Not that I haven’t devoted a considerable amount of time emptying closets, and refining wardrobes this summer, but we are now going to bring home four suitcases of clothes, and countless bags of towels, bathing suits, cover ups and such. Those closets that were tidied up will be back to overflowing by this afternoon. I foresee many loads of laundry coming my way. Drawers that could shut properly being overstuffed and left open for weeks on end. It felt like too much when I was sending old clothes out for donation, but now we will quickly realize we weren’t thorough enough!
Shorts, pants, sweaters will once again need to be stuffed into those manicured closets. It’s too much stuff back in the house again. Not to mention my closet holds all the empty luggage so my space will diminish a fair bit too. I knew this was coming so I was far more cutting with my own gear. I was not very conservative about what I kept, and what I set free. I have some cruddy old luggage I should have thrown away last garbage day to make room. But I forgot about it once the time came. Silly man.
Now the children will head back to school and I’ll be left to take care of all these returning outfits. Wash them, dry them, sort them, and find a way to put them all away. We don’t typically separate our summer gear from the other three seasons clothes. I don’t have anywhere to put bins of summer clothes for all four of us in order to thin out our closets during any one particular season. Hence the constant struggle to donate clothes or move them along as hand me downs to the next child in line. We no longer keep double digit vacuum bags worth of extra clothes in the house, which is great. Now it’s just two large garbage bags worth. One per kid.
I bet if we audited the clothes they actually wear versus what they have access to, you’d find only 35-40% of what we are holding gets worn. God forbid they should be able to see walks or drawer bottoms when rummaging through closets though. Besides underpants and socks (which we need 100 pairs of) they don’t wear every single t-shirt, sweater, dress, pants, or outfit that they have been given. I’m in favour of having fewer items, but which are of a higher quality. But then again my youngest plays in the school yard mud puddles on her knees, so fewer pants doesn’t really work as I have to soak, rinse, pre-wash, and do stain removal constantly, and I need a heavy rotation at my finger tips to be able to do that. Hand scrubbed, spot stain removal takes time and effort. I can’t do it if she only had four pairs of pants. I need at least 14, so I can get through a week while I fix the previous week’s grass stains. It’s a process!
We have lots of fancy rocks to bring home from this summer too. The Gemboree strikes again! Not only that but our visits to the Princess Sodalite mine were eventful as well. Bags of shinny mineral goodness needs to get washed, and sorted. Potentially displayed if it looks good enough after being washed.
I brought a lot up here for the summer, but my intention is to leave 98% of it there. I wasn’t ready to donate it, but if I can have clothes here so I no longer need to pack clothes for the trip, all the better. Pants, sweaters, old boxers you name it, I have left them up north. I just don’t have many socks up north for one reason or another. Mine wear out quickly, and I don’t keep socks with holes in the heels or toes. Feels weird. Don’t like it. I’m actually looking at cheap wire closet organizers so that I can get items hung up, aired out, and arranged how I like them. I’d love to outfit my room with a chair, floor lamp, a rug, and either a simple desk, or an organizing side table/coffee table type thing. But as work is slow this year, it might be a few years before I can make that happen. But until then I like to migrate my stuff to up north rather than throw it away. I could do that with my books too! Oh. Brain wave…
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