

So when it came time to pack for our move to Portugal I once again purged. I cut my shoe inventory in half. I donated about 25% of my clothes. Having done that I still filled one large suitcase and nearly filled two duffle bags. Denise snuck some of her things into one of “my” duffle bags. The plan was to live out of the one suitcase, for two months, until we arrived in Portugal.

RV Experience

The years we owned OLGA (the RV acronym for Old Ladies Get Around) should have taught me a lesson. On the first extended RV trip, I took a lot of clothes. It seemed each subsequent trip we made I took less. In fact near the end, when OLGA was being stored in an air-conditioned storage facility, I left most of my RVing clothes in place. A few t-shirts, a sweatshirt, a pair of jeans and some shorts. (Yes I wear underwear, I just didn’t store it in the motorhome.)

A Few of My Favorite Things

On 15 March, when we moved into our apartment, we were anxious to unpack our duffle bags and hang our clothes after 4.5 months (2 months in Florida + 2.5 months in temporary digs without enough closet space.) In fact, even though we thought we might not unpack everything the first day…we did. We just couldn’t relax until every single item had found a home on a hanger or a drawer. [Had our friend Gwen been here, the items would have been ironed…they still aren’t.]

What I have learned over the years is that I have “favorite things”. A t-shirt that is soft and comfy and drapes just right. Jeans that fit perfectly. Golf shorts with perfect pockets that stay where they are supposed to when I retrieve the ball from the cup. Despite the fact, everything is now unpacked, I still reach for my favorite things when I dress. There is a lesson here, that I hope I remember before our next move.