Spring Cleaning!

Last night, I decided to clean out my closet.

(I really ought to make these decisions before 11:30 p.m. in the future.)

But hey, I was motivated, and you don't want to let that rare closet-cleaning motivation get away when it happens to strike.

(Because USUALLY what happens is I'll want to clean something, and then realize that to clean that, I'll just be moving stuff from there to someplace ELSE, so the other place has to get cleaned, and I'll come up with this whole domino list of things that have to be cleaned, and I'll end up deciding I'd rather pop some popcorn and watch a DVD and start on the cleaning bright and early NEXT weekend.)

So, last night:  closet.  I did the dresser too, for good measure, since it was all about the clothes.

I finished with the throwing out, but not so much the reorganizing.  (I have 3/4 of my T-shirts in the closet and 1/4 in the dresser.  I need to make a decision on where the T-shirt Department ought to be.)  But seeing as it was around 2:00 a.m., it didn't seem like time to embark on that final step.  I can do that tonight.  (Although I'm sure I'll procrastinate about it till at least midnight.)

ANYWAY, what was notable about this particular closet cleaning out was that, unlike most earlier cleanings, this one was fairly ruthless in terms of FASHION.

Most -- if not all -- of my prior closet cleanings have focussed on whether the clothes were too worn to actually be placed on a human body in public or (sadly) whether my particular human body had outgrown said clothes in some important dimension (generally speaking:  the hips).

But last night, it was all about looks.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still the sort of person who is likely to get cited by the Fashion Police.  It isn't like I'm looking at my wardrobe and tossing things because they are "like SO last year."  No, no, no.  I was tossing stuff because I'd been watching Nick-at-Nite, and saw Vanessa wearing the same thing in a Cosby Show rerun.  Seriously, I threw out some clothes that I bought in college.  (If anyone is keeping score, I graduated college in 1988.)  The guiding principle was this:  Yesterday it was about 100 degrees outside, so I could safely say winter was over.  Given that, if there were any "winter" wardrobe items in my closet that I didn't wear even ONCE over the past season (or thought about wearing but said, "Oh no!  Anything but THAT"), it was time to send said items off to Tax Deduction Land (i.e. Goodwill).

It was hard -- particularly the stuff that was still in dry cleaner bags. (Why?  Why did I pay to have that cleaned if I was never ever going to wear it again?)  But it had to be done, and now I have three Tall Kitchen Garbage Bags full of clothes that were just taking up space.

(Taking up VALUABLE space.  One of the nice things about cleaning the closet was I found a sweater I liked which I'd thought had gone AWOL on me.  So it was good to get rid of the old 80s relics that had been blocking my view of the rather nicer turn-of-the-millenium relics.)  There was one item I very nearly kept, thinking that someday I might know a kid who needs to dress up for "80s Day" at school and would be the envy of all her friends if she wore this dress.  Complete with little white socks with lace around the ankles (to be worn over tights, of course.  With heels.  Just like in the ZZ-Top video.)  But I eventually tossed it.  No kid is gonna mock my generation wearing clothes I actually WORE.

The good news is:  I won't be wearing them anymore either.