Julia's Day 40: I can't handle the mid-process clutter

I'll admit it, sometimes I do organize the clutter, but mainly because if I didn't, I would go COMPLETELY INSANE.

Christa, Day 13: It's Hard to Imagine My Closet Getting Any More Edited

Who has two thumbs and had a banner Freecycling day? This guy. I passed along my little painted table - a truly grody piece of furniture I picked up during a housewarming party in Rhode Island when Tedd and I went for a walk around the neighborhood and then painted, a new cheese board set that was an oddly non-pertinent thank you gift from the contractor who renovated our bedroom, a spoon rest that was lovely but was doing not much other than taking up space on our counter until it started taking up space in my cabinet, and the nut grinder that was one of the presents we opened on our oh so sad Christmas morning of 2010.

But that's in the past. One day in the past, since we're talking about Day 12. Let's look at Day 13, shall we? 

Simplify your wardrobe. Is your closet bursting full? Are your drawers so stuffed they can’t close (I’m talking about dresser drawers here, not underwear). Simplify your wardrobe by getting rid of anything you don’t actually wear. Try creating a minimal wardrobe by focusing on simple styles and a few solid colors that all match each other. Read more.

Are my closets bursting? Ha, no. Finally, a day where I can roll out some expert cred. Not that I'm any kind of real expert, but I did study up on the capsule wardrobe concept in the early days of my employment - often because I had nothing else to do - and I've been making due with a limited work wardrobe since I started. In my non-professional life, I actually make even more dues (ha). Mostly because my uniform consists of black pieces, denim, and a handful of easy to wear jersey maxi dresses. For my pro wardrobe, I look at working with a limited selection a challenge. For my day-to-day wardrobe, it's about ease. And also looking fab in black.

Maybe I'm just deluding myself and everyone at work notices that I'm wearing the same 15 things over and over again, and my friends are all giggling about my limited black on black with black wardrobe, but my guess is no. When was the last time you noticed when someone had reworn an outfit? Possible never. I lay the blame on the media, which maintains that wearing an outfit more than once is a frugal choice and that every season must come with an updated, if not entirely new, closet full of clothing. My present-day style icon? Angelina Jolie. She keeps things classy, likes black as much as I do, doesn't go overboard with her hair or accessories, and frequently is photographed wearing outfit repeats, a favorite pair of shoes or shawl, or otherwise very simple clothing as compared to her Hollywood counterparts.

I consider her one of the few famous people who has accessible style. Maybe it's not everyone's style, but it's been a good primer for me - someone who up until a few years back was terrible with clothing.

So when I read something like the following pull from an article on The Punch, there's a part of me that says "Lucky!" and a part of me that says "Dodged that bullet!": Siegle reports that we buy nearly half our body weight in clothes a year, but more than 20 items hang in our wardrobes unworn. We also have four times as many clothes as we did in 1980.

What struck me about that pull was not all the shopping that must be going on around me, but rather the bit about 20 unworn items. I like to think of myself as pretty practical when it comes to clothing, but now I'm wondering if even I have 20 items that aren't getting worn (barring a few pieces of random formalwear that you can pry out of my cold, dead hands). Off the top of my head, there's a pair of pants that doesn't fit and probably never will because as much as I would like to be that thin, I like to be eating food more. And a t-shirt that is so soft but too silly for wearing outside of the home. Things like that.

Edit them, you say. Well, there's a problem. That weird t? I layer it in the winter. The tight pants will go in the donation box tomorrow, but for the most part the things I am not wearing now will see some play in the wintertime when I need to layer or lose my arms and legs to frostbite in his horrible climate. Mainly the things I am not wearing right now are not seeing any action because it's too warm, and being that my wardrobe is already so limited, I'm a bit afraid to do much editing other than getting rid of things that absolutely, positively do not and will not ever fit. Wouldn't want to have to restock when the cold sets in.

Christa, Day 13: A Trip Down Memory Lane

Closets and drawers... closets... and drawers. My own little likenesses of the Dorian Gray that is my life. The good news is that not ALL of the closets and drawers in my wee house are filled to the brim with out of place or unnecessary stuff. I don't, for instance, have a junk drawer - as much as I really would like to have one since the one that my dad always had, and still does, has always been a source of bizarre family fun. Junk closets? I have at least one, and I'm about to go look at it so I can address today's simplification idea:

Edit closets and drawers. Once you’ve gone through the main parts of your rooms, tackle the closets and drawers, one drawer or shelf at a time. More here.

I chose one little corner of the "red room" closet and, wow, what a haul.

Tedd's uncle's infant silver set and Tedd's, too. Long old fashioned gloves that my mother-in-law wore when she was a young adult - which aren't practical and the lovely pink kid gloves from France are too small for my big fat hands *cries*. The shoebox of things from P.'s early life, like one of her tiny preemie diapers and a preemie onesie that seems too small for even dolls (plus her umbilical cord stump ewwwww!). What is probably too many pairs of tap shoes. Manuals for all the baby products that came with manuals. A few books, some evening bags, a pair of Crocs Mary Janes the P. will grow into, a batik skirt I thought I'd make into a dress for her, and more.

Now tell me, is that a lot for one little corner of a closet? There were also some files that got stashed in there when we were moving our bedroom upstairs and random papers, to, including a print out of a pirate ship with no contextual clues as to why it was there. I love treasure hunts! This was a fun one, even if I didn't quite get into the spirit since not much made it into the trash or the donation pile. The books are going down to the bookshelves, as are the CDs and the silver, while other stuff will be filed or brought upstairs for safer keeping. The gloves I'll keep until P. is old enough to appreciate them - hey, they don't take much space - and the tap shoes...

