I just have to say first thing that your response to the book and the video trailer yesterday warmed my heart. If I were like the Grinch I’d say my heart grew three sizes that day, but I already had a big heart and would never dream of stealing Christmas from the Whos in Whooville. Although I might be tempted to put some reindeer antlers on Mabel and Piper next year.
After watching the weather forecast on Tuesday night, I noticed that it appears our temperatures will remain spring-like for the foreseeable future. I mean I’m sure we’ll have another cold spell or two, but it will be short lived. And so I decided yesterday that it was time to reorganize my closet and put all my sweaters and heavier things up on the top shelf and get down my shorts and other summer items I forgot I owned until I saw them again.
This is honestly one of my favorite things to do. Which is so bizarre considering that I am really not an organized person in any other area of my life. My desk drawer is a travesty. The pile of things on my desk is stacked haphazardly. If I want to use the pepper in my spice cabinet it will take me five minutes to find it because I put it back in a different place every time and P will be the first to attest that I am THE WORST at using something and not putting it back where it belongs. It’s just what I do.
Yet when it comes to my closet I am a completely different person. I can live for a little while with t-shirts stacked at random or my sleeveless shirts being hung amongst my long-sleeve shirts, but it eventually becomes more than I can bear and I have clean it all up and throw out things that I know I never wear anymore and are just taking up space. So that’s what I did yesterday. I hung my gray jeans together and my skinny jeans together and my bootcut jeans together and my patterned jeans together. I got my white jeans down from the top shelf because it’s about their time again and lined up all my shirts according to style and color.
I made a pile of things to donate, a pile of things to take to the cleaners and a pile of things that needed to be thrown out. And when I looked up three hours later to survey the situation, you would have thought I’d finished a triathlon with the level of pride and satisfaction I felt.
Meanwhile, Mabel stayed by my side the whole time and felt certain that all the clothes landing on the floor were intended purely for her comfort.
I posted that picture on Instagram yesterday and someone mentioned it looked like those pink pj pants had the Simpsons cartoon characters on them. I assure you that is not the case lest I lose all credibility. They are actually little birds wearing hats which is much more elegant than Homer Simpson.
And I am not even kidding that I just took a break from writing this scintillating tale of my closet clean out to read an article a friend posted on Facebook about Marie Kondo and her organizing strategies where she actually says, “Clothes, like people, can relax more freely when in the company of others who are very similar in type, and therefore organizing them by category helps them feel more comfortable and secure.”
I’m going to sleep soundly tonight in the knowledge that my jeans feel more secure than they did yesterday. As for my socks, sadly, they are still rolled in a ball and have no chance to rest as suggested in the article. Also, I didn’t kiss any of my stuff goodbye or thank it for its service and yet I feel only marginal guilt about it.
Au revoir, orange Lucky brand sweatpants with the embroidered bird on the leg, you served me well as you masqueraded as legitimate pants that felt like pajamas.
See you later, eight pairs of underwear with elastic that had gone to that big elastic graveyard in the sky.
Thanks for the memories, yellow wedge heels that looked so great and made my feet feel so bad that I once walked through a hotel lobby barefoot because I couldn’t wear them one minute longer.
Fare thee well, swimsuit coverup from Target that had seen better days…specifically in 2005.
I bid you adieu, six socks that had lost their mate. May you find a new partner in the great sock afterlife and may you never have to be rolled up and exhausted again.