Fabric Memories
Woman in the Middle | July 21, 2015I keep all the normal mementos that most people keep. Photos, programs of plays I was in in high school, the tassels from various graduations, etc… But I also have a thing about keeping clothing that represents good memories to me.
I have the shirt I was wearing the first time Hubby kissed me, way back in high school. I have the dress I wore to my college graduation, the dress I wore to my rehearsal dinner, and various pieces of clothing that my mom bought me and I have kept all these years just because of that connection.
I bought the new best selling organizing book, “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.” I have to admit, at first read, it didn’t do a whole lot for me. However, I decided to work on things in the manner suggested by the author, Marie Kondo. She suggests working on categories of things, not areas of your house. The easiest category, she feels, is clothing, and she recommends doing that first.
She wants you to drag every scrap of clothing out of every drawer and closet, taking it all to the living room, and going through it all at once. Not. Going. To. Happen. However, I have been systematically going though all my clothing drawer by drawer and, finally, I bit the bullet and did drag all the hanging clothing out of my closet and onto my bed to go through. The good news is this has allowed me to find a pair of pants and a pair of shorts that actually fit me but that I have never worn. Both still had tags. Yay!
The bad news is that I have had to acknowledge that about a fifth of my rod space was taken up by clothing that had sentimental value but no earthly use to me otherwise. Oh, what to do? I have thought about it quite a bit. I decided that the quilt route is not practical. Many of the items are made from material that is just not practical to use in a quilt. Second, the piece of clothing means something to me, not just the material it is made of. If I cut a square out of a skirt, I will likely not remember in five years time what that small square meant.
I have decided to take photos of these sentimental pieces of clothing, write their stories up in this here blog, and then get rid of them. I realized it is the story each piece of clothing represents that is important to me. I decided t was time to get the stories out, and then I can set the clothing free! Be on the look out, the stories are in process and will be coming to a blog post near you soon.
Do you keep clothing that has sentimental value to you? Am I the only crazy one?
P.S. That top I was wearing when Hubby first kissed me? I won’t be getting rid of that!
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