Those I'm on the fence about. I don't exactly have a need for multiple pairs of tap shoes sporting different heel heights. I know I don't.

Particularly not the one-offs I used in a single show, like the white Mary Janes. Adult tap around here is all about the jazz funk, so my custom crossovers will likely do me forever. But still, keeping my shoes around is like my guarantee to myself that I will tap again someday. It's just that the teacher I really like teaches classes that are too dang far away, boo.

Basically I took a few trips down memory lane, put whatever had a place back in its place, and now have a slightly less messy closet in a room that is sort of up in the air as to its purpose. 

As far as my overall voluntary simplicity progress up until this point goes, I DID make a meal plan to simplify home chores but trashed it tonight for Subway (which was simpler, so ha), I DID ultimately choose to let go of a fairly big obligation that will free up more time for family (woo!), and my first big item to go on Freecycle was this:

Bye bye, treadle table! And thanks, Freecycler for hauling it off!

Christa, Day 11: Editing. And a Zucchini!

*raises hand* Compulsive straightener here! As mentioned in a previous post, I almost can't make it through a room without wiping something, shifting something, or grabbing something to put back in its rightful place. However, that hasn't stopped me from acquiring TOO. MUCH. STUFF. Sometimes I think it's a uniquely American dilemma even though I know it's not strictly true. But you have to admit, we here in the U.S. certainly go about our daily lives surrounded by a near constant barrage of advertising imploring us to buy, collect, refresh, update, whiten, upgrade, etc. And while we're not big shoppers, I am the sort who somehow ends of just... acquiring things. Which brings me to today's list item:

Edit your rooms. One room at a time, go around the room and eliminate the unnecessary. Act as a newspaper editor, trying to leave only the minimum, and deleting everything else. Article here.

Since I did nothing yesterday but *think* about getting rid of big stuff and on top of that, had nothing profound to say about it (unlike my fellow contributors who addressed stuff like debt and the larger clutter they don't have), I am going to stand up right this second and do some impromptu editing. Just as a way to get started, mind.

What did I edit in less than five minutes of walking around my house?

• A red metal and glass gumball machine
• A potpourri tin shaped like a treasure chest
• A cut glass pitcher
• A silver butter dish
• A brass bowl
• A big round vase
• Two sarongs (that are being repurposed dress-up items)
• The contents of a wee glass box (flattened coin, 9/11 pin, another pin, etc.)
• A cat picture frame with a picture of our wedding cake topper 
• A getting-on-vintage leather Coach purse from when Coach still manufactured in NY

Obviously, each of those things had either value to me or meaning to me or was otherwise valuable to me at some point in my life. But for the most part, I had no idea why I had these things. Or if they were gifts, they'd been taking up a fair amount of space without being at least somewhat useful. Honestly, donating some of these things will feel a little odd, but I'd rather have the usable space than the stuff itself.

Does anyone else feel like that? And then feel a little guilty about it? At some point, years ago, I apparently lost my emotional connection to stuff.

P.S. - Tonight I decluttered my fridge by beer battering a zucchini and frying it up. That counts, right?

Christa, Day 10: I Guess We're Not Starting Small?

Did you know that I used to be a compulsive side of the road furniture grabber? In a handful of cases, that compulsion has resulted in useful furniture upcycled by yours truly, such as this and this. In many others, however, grabbing side-of-the-road furniture has resulted in less space in the unfinished side of the basement until we hauled it back outside. Oops.

Which is why, perhaps, I feel a special fondness for today's 72 Days simplification idea:

Get rid of the big items. There’s tons of little clutter in our lives, but if you start with the big items, you’ll simplify your life quickly and in a big way.

I'll admit, it is 9 p.m. and I have not actually divested myself of any big items.

The linked article that accompanied today's idea seemed like it was designed for a slightly higher income bracket than my own. Why yes, I am reconsidering my need for a vacation home! Upon reconsideration, I still can't afford one! And I finally got over my sports boat addiction, so that's another bullet dodged. Unfortunately, a car is what I'd call necessary around here since we're not living in NY's five boroughs or in Boston proper anymore. Storage unit? Nope. Unused appliances? What does that even mean? A second washer on top of the first one?

But seriously, the main big items we have around here are furniture, and most of that is furniture we use. Mostly. However, there are four items that I can say without a doubt are doing nothing but taking up valuable space. These are:

• Paloma's old changing table
• A little yellow side table
• An old glass door book shelf
• A treadle table for an antique sewing machine

Why these four? Paloma's changer is kind of useless at the moment and if I was having another baby I think I'd spring for a convertible dresser with a built in changing table top - or, you know, change the baby on the closest flat surface so I could keep mah money. The little yellow side table is currently just a spot collecting stuff that ought to be put away. I painted that table myself, but it no longer is "me," if you understand what I mean. The old glass door book shelf was given to us by an upstairs neighbor who was moving out and it was one of those weird situations where I didn't know the guy but felt strange saying no. Ditto on the antique treadle table - which has an antique sewing machine to match in a box somewhere.

None of these things has any real sentimental value to me, save the changing table. And what kind of sentimentality is that, anyway? I can't toss this! I took our daughter's rectal temperature on it! Sheesh. Each of these things is taking up space and doing a whole lot of nothing. Okay, the treadle table has a box fan on it, but a chair would do almost as well. It's a bit late to be dragging these items outside at the moment - hello, 9:19! - but I feel good that I've identified them as problem furniture, and in the next week or so I will list them on Craigslist and Freecycle and hopefully someone bites.

Problem almost solved!

P.S. - Check out the Day 10 post on 31 and Holding!