On Friday, the nice people come to install shelves and rods and cabinets in our master closet, and that will make storage much more efficient (currently, clothes are piled on bookshelves). But my closet is not a Tardis, the inside is not bigger than the outside, and space is still limited. Since we had to get everything out of there for the install, this seemed a good opportunity to sort. So yesterday I abandoned Kevin to the children for two solid hours while I sorted clothes. Yes, I probably should have been writing or editing or doing web stuff for work, but I had no brain for any of those. I had just enough brain that I could put on clothes, take them off, and put them into one of five piles:
- clothes that fit and that I want to wear this fall/winter
- spring/summer stuff to go down to the basement
- clothes to try to sell / give away
- too-big clothes that I still love passionately and that I'm going to try to take in (I wish my sewing skills were better, but I'm going to give it a shot) (3)
- too-small clothes that I still love passionately and want to save in hope (just 1)
There were a lot of clothes in category 3. I've changed sizes a lot in the last four years, mostly due to two pregnancies -- gone up to a 16 XXL, and down to an 8 M (where I am now). The breast reduction surgery also means that I can now fit into a lot of shirts and dresses which were impossible before, due to the huge boobage. And then, with all the housing chaos, I've at times had clothes inaccessible in storage, and had to go out and buy more, which I tried to do as cheaply and minimally as possible, but still. So now I just have too many clothes. In the old days, I would be storing clothes 1-2 sizes up and 1-2 sizes down, but I seem to have finally mostly stabilized where I am. And while I still have a workout plan and would like to add some muscle to various places, including my incredibly flabby stomach, I think it might be time to invest in this size being where I live.
I have to admit, I'm sort of excited to do a big clothing sale out of my guest bedroom and hopefully make some cash. I've been to a couple of these in Oak Park since moving in -- women on the local mom mail list have them fairly often. It seems to work best if you lay everything out neatly, hang up as much as possible, and price it all in advance. I have a wide range of clothes, from Target to Gap to Anthropologie, in a wide range of sizes (the aforementioned M to XXL, along with a big bin of maternity). Our budget is kind of insanely tight for daily things for the next few months (the big house renovation items are budgeted separately), and Christmas is coming -- I'm hoping that this big sort will yield enough money to pay for Christmas presents this year. Or at least buy me a few venti chai lattes. I miss them.
If you happen to live nearby and want notice of the sale day, drop me a line. :-) It'll probably be a few weeks from now; I'm hoping to coax Kev into sorting and selling some of his clothes too.
