"Thy Closets Runneth Over"

Okay, I will be the first to admit that I have A LOT of clothes.  I really do.  But it's not completely my fault. Part of it is because I haven't grown for the past decade.  I've been the same height and weight since college so I never really have a reason to throw a good piece of clothing away.  The other part of the 'reason for the season' is my mother.  My mother and I wore the same clothing size and same shoe size.  When she passed away, my closet almost doubled.  She wore the classiest suit and had some pretty amazing shoes. Whenever I wear something that belonged to her and someone asks what brand it is, I say it came from the "Mom Collection". 

I recently took a tour of all the closet space I use just to see how bad it really is.  First there's the walk-in closet in the Master Bedroom.  One side consists strictly of tops.  They are separated: sleeveless, short sleeve, long sleeve and blazers.  Each individual shirt section is also divided by color.  On the other side are all of my pant suits, skirt suits and pants.  Throughout the closet are rows and rows of shoes racks and above the clothes are my collections of sweatshirts.  I then walk across the room to a dresser and see 2 shelves of casual tops and shelf of jeans.  The other dresser in the room has t-shirts, undergarments, socks etc.

That's sounds like about in itself - but that is only one room!  The office has a closet that holds all of my sweaters and casual sweat outfits (matching top and bottom).  One guest bedroom closet holds all of my dresses and skirts.  I just love dresses!  The next guest bedroom holds my formal dresses and my mother's clothes from Africa.  Then I find the dresser that really lets me know that I have far too many clothes.  This dresser has four drawers.  The top drawer contains all of my bathing suits and sports bras for working out.  The next drawer holds my other tops for working out.  The next drawer has all of my long pants for working out and the bottom drawer contains all of my shorts for working out.

I realize that I could clothe an entire village in Africa and probably their distance relatives in Asia.  I've made the commitment to go through my closets and donate the clothes that I haven't worn in years. That's not the easiest thing to do, though.  Sometimes you'll hold up something you've worn once in 10 years but have such a wonderful memory of the time you wore it that it's hard to let it go.  I also will not put another new item in my closet until I get rid of something else. Parting is such sweet sorrow, but as I watch my stack of clothes grow that I will donate to charity, I know I'll be help bring a smile to someone's face as they prepare for an interview, go to church or get dressed for a first date.