The 2010 Clean Out: Part One – The Shirts

For the past two days I’ve been talking about de-cluttering, cleaning out, making more space, and getting rid of things that I no longer use. Well, the other night after I wrote the first entry in this little series I actually went under my bed and pulled out both of the plastic containers with the old clothes in them. As if that wasn’t scary enough, I pulled all of the clothes on hangers (i.e. t-shirts, button down shirts, and polo shirts) out of my closet and threw them on my bed.

It was a complete disaster.

My goal was to separate the clothes that I haven’t worn in over two years from those that I wear on a regular basis or a semi-regular basis. Aside from the horrifying sight that was the heap of shirts on my bed, this was actually a very easy process because, well, when you don’t wear a shirt for over two years you know it!

While this was a good way to begin removing the excess clutter in my closet, the cleaning out process was also aggravating in many respects. Here are some of the reasons why the first phase of this clean out was annoying:

• Never Wore the Shirt. By far, the most aggravating part of the clean out process was looking at all of the shirts that I purchased and never even wore – not even once. I’m not talking about shirts that I picked up, wore out one night or wore to work one day, and then forgot about (skip down to the next category). No. I’m talking about the shirts that I purchased because they were on sale or they were buy 2, get 1 free or whatever and the never, ever wore them. Not only have these shirts created a bunch of wasted space in my closet and underneath my bed, but they’re also a great example of money that I completely wasted.
• Underutilized Shirts. This is similarly related to the previous point. While there were some shirts that I never wore, there were other ones that I remember wearing once or twice…and that’s it. Oh, and I’m not saying that I wore these shirts last week or the week before – some of these shirts haven’t been worn since I was in college. Once again – a complete waste of space and money. Damn it.
• The Frustration of Weight. If unused and underutilized shirts are in a sort of tie for the most aggravating part of this clean out process, then a seriously close second place would be looking at all of the shirts that I wore when I wasn’t as heavy. Talk about a downer. I dug out some t-shirts that I haven’t worn since about 6 years 90 pounds ago. Some people might suggest holding on to those shirts so that I have them for when I lose weight. Well, before the day comes where I start dropping weight in large quantities again, I have to figure out how to break the combined curse of my two hour commute and my diabetes medication. It ain’t easy, folks…in fact, it’s downright f’ing frustrating. Anyway, looking at all of my old clothes that I used to be able to fit into was aggravating.
• The “Good” Aggravation. I guess this final point is a bit of an oxymoron, but having all of these useless shirts laying around has me planning a trip to the local Monmouth County SPCA. I donate my old clothing to the MCSPCA because they sell the clothes and use the proceeds to help fund care for the animals. It’s a great program, actually. So I can live with the aggravation of having to drive over to the shelter because I know that the end result will be beneficial to someone’s future Fido or Kitty.

Now that the shirts have been cleaned out…my various collection of jeans are next. You want to talk about buying pieces of clothing and never wearing them? I have some pairs of jeans that still have the tags on them…