When I first started working on this project, downsizing my clothing and not buying new clothing was a big goal. Then, I got pregnant. Slowly, all of my clothes stopped fitting comfortably and I needed some new items. I have two older sisters who both already have children though, so luckily most of my maternity wear has been free. There have still been things I needed to buy though. As time has gone on, my closet has gotten a little stuffed and I realized the other day that 95% of my maternity stuff/random clothing that still fits me, has all ended up just living in my clean clothes basket.
Because of the annoyance of having so many of my clothes living in a basket, I decided that today was finally the day that I was going to start waging war on my closet. I went through every drawer, shelf, and hangar in my closet. Some of the stuff was at the end of it’s life and could either be thrown out or cut up into rags. A lot of the stuff just doesn’t fit me right now in my current state of roundness though, so that stuff I just packed up into an 18-gallon tote.
Realizing that I had a full tote of clothes that I could pack-up made me realize that it is probably time to purge again, so I also sent in to ThredUp for one of their donation bags (when the donation bag gets here I’ll do a separate post about that). It also made me take a long, hard look at some of my clothing. Even though I don’t really have that much stuff I somehow had two jackets that were almost identical. How does that happen?! I didn’t even remember buying the non-hooded one from Old Navy, nor do I really know where it came from. Either way, one of those jackets will certainly be getting donated.
Now, all of my clothes that actually fit me and I can currently wear live in this one tiny, neat space. It’s still probably more than I need, but it feels good to have organized everything. I hope that I can do more organizing and eventually downsizing over time. For some reason, getting rid of stuff is tough for me right now. I’m not sure if it is all of the extra hormones making me feel sentimental or a slight urge to nest taking over, but I’m feeling much more into organizing and cleaning than throwing out, which is highly unusual for me, but I’m sure I’ll get the urge back eventually.
I get the feeling you live in a really small town. Since transport is so expensive, do you have a local donation station? Something like a Little Free Library where you can drop off your excess and pick up what you need, or do you have to take it into Anchorage?
Hi Roberta! I don’t even live in a town, especially not compared to the standards typical of the United States. I live in a village of less than 60 residents in the Alaskan wilderness. There are no roads in or out of our community. Things like donation bins, libraries, or even trash service do not exist here. It costs about $3.10/lb to ship anything to Anchorage from the village, so unfortunately shipping things to donate in any way other than something like ThredUp just isn’t financially possible.
Just don’t be surprised if none of your pre-pregnancy clothes fit you after having a baby. It isn’t about weight as I got to 5 lbs. below my pre-pregnancy weight about 6 months after having my son. My feet permanently became 1/2 size bigger, my bra size remained 1 cup size larger even after I stopped breast feeding, and my hip bones are actually 1 inch farther apart than before. Anything that was fitted or snug didn’t fit any more including most of my shoes.
Definitely preparing mentally for none of my old stuff to fit. However, I don’t want to get rid of anything that I might want after just in case. It’s cheaper to keep it and donate it later than toss it out and have to replace it.
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Could you maybe offer the things you no longer want or need to others in your village? Maybe start some kind of swap, hold a yard sale or free sale, or just tell people you have some things you no longer need and see if they want them?
Hi, Crystal! I did somewhat address this in my follow-up post to this one. I plan to give away some of my items in the village. The problem is that there just isn’t really a demand for things in my size. There’s only maybe one other woman in the entire village that wears the same sizes as me and the oldest female student at our school is a 6th grade girl (who probably weighs 50lbs less than me and is 6inches shorter). In such a small place, it’s just hard to figure out what to do with everything.
I have to admit that I am VERY fascinated with your village. It sounds like your area could really use some kind of clothing closet type thing to take unwanted items but if there aren’t enough people to pass them on to, I don’t know. It’s a foreign thought to me. It almost sounds like the best thing to do with it would be to cut them into rags or burn them, wasteful as that might be.
Can you tell me how to find your other posts? For some reason all I seem to be able to find are the two about cleaning out your closet. I see links to the previous year but not one for your year.