(no subject)

[mamculuna]

A couple of days ago I cleaned out my office, and finally tossed two boxes from my old work office, including grad school notes, papers I gave 15 years ago, and many, many student papers. Deathless prose, you die!

And today it was closets. I live in a very old house with tiny closets, and I love thrift stores. And I no longer need several suits and dresses for every season, or those tiny little jeans, or the tshirts with holes in them...but the black velvet embroidered vest, that one I had second thoughts about.

What should you throw away?

Comments

[anneth.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to cut down my clothing collection too - I've been moving around a lot; lots of things are out of date but not really quite cute enough to hang onto until they're cool again; I've lost some weight - but it's hard! Yes, I haven't worn that dress in years, but I love it!

Good luck.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

Moving is great! Nothing gets to hide in the back of the closet. I've seriously considered it just as a junk remedy.

[c-mantix.livejournal.com]

Difficult call. I kept my tiny little jeans until my right thigh became the size of the waist of the itty bitty pants... i.e. roughly 20 years. Conversely, I still have student papers mouldering in my basement.

And, er, keep the vest. It's art;-)

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

Yep, that was my vest thought, too. Wear it or frame it. But I'm acquiring a whole closet section like that...soon will need to winnow out good v. bad art, I guess.

[midnightsjane.livejournal.com]

Totally keep the black velvet vest. That sort of thing is a classic.
I did the closet cleanout last fall, and managed to give away/throw away things I haven't worn in ages, and will never wear again. I have to do that again, get rid of all those too tight tee shirts and such.
I have boxes of banking and tax type papers, all useless now, but waiting for my purchase of a shredder. It's too hard to shred all that by hand..

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

I have a shredder but lots of times just tear off the identity part and shred that.

On to the kitchen! I won't post about what I find there, lurking in the back of the fridge...not sure I'll even return from the exploration.

[wombatina.livejournal.com]

wow. purging. i still have papers i wrote in high school (ok, it was on angela davis, i couldn't give it up!). good for you. be brave.

and what is with that crazy icon?!

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

That's a Chicago hotdog--with everything (including bright green relish, tomatoes, and dill pickles).

And I did keep some of the papers, especially the Marxist overview of vampire literature...can't go overboard with this cleaning thing.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I should probably think about giving some of my sweaters to the lupus fundraising drive, but mostly I've been cleaning out things already this spring.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

Good for you. I gave all the clothes to the Salvation Army--hope some of them can still be used.

[anomster.livejournal.com]

I tend to wear my clothes till they're worn out & not suitable for donation (& then I wear them at home!). But one thing I discovered about being in science fiction fandom: it has a substantial contingent of costumers, & they're always looking for fabric they can use to make costumes. So every so often I take a backpack (often worn out itself & possibly a source of fabric) filled w/stuff too far gone to wear even at home to an SF convention & "donate" it to the costume people.

However, there's also stuff I stop wearing before it gets to that point & could probably stand to get rid of. If (yes, it's if rather than when) I do, I'll donate it somewhere. On the other hand, I've been known to go back to wearing clothes that I hadn't worn in years & am glad I didn't give away.

As for your vest, mamcu, it sounds like a keeper. The main question is probably, do you think you're likely to have occasion to wear it again? If not, maybe it would do more good at Dress for Success (http://dressforsuccess.org/) than at the Salvation Army. Except now I notice you said you gave the SA "all the clothes"--did the vest go or stay? I think we all want to know!

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

I kept the vest! Who knows when I'll wear it, but I have it!

And like you, I wear clothes till they're mostly over the hill--definitely not good for Dress for Success, though I did give some of my mother's better stuff to a similar group here.

Neat idea about costumes...