About 5 years ago I realized that I was filling up my life with things. Books, CD's, DVD's you name it, I collected it. Then one day in a remarkable feet of self-realization, I figured out that these things don't define me, or how people view me.
I kept my books so people could see how smart I was. I had 400-500 books. Over the next 3 weeks I trimmed my book collection by about 350 books. It was liberating. I knew I was never going to read them again.
Then I went and tackled the closet. At that point I had 3 closets and 2 dressers filled with clothes. This weeding out process has taken far longer. I started with a one-in-two-out strategy which to now has gotten me down to a closet and half a dresser. Now it's about quality, not quantity. Gone are shirts I wore once, here to stay are shirts that I wear once a week. Notice I didn't say anything about price. Some of my favourite shirts came from Old navy for 5$. They are all gone now, worn out, but the practice of wearing what I like and keeping it still remains. Sometimes it pains me to donate away a shirt that was quite expense but that I ended up never wearing but it has to be done.
My BF brought me back some clothes from his trip so now I face another purge. I think I can go to a 2-in-3-out policy now but the trades are always much harder now that all the crap is gone.
Now to figure out what to do with 6 pairs of jeans when I only need 2-3. What do you keep when you love them all?
