Letting go

Off to the charity shop goes: 2 cardigans (one very good quality but has a hole in the middle of the back, the other just the wrong style for me – makes me look pregnant), 2 skirts (one given to me by a friend when she cleared out her wardrobe but I never wore I as it was wrong style, other just very dated), a dress, 2 jackets, a T-shirt, a bra, a lacy top (had it for over 21 years), hardly worn shoes (uncomfortable) and a pair of expensive, but stupidly gimmicky, walking shoes (don’t ever buy shoes with a curved bottom. There’s a good reason for shoes being flat on the bottom.)

Over at 365 Less Things, Colleen sets weekly missions on decluttering; one activity for each day, Monday to Saturday, with missions being focused on a room, a type of object or things grouped in some other manner, such as the material of manufacture. This week she has taken a little twist. Instead of the focus being on finding a certain item, Colleen has asked us to declutter something and then contemplate the benefits of decluttering.

Monday’s mission was to declutter an item of your choice and spend 10 minutes listing all the positive effects decluttering will have on your life. So after decluttering some clothes and shoes, here’s the results of my contemplation about the benefits of decluttering my clothes:

it looks nicer when I leave my cupboard door open.

I feel better looking at a tidy cupboard.

it is easier to select what I want to wear when I can see the clothes.

it is easier to retrieve what I want to wear without having piles falling out.

I know that frumpy, worn out or ill-fitting clothes won’t be there as they have been culled.

My clothes last longer and are less likely to be damaged if they are not squashed together.