Retiring Some Clothes

Last week, I threw away a couple of shirts that had holes in them. (If I didn't already have a lot of shirts, I would've held onto them.)  As a rule, as long as a shirt has all of the fabric intact, it stays until it develops a hole or shows signs of wear in say, the collar.

With pants, the rule is they stay until they wear out at the butt or inseam, or the leg in the case of shorts. If a pair of long pants has a hole in the knee, I can cutoff the part of the leg where the hole begins (and the corresponding part of the other leg), and they'd become a pair of shorts.

One of the pairs of shorts that I have is a khaki cargo pair that used to belong to my sister. However, they turned out not to fit her, so she gave them to me. Lately, I've noticed that they're starting to develop a small hole in on of the legs. I think I'm going to have this be the last week that I wear them.(Besides, while the zippper can be closed, it won't stay closed.) Then I'll be down to three pairs of shorts (one of which is a black stretchy pair that started out as long pants until they developed a hole in one knee).  I doubt that I'll wear them all out before it's time to put them away though.

So that's three less garments in my wardrobe. That should make for more space as well as more "wearing" time for other clothes that I have.

Eating Chocolate That I've Had For Over A Year

Over a year ago, I had gotten about three or four boxes of Whitman's chocolate which I kept in a drawer. I had eaten all but one at some point. I'm eating the last box as I write this.

The box had been shrinkwrapped the whole time. It doesn't look like it's in bad shape at all. I doubt all get any posioning from eating it. (I'll let you know if I do.)  After I've eaten the all of the chocolate in the box, I can throw the box away, and it'll be one less thing I'll have sitting around.

Welcome To Project Whitespace

Do you ever find your self accumualting a lot of stuff over time, some of which could be thrown out or is waiting to be used up or worn out? I do.  Sometimes, I feel like it's a stumbling block against my being as organized as I ought to be.

Right now, I have more clothes than I can fit in my dresser, and a lot of it is too intact to get rid of. I also have a lot of lotions, perfumes, nail polishes, eyeshadows, etc. to use up. Very little of it is stuff that I have brought into my possession myself. Rather, it is often a contribution from someone in the family. I also have papers and mail I have collected that I maybe could throw away.

Using up, wearing out, or throwing out stuff of my own to create more "space" in my life is only one part of my "project".

There is also another part. I currently volunteer at one of the thrift stores in my hometown. Sometimes various displays, especially clothing racks and bookshelves, tend to get rather crowded. At various times, I will buy books from there (and any other place that sells used books) to free up shelf space. After that I will register them with Bookcrossing, read them, than release them to some random public place for someone else to find and enjoy.

So there you have it. I will be focusing on using up and wearing out things that I own (as I don't like to get rid of intact clothing or any leftover cosmetics or anything like that) and tossing out needless papers, empty containers, and clothing that has been worn down to the point of having holes and making my life a little more simple...maybe.