R2BC - Clothes

Beautiful Chihuly glass because #Rubbishphotographer
can't get new clothes to look as good in photos as they do in real life. 

This week's Reasons 2B Cheerful are about an unexpected shopping spree and finally getting down to the bones of decluttering. The linky is with Becky on Lakes Single Mum for the whole of July.

1
A Chain Reaction
It was started with a bag of second-hand clothes. A friend of a friend is a serious clothes shopper. (It's cheaper than therapy.) Every few months she has to purge. Since we are of similar size and taste in clothes, they come to me. I take what I want and pass on the rest. I gifted myself a couple of floaty tunics and a couple of dresses from the bag, and put the rest aside.

2
A shopping Spree
I've hardly bought any new clothes for years. Apart from underwear, shoes, and the odd cardigan, my escalating weight made me totally disinterested. I always had enough hand-me-downs from my friend's friend and a couple of outfits for Shabbat and celebrations from years back so I made do.

Since starting to lose weight I've noticed a reawakening. Over the past few weeks I've bought a few new t-shits and some work wear. In a fit of fashion enthusiasm I donated my one Shabbat dress that was at least 10 years old and way past its prime. I needed a new one for the summer.

On Tuesday I went shopping. There is one shop in town that I used to love (Hagara) although it has become a bit dowdy over the years. I went there anyway and found a Shabbat dress. As there was a 1+1 sale I also got a tunic top for free. And a t-shirt and black, thin cotton trousers not in the sale.

I was done. DD was home from her summer programme so I called to say I was bringing falafel for lunch. On the way to the falafel shop I passed a small mom and dad shop with a lovely simple dress in the window. I fell in love with the soft cotton material  and went inside, not for one minute thinking they would have my size. They did. And it was very cheap. So I bought another one in a different colour as well.

Onwards to the falafel and no looking in shop windows! Would you believe it, in the very next shop were lovely dresses suitable for weddings, for example. As we have a family wedding coming up in September, I had to go in to take a look.

I've had my head in the sand about what to wear for my brother's wedding. The family have agreed to wear the colours chosen for the wedding so as not to clash in the photos. So I looked for dresses in the permitted colours and found some. Also not expensive so I bought two in different designs and I'll decide which to wear to the wedding nearer the date.

I am absolutely not buying any more new clothes for the next decade.

3
A Clothes Swap
Fortuitously, a clothes swap was announced on facebook. A couple of friends organize these events seasonally and a group of women turn up with clothes they want to pass on and nosh - because it's also a party. You can take whatever you want and anything left over gets donated. I've never been to one of these before but this one was around the corner and quite early in the evening. I decided to go and take DD with me.

I packed up the remainder of the clothes from my friend's friend, and I went through all my clothes adding to the pile of donations. We arrived at the clothes swap early but DD wasn't into it at all, so we left our clothes and went home. Result! I was looking forward to the social but I had no intention of bringing any more 'new' clothes into the house.

4
Project 333
With some rearranging, and even with all the new clothes I've accumulated over the past few weeks, I managed to reclaim the shelves I've wanted to use as a linen cupboard since starting the decluttering journey almost two years ago. This sets off a whole new chain reaction of shelves freed up somewhere else leading to the eventual downsized and desired minimalistic effect.

The magic happens as soon as you see a neat shelf holding all the sheets you own. You realize that a lot of them mix and match, every set has under sheets that go with it, and there is no need to buy any more bedclothes for the foreseeable future.

There are still clothes to go. I'm still holding on to some skinny clothes to see what happens. I'd like to think that one day I could do Project 333 but although I probably only wear 33 items in any one 3-month season, I own nearer to 333.