Over the last year and a half I have gone through a lot of my emotional clutter in my head and heart, but I haven’t been able to conquer the physical clutter around me. I am pretty charged up about doing it this year. I have set up a support system which has motivated me in small ways before, but I knew I had to motivate myself to actually get this done in a big way. So the first thing on my list is my closet.
I have a CRAP LOAD of clothes.
Why? I love fabric. I love feeling pretty. In the past when I was feeling sad and overwhelmed by my emotional clutter, shopping and the mini-adrenaline rush that came as a result of it was a coping mechanism.
But after years of doing this, I have more clothes than I want to store and care for. Digging around on the web I have found tons of advice about how to weed out the things you don’t want or don’t like. That hasn’t been enough for me to truly pair down. I tend to purge clothes in sizes that I’m not anymore. I am getting down to things I like a lot or love at this point. There has to be a next, more drastic level of purging tactics.
I’ve come up with a process. It is in motion.
1. WASH ALL OF IT
I procrastinate laundry until the entire closet is empty and I have more loads to wash then an army of toddlers. And then I might only do half that pile at a time. There is no point in recent history that every piece of clothing I own has been clean. As I am washing it, I am getting donating any stray clothes I’ve miswsed in my last purge that I don’t love or don’t fit me in a way I feel great in.
2. INVENTORY
Since it is never all clean at the same time, I really don’t even know what I have. I am making a spreadsheet so I can count how many plain tshirts, skirts, dress pants, etc. that I have sitting in my closet.
3. ANALYZE MY LIFESTYLE
How many goofy tshirts do I really need since I work 40-60 hours a week in a professional environment? Well, I need a few. I also perform comedy. Not that wackly tshirts are required, but I do enjoy having a few around. Thinking about the activities I participate in every week and what I’m required to have for those will determine how much cutting back I will do. Once I have a full inventory, I think it will be obvious that I have neglected some areas of my life wardrobe wise in favor of other areas that I am naturally more drawn too (PREDICTION: goofy tshirts).
4. CUT IT OUT
Once I determine how many wacky tshirts I can have hanging around in good conscience, it is time to start being ruthless and mean. Finding any little flaw with the things I fell in love with in the store and accepting that I have an excess of any given category, keeping only the most versatile and basic items. Time to pare it down to a set number of items.
5. MAINTENANCE
I will do laundry regularly. I will. I will. Moving into an apartment after living in a house for 7 years added to the chaos of laundry time. But now I have found quite a few laundry options varying in convenience and fun. Friends have offered to have coffee with me while I borrow their machine. Dog sitting or babysitting is a great way to barter for washing machine access. The laundromat up the street has giant machines and great people watching. And my apartment complex has some small machines and easy access from my couch. It is simply a habit I will need to retrain myself in now that I can’t do it in my own home.
6. DILIGENCE
Through years of hurt and confusion, I’ve built up a large collection of band aids. I still feel myself drawn towards impulse buying when I’m stressed or worried. But I will explore other ways to deal with those feelings, and save shopping for when items need to be replaced or I find I need to fill a gap in my wardrobe as my life continues to morph. Also, when I buy things now, I hope to make a better investment in quality and versatility.
This is not the first step in a long process of morphing my life into a happy and manageable one, it is just the easiest one to write about. I think figuring out why people collect clutter (Have you seen the show Hoarders? Oh, man.) is the most important step. Dealing with it is tedious, so tracking down the emotional reason for it, for me, was the biggest revealation. Now I just have to get to work.

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Cutting back: Step One

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