So, I succumbed to pressure. (Hah! Get it? Pressure- couldn't get the door closed? Hah! Okay, maybe it wasn't really that funny...)
I pulled everything out of the closet, and I determined that I was going to sort it all out, throw stuff out, give stuff away, and make that closet a thing of beauty.
When I pulled everything out, I was appalled. This is NOT a walk-in closet. It's a fairly smallish closet, about 4' deep and 6' long. As I pulled stuff out, the crap became an avalanche that made a pile that was 3' deep, and covered the entire area between our bed and the closet- about 24 square feet of space. How on earth did I ever get that much crap in my closet? (For the math geeks, that's about 72 cubic feet of crap.)
I've sorted out two bags of trash. I pulled out old clothes, and I have bagged them up to take to Goodwill. 6 bags of clothing. SIX!!! I found clothes in that closet that were out of style in 1980. I found clothes in there that I kept "just in case" I ever lost enough weight to fit back into them. The more I looked at them, the more I realized that if I ever managed to lose enough weight to fit back into a size 10, I would buy NEW clothes to celebrate the new figure. So, out they went.
I think the biggest surprise were the other things that had worked their way into my closet:
Brio train tracks. Honestly? The kids are 20, 18, and 16, and they were done playing with trains when we moved in here 8 years ago.
Hammers. I found 4 hammers. I handed them off to DH, who got this very confused look on his face and said "Where did these come from?" Even stranger, all of his hammers were accounted for.
Belts. 10 belts. 2 of those belts were mine. 1 belonged to daughter, and no one has claimed the other 7 belts.
Addressed envelopes. I found envelopes- stuffed with Christmas Cards, from 3 of the last 5 years. No stamps on the envelopes, but they were addressed.
I believe I have found the other end of one of those mysterious black holes where everything disappears. It's in my closet.
And then, stuffed into the back of the closet, I found these two items:
I wore this dress to a wedding back in the early 1990's.
Take a look at the back of this dress. Yes, this a bow on the butt.
Just what every bridesmaid wants: A big satin bow on their butt, while
standing in front of a congregation, facing AWAY from the congregation.
And then, there's this green dress.
I wore this to a wedding in 1995.I have had this dress in my closet for twice as long as the
couple was actually married.
My daughter looked at the dresses and said "Mom, the 80's called. They want their clothes back."
These dresses are headed off to Goodwill, along with the other 6 bags of clothing later on this morning.
As you can see from the picture, the closet doors now close!
I still have two more plastic storage boxes to buy to store blankets in and then I will declare my closet to be officially clean!
Two weeks of pretty solid work, and my closet is finally clean! I tell you, I'd forgotten how nice it is to open a closet, be able to hang up clothes, or to be able to FIND something clean to wear.
I just wish I'd found a winning lottery ticket, or maybe a couple thousand dollars hiding out in there!
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