Cleaning House

Lately I seem to be doing way too much "house cleaning" on a figurative level...and not nearly enough of it literally. Yesterday I had a holiday from work and my boyfriend unexpectedly ended up with an almost entirely work-free day, due to the (Will it ever end?) rain. So we decided to tackle a project we'd talked about for ages, but kept putting off: we cleaned out our wardrobes. (Such a lofty word, "wardrobe," to describe some ratty-ass clothes.)

And man, did it feel good! We tossed out three big bags of clothes between the two of us. I remember reading in some magazine many years ago that a good rule of thumb for closet-clearing is to toss anything that hasn't been worn in a year. Obviously there might be some sentimental exceptions, but that "rule" did come to mind as I was going through my duds. It's astounding when I sometimes think back to all of the clothes I've given away/tossed out over the years...some of which would be nice to have back! But clearing out my wardrobe has always been a good exercise for me to get the ol' energy moving, so to speak. I'm not a pack-rat...I have a certain limit where stuff is concerned. Specifically where clothes are concerned, I always feel compelled to toss out some old stuff when I buy a bunch of new pieces. I bought a few items on our recent trip to the States, but not as many as I would have liked.

It's hard to have the wardrobe I want here because I really have to try clothes on before buying--there's too much variance in manufacturer sizes for me to just grab something off the rack and know that it'll fit my small frame. I learned that lesson the hard way. We have tons of catalogs floating around the house, but I still haven't bought a single piece of clothing from a catalog because of the whole trying-on thing. And we simply don't have the stores here that carry clothes that I like at prices I can afford. There's one fabulous boutique downtown that I love, but their clothes are more high-end...definitely not the kind of super-casual stuff I wear in my day-to-day workaday life. And since we were stateside in the Fall, the stores weren't carrying many clothes that would work in our year-round summer weather.

So what's a gal to do? I guess bide my time until I can get back to the States and start wearing "real" clothes again. In the meantime, I'll schlump around in my casual duds and flip-flops...and remind myself occasionally that my red cowboy boots and faux leopard coat are still in the States...waiting...