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Post by ohblondie on Jul 7, 2014 7:20:03 GMT -5
Hiding - you are right. It saved me time and money (had I actually bought them on line)
Did not do much this weekend as far as getting rid of stuff.
I did some organizing. Did not even do laundry.......
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Post by turkeyhill on Jul 8, 2014 9:49:55 GMT -5
Hiding - you are right. It saved me time and money (had I actually bought them on line) Did not do much this weekend as far as getting rid of stuff. I did some organizing. Did not even do laundry....... Organizing is important and so is "down time" for our mental health!
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Post by Unswamping on Jul 8, 2014 10:12:52 GMT -5
ohblondie it is hard to take a break when we are surrounded by clutter everywhere. Especially if you are home all the time (like me). I decided the 2days i see my therapist will be my time off from decluttering. I will still do maintenance but i give myself a break on those two days. I turn to crash and burn so scheduling time off is important for me. We all need to allow ourselves some mental health time. Youre doung a great job, be good to yourself in the process.
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Post by ohblondie on Jul 8, 2014 11:13:47 GMT -5
FOUR big bags of clothes brought to work today to give to a co-worker. Was all I could do to carry them in. I took a pic - will post when I figure it out.
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Post by sue5000 on Jul 8, 2014 11:28:49 GMT -5
When I sell my house and move, my plan is to take ONLY what I can fit in my car. So I've been trying to down-size everything I own to MINIMAL. Very difficult.
This morning I realized the easiest and cheapest things to replace are CLOTHES, so I will be donating most of my clothes when I move. I can always buy more clothes cheaply at garage sales and thrift shops. Same with furniture.
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Post by Unswamping on Jul 8, 2014 12:30:51 GMT -5
ohblondie four bags! Woo hoo! You go girl. I tried to upload a photo yesterday. After i finally figured it out, it wouldnt let me-it was too big. Photos have to be under 1MB, just fyi.
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Post by Unswamping on Jul 8, 2014 12:33:32 GMT -5
sue5000 what a great idea! I couldnt even imagine doing that. I admire your bravery and determination.
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Post by prudence on Jul 8, 2014 19:49:38 GMT -5
I just read an article about minimal wardrobe duckduckgo.com/l/?kh=-1&uddg=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.keeperofthehome.org%2F2014%2F05%2Fliving-minimal-wardrobe-loving.htmlAnd it helped me realize something: As much as I did not enjoy the Army (I joined because I had no other job options that would get me far away from home at no cost to me - not the best reason to choose that career but I was that desperate to get away) - I kind of missed the simplicity of "uniforms only" when I was in training or deployed. For one, I never got to learn fashion sense and I certainly wasn't born with it, so it was great not having to figure out what to wear. For two - I always knew exactly how many of every clothing I had and where it was. It was nice not being overwhelmed by choices. Kinda weird, huh? How did I survive Army life while being a clutterbug? Barely. Just Barely. The only time my messiness was anywhere near under control for more than 2 weeks at a time, was in the highly stuctured and limited training or combat environments. There was practically NO extra stuff to worry about. But back in the regular barracks, where I more access to more stuff - oh boy. Got in hot water plenty of times. So... that was a bit of a tangent. I'll be going now.
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Post by hiding on Jul 9, 2014 17:34:37 GMT -5
Prudence,
Even though it sounds like you didn't like the Army, I thank you for your service. It takes a special person to put up with all that you have to put up with in the military. I am particularly interested in women who have served. You have all the challenges the guys have plus.
I understand the relief of having to wear a uniform. When I was of high school age I envied the kids who went to private school and wore a uniform. They got to wear the same thing all of the time. I happened to live on the outer edge of my school district. That meant that most of the kids at my high school were from upper middle class families who could afford to lavishly dress their kids. I, on the other hand, was from a poor family. My folks had almost no money for clothes so if I wanted more than 2 outfits, I had to work to earn the money. It was a big issue and made me feel terribly uncomfortable and out of place. If we were all wearing uniforms, it wouldn't be so painfully obvious who the poorest kids were.
So, anyhoo, I'd very much like to hear about any Army experiences you feel comfortable with talking about. Honestly, if I were the age of a graduating high school student now, I would join the Coast Guard. I was not interested in any of the services when I was a teenager, but I have come to admire the Coast Guard over the years since. Then too, the CG is better than it was when I was the right age.
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Post by hiding on Jul 9, 2014 17:45:32 GMT -5
FOUR big bags of clothes brought to work today to give to a co-worker. Was all I could do to carry them in. I took a pic - will post when I figure it out. Oh Blondie, Four bags?! FOUR BIG BAGS?!!! That is extraordinary work. I struggle with filling one bag. I agonize over almost every item. I am making progress if ever so slowly.
