Too Much Stuff

I am tackling my closet of lost clothing but I’m doing it at my own pace. Which means slowly because this is not an activity I enjoy and I do have to run everything to Goodwill so it means I can’t just take it all on at once. But I took another load of shirts down today. I guess I can see a small dent in the total but man I had way more stuff than I thought.

I have no idea how and why I accumulated all of this stuff and why I didn’t get rid of some of it when it had been years since it had been worn. I made a lot of bad decisions on shirts. Things that looked cool now look just a bit too much so out they go.

The sad thing is that I’m actually going to have to buy a few new ones. I know this sounds contradictory but let me explain. What I’m ditching are shirts I would wear to work but not for general purposes. Since I’m not working, I don’t need as many and so a lot of them must go. Side note – I’m wondering if any will find a home or if they’ll just sit on the Goodwill racks for years. I do have some fancy designers so someone will get a good deal.

But I need shirts for appearing in public. I’ve just got this part of my personality that says if you are going to be among people, then you should at least look like you care enough to put on something decent. My basic definition of decent is a button down shirt with a collar. Now I’m not trying to judge because I value comfort as much as the next person but you see some people and you just want to ask “have you just given up on life”. Also, my wife is much more put together than I am so I don’t want to be that sloppy guy next to the better dressed woman. The dilemma is that when I just needed those shirts on weekends, I didn’t need that many. But unless I become a hermit, I’m going to be venturing out and that will require a few more casual type shirts. I guess I can’t be a total minimalist but at least there are more going out than coming in.

I think part of my reason for collecting so much stuff is just that it gets attached to a memory that makes it hard to get rid of. For example, I just saw the swordsman shirt I wore as part of my Dread Pirate Roberts costume. It was also my outfit for the Viennese Waltz routine to “Once Upon a Dream”. Am I ever going to wear it again? You should never say never but let’s just say there is only a very small chance I’ll every pull it out of the closet. So I should just get rid of it, right? Well, I just can’t that this point. Finding it brought back some nice memories so it stays. Again, another obstacle keeping me from ever being a true minimalist.

Well that’s all for this morning. I do have to go into work a bit this afternoon before my workout and then it is double dance lesson night.