Oh No...Mr. Bill, I'm A GIRL!

If indeed it is elves or fairies, I wish they really didn't know what sizes I wear, and what my taste in clothing is. That being said, I am leaning toward the latter of the above sentence. I must have a clothing addiction. I believe this because I have been doing laundry for two days and low and behold...I am still washing. Now, some would say that well, you have more than yourself. Yep, sure do, I have a husband and 5 animals.

That's IT! The little dogs are wearing my clothing and mustering it up! NOT.
I just have too many clothes.

We have been under the constant flux here from remodeling and moving the things of our lost loved one, and just generally reclaiming what is ours.

OK, so here has been MY plan.

Go into a room...decimate it! Take it to bare bones, remove everything. Go through it ALL, sort shift, discard, clean replace where everything in the room is perfect and ORGANIZED! WOO HOO.

The problem...What comes out, has to go somewhere?

If you remove it from one room...where you going to put it until 1) you can sort through it. 2) you feel good enough to go through it 3) where are you going to keep those things till then?
Enter ...space bags, garbage bags, eye socket bags!
OK, antiques, doilies likely never to be used again, and memento's which should be protected go into space bags... DONE!

Throw out things not worth saving...ummm, we might do this a few times, because well,...I just might want that, OR I might get into that...
OR You know I could save that and put into a quilt, or cleaning rags, or.... (well I am sure you get by now)

NOW, onto the reality. I have WAY to many clothes. No I CAN'T get rid of them. Some are versatile outfits. For church, meetings, going out, or you know holidays, ( Yeah and I could win the Lottery and what would I wear)

I have clothing for working outside. Yep...plenty of them. It may not have officially started that way but who throws out a perfectly good fitting bleach and dirt (permanently stained) Jeans?
I have all the other clothing.

I think I have an addiction to the potential I used to have. Ergo the 14 dress outfits and suits. Too many outdoor clothing. Just plain and simple. Then there are the other outfits. Just too many cute outfits!

Here's the truth. When I was younger, they never EVER called me Jackie (yeah that is my name), they called me Jack. Yep a boys name. Oh wait..I was fine with that, because I truly thought I was supposed to be a boy anyway. I liked tools, Fields and the woods. I liked bumming underneath the cars, and fixing the water. I had no problem except..OH I am a girl. I really struggled with this for years. I choose to go into traditionally male dominated jobs, (yep and broke a few of the old theories about women during this time). I fixed my car. I was a single parent. I did it all, anything a man could do, yep...me too. (Boy and girls alike. When they tell you girls you can't stand and pee, don't believe them, I tried that too! Just to prove I could. It was messy, But I could do it!) I should have been a boy. I didn't like dressing like girls did, I definitely didn't go for the whole cutesy tootsie, getting my hair curled thing!

Fast forward to ...COOL fashions! OLD AGE! and just the general discovery of great fitting jeans. There is my issue. I found out I am A GIRL! A girl who can match clothing, arrange pictures, shape and figure out how to decorate my world. Beginning with the inventory of filled hangers in my closet! LOL..Oh it is such an issue.

I had the clothing in the one room, waiting for my strength to be rebuilt. Oh...enter...

THE DOGS!

The ones that think their mommy REALLY loves them, they know this because look what she did for us...She made great new beds for us in the laundry baskets! Yep...they got all over the sorted clothing and well...the clothing got clirty...I am hoping you know clirty.
its a combination of clean and dirty. Yep my clean clothes were clirty, they were contaminated by my animals dirty feet. clean + dirty =

CLIRTY!

OK...today, I bit the bullet. It IS LAUNDRY-DAY...OK DAYS!
two days and counting. but this has given me a chance to get reacquainted with many items I haven't seen in a while, and yes I vow to touch them in the next 6 months!

My addiction is apparent. I admit it. Trust me I am on the semi road to recovery. I did get rid of some, donated to our local free charity.
But that has left me with 5 weeks of, ummmm, non-repeating outfits.

So, as I go through the outfits, I plan on putting markers, otherwise known as going to the ends of the closet, so I know which I will get rid of in the spring!

Wish me luck!