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Post by prudence on Jul 9, 2014 21:10:58 GMT -5
hiding- Thank you so much for your kind note! Yes, the Army was not the career of my dreams, but I did make some amazing friends, learned some handy dandy lessons, and got to travel a bit, so it wasn't all drudge all the time. I can certainly relate to the clothing struggle. "Back to School" shopping was not something I could expect every year. When I was growing up my closet was ALWAYS full of clothes - most of which didn't fit properly, all of which was at least a little bit out of style. Because most of my clothes were donated by people at church. Seriously, whenever Mom came home with a large garbage bag with a faint fabric softener scent wafting from it, I felt like I had won the lottery. I'll never forget receiving this one batch of clothes when I was 12 years old wherein only ONE dress fit me perfectly -- in size. It was a light, minty green (which is NOT a good color for me) and was very, very VERY dated. Not as in, cool retro vintage dated, but like, a dress made for little old ladies, but even little old ladies would look at it and say, "Dear, that fashion was before my time." But not far back enough in time to be timeless. I don't know, looking back, the dress was a pretty bad choice for a 12 year old. But all I could see was that it was long enough, not too tight, not hanging off me, and it was practically perfect in every way so why oh why couldn't I wear every other Sunday until I outgrew it? Mercifully, my Mom disappeared the dress pretty quickly, but I did mourn that "perfect" dress for about a week. Yeesh I guess when I spent most of my life seeing other people's clothing "trash" as my "treasure", it explains why it was so hard for me to see any clothing as trash.
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Post by Unswamping on Jul 10, 2014 9:49:14 GMT -5
prudence i thank you to for your service to our country. That must have been such a challenge for you. I am glad you learned sone good habits there. When i was working, i did have a "uniform". I worked in an office that was casual work dress. I bought a pair of dockers and found they fit well, looked nice for work and came out of the dryer without needing ironing. Yeah! Went out and bought every color they made in the style that fit me. Found a pair of shoes that worked well for me so i bought them in 3 colors. So basically they were neutral - white, tan, navy, brown, black. Found tops that were low maintenance, in some colors, each a bit different but not too unique. So it wouldnt look like i was wearing the same thing every day and not obvious that i had about 10 tops that i wear to work. It was great that i could pick out any pair of pants that were clean, grab a top and go. I did that for years, it was very helpful. Unfortunately i still had tons of non work clothes. i can totally relate to your childhood clothing issues. I was the oldest in a large family so there werent any hand me downs. Back to school shopping was never a given. My mom would spend the money on things for herself. When we did go shopping for my clothes, it was always to cheap outlet stores. Clothes would be tried on and after finding something that fit, the next larger size would be bought. So i had clothes that were too big when they were new plus all the old stuff that was too short or tight. Trying to find a high school graduation dress that fit well and looked nice was such a novel experience because i never had a dress that wasnt bought with "grow room". I was always the kid wearing "floods" or cuffed (not in style!) jeans. They were always ripped or patched. Fortunately a relative taught me to sew at an early age so i could do my own mending. Since it was my job to iron my dads work shirt, id try to sneak in putting iron on patches on my jeans.
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Post by ohblondie on Jul 11, 2014 10:18:22 GMT -5
Y'all are doing great!!!!!!! I need to get back on trsck this weekend. I am coming across non bedroom items that got tossed in the bedroom that need to find a home that is NOT in my bed room!!!!!
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Post by prudence on Jul 11, 2014 16:55:43 GMT -5
Discarded a pillowcase of baby/toddler clothes. I was not organized enough to pre treat stains or get soiled clothes wash immediately, so a lot of the baby clothes are too dingy or stained to give away. It would take coniderable time and effort to get those clothes presentable enough to where I wouldn't be ashamed and my To Dance card is FULL, so the amnesty angels released me from the guilt of not blessing another baby with those clothes.
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Post by sunshineshouse on Jul 11, 2014 17:35:33 GMT -5
Hi all, I worked on my hoard of clothes yesterday. I have a lot of skirts and a lot of tops ( a lot of everything else too...). I am slowly working on "I can keep it only if I will wear it" - that seems obvious to most people I guess. I keep my skirts on one small wall of the attic and most of my tops hung along a longer wall. Well, problem is putting an outfit together of a top and skirt. My OCDness wants me to keep them hung separately but I am also thinking when I have the time I should match up about 10 outfits, have them at the ready. I did pull out 3 summery dresses and wore one today. Shoes are another issue!
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