reverse purged today

[sandra-leigh]

But it wasn't as dramatic as some of the other reverse purges I've read about here.

We have a disorganized basement that we've been "meaning to" clean up for at least the last 6 years... but any time we need to store something, downstairs it goes, where-ever there is room.

For the last 7 or so weeks, we've also had a mouse; we thought we were rid of it a couple of weeks ago, but it has definitely put in a reappearance... either that or a different one got in somehow.

One of the things we discovered that the mouse had gnawed at is the bags of my clothes to be mended, which had been moved downstairs a couple of years ago when we ran out of space in the bedroom closet. All kinds of clothes in there, with anywhere from a very small tear to major seam give-out; anything that was obviously too far gone to repair went out earlier. And since it was all in need of repair and dry-cleaning it all to sanitize it after the mouse would have cost rather a lot of money, today it all went into the trash.

I looked at all of it as I bagged it for the trash, so that I would know what was going. I discovered that it was the great majority of my remaining "guy" clothes (excluding my numerous fall/winter coats). I still have some guy clothes.. e.g., I found a buried pair of faded jeans a week ago and promptly thought "Ah, good, something I can wear for those messy tasks that would ruin my femme clothes!"

Nearly all of the "guy" clothes that I still actively wear, are actually unisex, such as heavier cotton sweat-shirts sold at concerts (sweat-shirts are good for disguising the fact that you are wearing small forms at work.) The only notable guy-clothing exception is that earlier this year I did buy a couple of classic mens' dress-shirts, one in pink paisley and the other in a light-teal paisley -- thereby allowing me to wear classic femme colours to work with the true excuse that I got them from the mens' department :)

I still need to go through the bedroom closet and thin the ranks of things I don't wear anymore. Some of cull will be borderline femme clothes that no longer suit my style, but I don't seem to be wearing those mens' t-shirts...

I have at most 2 pairs of mens' underwear remaining, left-overs from family-visits past. The mens' socks that I have remaining are thick woolen winter socks, kept for very cold days (we hit -40 a couple of days every winter), or against the chance of getting out cross-country skiing again (when it comes to prolonged exposure to our winters here, I may be vain, but I'm not stupid!)

[Rebecca Jayne]

Its amazing how stuff stacks up and how small 4 legged critter love to nest in that stuff.

Sounds like quite a bit, how about donating it and let them purge through it, maybe a shelter or goodwill.

Every year we donate good oldre clothing to Big Brothers Big Sisters or to the VA. Just a thought.

[karennjcd]

First things first, you need to get yourself a cat! The only mouse in your home should be the one you're using right now with your computer! :D

"Stuff" does have a way of piling up quickly, whether it's clothing or other odds and ends. So it's good that you can combine the "his" and "hers" wardrobes you had for yourself into one!


Karen:)

[MissKara]

Just before Karla reawoke, I decided to clean out my wardrobe and give alot of my older cloths to the OP Shop. Lucky I did too, now I have room for my skirts and dresses :D

Miss Karla

[sandra-leigh]

Sounds like quite a bit, how about donating it and let them purge through it, maybe a shelter or goodwill.

Unfortunately I could not do that in these circumstances.

All the places that take clothing donations here require that the clothing be clean, and as this clothing might have had mouse urine on it, it would have had to have been dry-cleaned before I could donate it.

Most of the places that take clothing here require that it be in good repair. Very few of them have the labour available to repair more than lost buttons. The places that take torn clothing mostly sell the torn clothing for scraps; the places that do not take torn clothing mostly throw the torn clothing away.

The one major exception to the clean & good-repair rule is the annual drive for winter coats, especially for children: that drive has a bunch of volunteers who will mend pockets and zippers and the like, and everything gets cleaned before being sent out to the needy (some local, some distributed to reserves and poor northern communities.)


I think there might be a place or two around that ships torn clothing into south or central america, where they have lots of labour available and very few materials. One thing that is not done around here is to ship torn clothing to the reserves or northern communities: there has historically been too many "messages" sent that the aboriginal peoples are "third-class people" (treated even worse than the urban non-aboriginal immigrants), so to avoid offense, only whole (though possibly mended) clothing is sent to them.