I'm started a musing-type post half a dozen times in the past week, and always rambled and rambled and eventually got distracted before finishing. I'm not sure tonight will be different. But I thought I'd tackle one small part of the musing I've been doing, rather than ramble endlessly.
I've nearly completed my third week with a minimal closet, and reality is
starting to set in: a minimal closet doesn't make my flaws disappear. Nor
does it remove every irritation of life.
Hard to believe, I know. Here’s a
few things that I think I expected to magically change, and didn’t.
First, I lose things.
My cropped boyfriend blue jeans are missing. I have no idea where they are – the easy
thing to do would be to blame it on my laundry helpers. But it doesn’t change the fact that I don’t
know where they are. This wouldn’t be a
big deal if I had 200 other things in my closet. But it was one of two pair of pants (the
other being my white boyfriend jeans) in my current closet.
Second, I’m not careful (make that: I'm pretty sloppy). I have to wash my white jeans and white
shorts with every wearing because I get stuff
on them. My white sweater yesterday morning
lasted less than two hours before I decided to sand down a cabinet wearing it,
and didn’t think to put on an apron. At
least I noticed that I was filthy and changed before taking my kids to swimming
lessons.
Third, I’m lazy. I’m
not going to specially launder something even if it says to. Honestly, I’m not going to launder it at all
– my kids are, and I’m not going to keep on top of them well enough to remind
them not to put certain tee shirts in the dryer, etc. My wool sweaters pretty much just never get
washed – this works in the winter, because I wear an undershirt with them. It doesn’t work in the summer. Consequently, my jersey knit items are just going to be quick to pill. I am working toward developing the habit of handwashing my bras at night rather than putting them in the laundry. They're too expensive to buy and too time-consuming to make to treat them lightly.
Now, there is a host of things that having a small closet has made easier - but that's another post
How does your closet reflecting your personal "idiosyncrasies" ?
