I do not need to own you, cropped-and-studded vest.
Awhile back, Kendrick and I simultaneously read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, and ended up going through our entire house and throwing out something like twenty garbage bags’ worth of stuff.
It was awesome.
And yet I still have too much stuff, even after my mini-tidy last August. Especially in my bedroom; you see this view of it the most because the other corners are filled with my lovely (but enormous) vintage cherrywood wardrobe and my son’s old Pottery Barn Kids dresser/changing table (which has had the changing table part removed and is now my dresser, but which continues to look like what it is: a Pottery Barn Kids dresser/changing table). I’ve decided I want the lovely-but-enormous wardrobe out of my house (apparently I’m on a vintage find-divestment kick lately) and am selling it to free up some space, which means that all the stuff that was in it has to go into my already-too-full closet.
So: Cleanup, Take 3 happened.
It wasn’t as epic as the first one, but since I know how great it feels to cast all the junk out of your life from my first and second go-rounds, I was RUTHLESS this time. I let go of pieces that, based on past experience, I’d figured I’d likely end up having forever and ever.
Want to see some of my most embarrassingly ancient and/or hideous possessions, all of which were inexplicably difficult to let go of, and all of which are presently – thank god – on their way to a Goodwill somewhere in the South Bay?
This is an Abercrombie and Fitch tank top that I bought in college, and that at the time I thought was both painfully expensive and absolutely perfect; so perfect that I gritted my teeth and bought it in blue, too. It is, shall we say, “inappropriately sized” for a woman of my advanced age (not to mention completely see-through and hole-y)..and yet in my mind it remains “the perfect tank top.”
It is not the perfect tank top.
Good-bye, Abercrombie and Fitch tank top.
These Anthropologie tunics looked – and I say this with zero humility – so great on me when I was pregnant.
I am not pregnant. Ergo, I do not need to own these tunics.
These are booty shorts with rips in the front and there is literally zero excuse for me owning these. I never actually wore them (as evidenced by the price tag that’s still attached to them), if that makes you feel better.
These cardigans were both purchased in Forever 21 in the year 2007, because I was working in an office and needed cardigans to make my very non office-appropriate wardrobe sliiiiightly less offensive. I wore them constantly, both while I had that job and afterwards, because they’re really great: perfect shape, nice colors, look good with lots of different things, etc.
They are also cardigans that I purchased at Forever 21 in the year 2007.
I feel like a decade is a pretty solid expiration date for a Forever 21 piece. All together now: Let it goooooooooo.
And here is a shirt that was Kendrick’s, and that the arm fell off of, and that he gave to me so I “can do something cool with it.” You can see the dismembered arm; it’s hanging around the top of the hanger.
I am not going to do anything cool with this shirt.
These were really cute yoga pants when I first purchased them 8,000 years ago. They are still comfortable, so I have overlooked the fact that they have, as my mother says, “had the biscuit.” They are ripped and faded and have a silhouette that reminds me of what was super hot back in 1994. My hope is that their absence in my wardrobe will inspire me to dress less like an aging shadow of my teenage self.
Speaking of my teenage self: these Miss Sixty jeans were basically haute couture when I added them to my existing denim wardrobe of Paris Blues and Mavi. Could I cut them into shorts? Yes. But those shorts would have pre-faded thigh panels too, soooo…
#out.
Update: While writing this post I thought “WAIT I ACTUALLY SHOULD MAKE THOSE INTO SHORTS” and ran out to retrieve my Miss Sixties from the back of my car. Remind me to actually throw things out before I write posts about throwing them out next time, please?
