Decluttering – Part 1

So apparently, I’m addicted to clothing. I’ve been reading a blog called The Simple Dollar which has some great financial advice as well as living simply. One of the posts talked about having too much clutter. The story basically discussed all the bad mistakes the author had made and how it lead to some pretty large financial troubles.

I’ve been thinking for a while about the disaster that our house is; Hannah even comments that it’s so overwhelming that it makes getting anything done impossible. The thought of the amount of work is paralyzing.

So with all I’ve been reading and thinking and feeling lately I finally decided to do something about it. Little steps though. I can’t just clear out the entire closet as that would take way too long and too much work, but if I take a little bit at a time, say one type of clothing, then it might be manageable.

Today is polo day. After scouring our room I found I had 30 polo shirts. 30. Three-zero. I could go an entire month and never do laundry and have all the shirts I need. I probably only need seven at most plus a couple of long for the winter. My limit was 10.

I set the rules as this: 1) anything that was stained, goes and 2) anything that didn’t fit goes. I can always buy more shirts if I need them, but really…! It took about half an hour and most of them were stained; a few were frayed or had holes, and only 2 or 3 actually didn’t fit. When all was said and done I had 8 shirts and 2 long ones. Thus making my goal of only 7 polos. Tomorrow should be Hawaiian shirts which I think I may only keep 5 of. Got to think about that.