Day #6 of 30 Days to a Simpler Life --- Dress with Less

Your mission on day #6 is:

Spend at least an hour reviewing your wardrobe.  Create a wardrobe without "strays" --- items that don't go with anything else.  Identify your strays and hang them at one end of the closet.  Plan to buy something to go with them or give them away. (30 Days to a Simpler Life, p. 38)

OR for serious simplifiers only...

"Freeze your wardrobe", says Allison, an artist living in Boston.  At first, we thought she was suggesting we put our clothes in cold storage.  A shuddering thought!  But she meant, "Don't buy any new clothes for a specified time period---freeze your wardrobe in its current state (and continue to cull out the clothes you rarely wear).  When you feel compelled to buy something new, write it down on a list." (30 Days to a Simpler Life, p. 44)

I don't really have any "strays" to speak of.  I do, however, have a hall closet chock full of stuff that I'm afraid to let go of.  See the shiny burgundy sleeve close to the front?  That's my prom dress circa 1994.  I think it'll have to stay because I love it, but there is a TON of other things in there that can go.  I'll tackle this today instead.

Here are my day #5 (organize your closet) results.  This is my closet before:

Doesn't look too horrible...just kind of sloppy.  Here are some funny items I found in there---

You're probably wondering why I saved these and why in the world one leg is cut off.  A couple of years ago, I dislocated my knee while ice skating.  The hospital had to cut my favorite jeans off in order to put my knee cap back where it belonged.  I kept them because I thought I could turn them into shorts.  So yesterday I did.

I still need to hem them, but at least now they are in semi-wearable condition.  Anyone want to go to a sorority function?  I graduated from college 14 years ago and yet inexplicably still have this sweatshirt.  Don't worry---I put it in the recycle pile.

I also found some square toed black leather ankle boots (circa late 90s) and white strappy sandals that have always been uncomfortable and cut into my feet to donate.

This is my closet after:

I ended up with about 1/2 of a large black trash bag for donation.  Hopefully, I can get the comforter (taken out of the linen closet the other day to give to my mom) and Rubbermaid tub (full of stuff to sell on eBay) out of there soon.  

I'm saving the hall closet for this afternoon.  This morning the Cobbler has sent us on a mission to get some pieces of steel for his electric car project at a metal supply place downtown.  I'm a little nervous going with two kids.  We'll see how that one goes.  

Another quilting project got finished yesterday.  One of my friends had a quilt that her husband's grandmother  made long arm quilted for his 40th birthday.  His grandmother passed away years ago, but they found the quilt top in an attic so it has a lot of meaning for him.  It still needed to be bound, but she doesn't sew so she asked me to do it.  Here's a peek at it.

Yesterday turned into kind of a debacle with the kids.  We had both a pee and a poop disaster (i.e. poop smeared on the bathroom floor and wall and then pee mixed with mud tracked from the downstairs bathroom up the stairs into the office) and to top it all off the washing machine overflowed so today has got to be better.  It has to be better, right?