Spring Cleaning

This weekend we took advantage of the Gap Get & Give discount and did some shopping to update our wardrobes (it's amazing the freedom you feel to have a monthly car payment off your shoulders!).  Since most of my clothes were bought off a clearance rack, therefore awkwardly fitting or just plain didn't fit at all, I needed to add some pieces to my limited clothing selection.  Munchkie's Daddy and I are looking forward to a trip we are taking in May for our anniversary (five years already!) so we also had to make sure we had appropriate clothing for the dress requirements and extreme heat of a Riveria Maya resort.

We first headed to the aquarium to let Munchkie have some fun and tire out.  Then we headed to the outlets for some serious shopping.  After several hours pouring over racks and revisiting dressing rooms we finally arrived home with our purchases.  I, of course always have to analyze the things I spend my money on and so laid out all of my clothes to make sure that they all had my approval for a second time.

Then I explained to Munchkie's Daddy the importance of cleaning out our closets, that we have clothes we haven't worn in a long time. One of my favorite blogs, and the one that introduced me into the world of blogging, SimpleMom.net, is having a several week serious of cleaning out your home.  This past week's was the closet and I realized that our closets do need some attention.  Although I have taken several garbage bags of clothes to various clothing drop boxes over the past several months, I still have clothes that I go to put on and realize that they are no where near fitting me anymore.  Time to free up the oh-so-precious-and-quite-limited closet space.  So after standing in our closets throwing clothes behind us, my pile looked something like this.

How does one even have space to hold all of these misfitted articles of clothing?  We have had our bed raised so we could fit storage containers underneath our bed and that is where most of my clothes have been stored.  This is an especially bad place to keep them because it's out of sight, out of mind.  Thankfully I had brought it down to two tubs previous to this extreme clean so there wasn't nearly as much to go through.  I had to tell myself as I pulled each article out to examine.

When did you last wear this?  How do you feel while wearing it?  Does it flatter you?  Is it even in the right size? 

If it didn't pass these questions.  Behind me it went.  It took several minutes to muster up the courage to throw some of them behind me.  It's a little piece of history that's being discarded and thrown out of your life.  There were several times when I knew something needed to go, but couldn't do it, so I would hold it up for Munchkie's Daddy and say "What do you think of this?"  Each time hoping that he would say, "Oh I love that, don't throw it away."  Those words never came out of his mouth.  I think once he did say "Well that is a nice dress" and it wasn't even something I wanted to keep.  Haha!  By the time I was finished with this closet massacre my closet looked quite bare and I wished that I would have looked a little harder while I had that coupon available.  It is actually kind of fun to shop for clothes now that I can get normal sizes.  I don't have to be embarrassed by how I look in something or what size I have to find.  I've been dreading it for so many years now that I go in, get down to business, and get out before many tears were shed.

This is now every article of clothing that I own.  Other than socks, underwear, etc.  I have the above tub of Tshirts, pj pants and hoodies that will go back under my bed.  The pair of capris will hang right there on my closet door.  Those are my next motivator.  I bought them because I can button them, but they definitely aren't comfortable or well fitting yet.  I need something to look at and to motivate me to not late night binge or unnecessarily carb load due to stress induced cravings and moments of lost self control.  I hope that these capris are just the motivation that I need.  Although, it would be better to hang them from the pantry or refrigerator, I will have to settle with my closet door.    

After our cleaning time we filled three trash bags full of clothes.  I will need to finish up all of our laundry so I can pull out the items I have been wearing that I shouldn't be.  Such as the burnt orange XXXL top that looks hideous.  Needless to say, it makes me feel very good to have a closet with some nice looking items in it.  It is cleaned out and organized just the way I like it.  I can go up into our room and sigh, because it's not an overwhelming mess or a job too big for me to tackle.  It's already taken care of.  And I can pull any item out of my closet and feel confident wearing it.  No more hours spent trying on and then discarding clothes in front of the mirror attempting to find something in my closet that is wearable.