Tidying up my closet

Remember when I wrote how a Twitter thread about Lane Bryant brought back a lot of old memories? 

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2021/07/rag-bag.html

I was probably getting there anyway, but I think the thread exacerbated it; I could not stand looking at my closet anymore.

I pulled everything out.

It was very much inspired by Marie Kondo. I read the manga version of her book in 2019. I liked it and found it interesting, but I wasn't really at a point of implementing it yet. You have to figure that someone who calls a tidying expert is at one level of relationship with their possessions that doesn't automatically apply to everyone else. I would think about things she had said for some things, but was overall okay with my level of tidyness.

No longer.

I saw a closet stuffed with clothes I hated, and it had to change.

I know experiences vary, but it was really easy. I know which things I don't like. I usually know why I don't like them. That was why I kept never pulling them out of my closet.

What I had not realized -- and this does take some trust -- was that I would still have enough clothes once I got rid of everything I hated. 

I have "joked" about having three shirts, and I did pretty much rotate only those three. 

Once I eliminated the shirts that show too much arm or the ones that constrict my arms or the ones where the fabric has no give or is too heavy or is a color I hate from a year when the season's palette was not my thing at all... it's actually more like I have eight shirts. 

I can see that one of them is getting older, and it may not stay in the rotation for very long. For now it's there, and after that there will still be seven.

I also have more skirts than I thought, after getting rid of at least five plus two dresses.

More to the point, I can find them now! They are not cramped and obscured by clothes I hate, but bought because I felt I needed to, because of the limited options for poor fat women.

Not everything went as expected. It would have been easy to get rid of the sweatshirts, because I hardly ever get cold enough to wear them. However, I like them when I wear them, so they can stay. (Those are not included in the eight shirts.)

I have been holding on to some T-shirts from events where I volunteered, where there is sentimental value even though I do not look good in those kinds of shirts. They are 100% cotton; they can work well for rags or for wrapping hair; I just hadn't thought of that before.

Finally, my favorite shirt that got torn? It is just some bias tape missing from the neckline, but the way the fabric was gathered, I can't fix it. I realized I can wear it around the house, even if not out and about. I have done so twice now, and it sparked joy.

There has still been no buying of new clothes, but my closet feels more abundant than before.