Winter is coming.
And that means it’s time to prepare for spending more time inside the condo. Time to get rid of stuff!
I purge every fall, but I’m often left feeling unsatisfied. No matter how much I get rid of, it never feels like enough. This fall I’ve taken on a new strategy. Instead of dedicating one full day to getting rid of things, I’m doing it in smaller sections so that it doesn’t seem overwhelming and so that I can be more thorough. While I don’t think I’ll ever be a minimalist or achieve a capsule wardrobe, I do think this strategy has already helped me make more progress than years past.
Here are the sections I’ve broken out and my progress:
BookcaseShoesBags- Shirts
Pants- Dresses/Skirts
- Accessory clothing (scarves, bandanas, leggings, nylons)
- Jewelry
- Coats
Sunglasses & glasses
Easy…
Some of these were easy to tackle. For example, we knocked out the bookcase in a day. We spent maybe a half hour in the morning getting rid of items we knew we’d never read again or use and setting tchotchkes aside for storage. I spent the rest of my home hours that day moving things around on the shelves and trying to achieve a visual balance. I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out – I just really wish I had taken some “before” photos.
Purging pants is usually pretty easy – they sort of get rid of themselves. I just toss whichever are the most worn out.
Purses were also surprisingly easy to purge. I had so many wonderful bags that I still found aesthetically appealing, however they no longer fit my lifestyle. I walk and I dance, so I need to carry a bag large enough to for a pair of dance shoes and comfortable enough to tote for many miles. When I applied that lense, it became easy to purge; I cut my bag collection in half.
Difficult…
Shoes are harder. There’s always that one pair that goes perfectly with that one dress…so that if I get rid of the shoes, I’ll have nothing to wear with the dress. I suppose I could just make it easy on myself and get rid of both of them. But what if there’s a cocktail party and I need a dress and shoes? I don’t want to have to get something new if I’m perfectly happy with what I already have… And? But? Gah. I’ve ended up getting rid of about ten pairs, but could probably stand to get rid of some more. Yep…shoes are hard to purge.
I was also surprised to discover that getting rid of sunglasses was super difficult. I attribute that to having lived in LA for 4 years – I could not leave the house without sunglasses. In fact, I still don’t leave the house without sunglasses. Even if it’s the dead of winter and the weather app says that I won’t see sun for the next two weeks, I have a pair in my purse and at the ready. Sunglasses are no joke.
Well, almost no joke. It was pretty funny when I realized that I was still hoarding four pairs from when I worked at Blue Ridge Mountain Sports. Some were broken, some no longer fit my style, some I didn’t even remember owning. Kind of like a sad joke, really. I went from twelve pairs down to four. The blue pair are my daily go-to shades. Pink because…well, look at them. The black pair on the upper right because I feel like I should own at least one pair of black sunglasses. And the brown glasses upper left are very special: I bought those in Heidelberg four years ago from the Fossil store on the Hauptstrasse – it was the trip where CJ proposed.
Dreaded…
Up next will be dresses and jewelry. I always have a really difficult time with dresses…but I don’t think I have ever purged my jewelry. I’ve got so much, but it’s so neatly contained in a beautiful chest that it’s easy to convince myself I don’t need to gut it.
But I must and I will!
Has anyone purged a jewelry collection? Any tips for me before I embark on that nightmare?
Have to recommend “The life-changing magic of tidying up” that has been all the rage lately. I loved it, and although Isaiah someone who purged regularly learned a lot about how to make it stick from the author.