Clothes
Clothes is actually a pretty emotionally charged category for me personally thanks to body dysmorphia and my constantly shifting weight. One challenge I faced is that a lot of my clothes simply don’t fit. I know generally where I want to be and which clothes will fit that body (provided the hysterectomy hasn’t altered my body shape too much) so I did save a box of favorites that I felt I could realistically wear in the not-too-distant future. My thinking is that if I don’t get there weight-wise I will donate the contents. I am thinking of sitting a limit of one year. I don’t have to be that size in a year but I have to moving in that direction. In my closets though I wanted stuff I could wear/wanted to wear. I was telling Sam that I needed a pair of jeans because I did not have any and he said something that really got me thinking. Which went something like “Do you like wearing jeans? You never really wore your jeans much before. There are other types of pants that you might like better.” That never occurred to me. I thought of jeans as a staple like bras but I hate everything about them. I hate shopping for them (leaves me in tears) and I find them uncomfortable. Sure some jeans are better than others but I am just not that into them. So when finances allow I will buy a pair of pants of some description.
Just like with decorating I can pick individual items that I like but have no ability to put these items together in a meaningful way. I have trouble expressing myself visually it seems. As I get older I dislike shopping for clothes and will often wear my clothes ragged. During the week I wear a uniform. When I come home I switch to training gear. After that I shower and put on lounge wear. Sadly I almost never wear proper clothes which I believe is one reason the joy has vanished from shopping. On the weekends we buy groceries and I rarely dress up for that. I reserve dressing up for dates with Sam and visiting the in-laws. I could and do wear training clothes all day long sadly.
Another problem I faced is that I live in Sweden so a lot of my clothes are unnaturally bulky which means very few sweaters can fit in a drawer, like 3! Try as I might I can’t Konmari my super duper thick sweaters.
In the future Sam will build dressers for us right now though we share one and right now our clothes are spread out because of the inconveniently designed closets (sliding shelves are stupid).
Sam reduced his work/lounge t-shirts from 32 to 10. That was huge for him. I asked him if he thought I’d stop washing clothes for a month lol He hasn’t touched his socks yet and his is a sizable collection. I know Sam also got rid of some sweats and jeans.
Handbags were in this category but since I have only one I didn’t think it important. I don’t unpack my handbag completely at the end of the day because I hate junk in my handbag and clean it fastidiously. I do, however, have a book bag designated for each job. It is one of many cues I use so that I won’t get on the wrong bus and forget important items.
Handbag Contents- my wallet, my cellphone, a measuring tape, a mirror, a bottle opener (I don’t even open bottles so why I don’t know), my E-reader sometimes, sometimes a book, a pen, lip gloss
Cleaning Job Bookbag Contents- a roll of paper towels (my boss does not keep any on hand!), sound canceling headphones, my work shoes, a pen and pencil, a snack, a water bottle
Factory Job Bookbag- E-reader for the long bus ride, lunch, snack, glasses (I don’t wear glasses to my cleaning job), a water bottle, right now the questions for my evaluation
Belts I have only what you see in the image of my drawer. I did get rid of a few.
Shoes I have
1 pair of heels (never wear but they sure are pretty)
2 pairs of sandals (one casual, one slightly dressy)
2 pairs of casual shoes
1 pair of outdoor trainers, 1 pair of indoor trainers
3 pairs of boots (1 black, 1 brown, 1 red- I would like to stealthily retire the red ones lol)
1 pair of crocs (which I wear to my cleaning job because I can take them on and off quickly when mopping, plus with all the grease would destroy my good shoes)
1 pair of super, ultra comfortable shoes for cold weather
1 pair of slippers
So yeah I own a fair amount of shoes. Our shoes are on shoe racks all of them around the front door mostly which is not ideal. As you know men’s shoes take up half the freaking rack! Poor Sam doesn’t even own many shoes but his take up so much more space.
Hats- 1 toboggan
Gloves- 2 winter pairs, 2 fall pairs (when it is really cold I wear the fall pair under the winter pair lol)
Scarfs- (a gazillion if you count the window treatments! If you don’t 3)
Coats/Jackets
1 proper winter jacket which you see in one of the images, it has orange lining
1 light winter jacket which I wear exclusively to my cleaning job to avoid ruining my good jackets
1 black, wool jacket for dressy clothes (fall or winter)
2 hoodies one can be used in spring and summer (weird to have a jacket for summer but it is sometimes needed) and one for fall
1 raincoat which is light
1 semi-dressy black jacket (spring or fall)
Jewelry I did not do with clothes. Glasses I did not do at all. I have 1 pair of sunglasses. 2 pairs of glasses (1 for home, 1 for work because heaven help me if I took that pair from my work bag I would never remember them). 1 emergency pair of glasses in the car of an older prescription which works well.
I experimented with the half fold on the bras but it didn’t look right. If you wonder at the cup deformity it is because they don’t have padding and are quite soft, they do have underwire though.
Gym clothes and lounge wear yoga room. I also have a weighted vest, gloves, training books, bands, weighted jump rope, towel, and incense in there. The reason my incense is in there is because my incense burner is in that room. I still haven’t settled on a space for that. You will probably see the other drawers later. In the drawer are socks I train in, sports bras, and shorts I train in. Well technically I have shorts but I guess they were in the laundry lol
So on the left is my stuff, on the top is hubbies work shirts as I can’t reach that shelf this is from the dressing room closet, the other closet is actually upstairs and it is all hubbies clothes, he has more than one pair of sweatpants btw! He has 3.
Hubbies t-shirts, my tops and t-shirts and belts, my socks (my mother in law makes me large knitted socks which are space consuming but cozy), hubbies nightmare sock drawer. On top of the dresser is my work clothes I don’t have much time in the morning so I lay them out.
Sam hangs the sweaters that he wears over his clothes on the main rack by the front door. Notice I have one peg and he has 5 hangers haha Not sure what is up with the repeated photo. The second rack is outside of the mud room and this is rain gear and things Sam wears when working in the garage. Next is my hanging stuff. I hang my tights because of limited drawer space. I actually had trouble hanging the clothes like she said you’d think it would be easy but I just kept doing it backwards! You can also see one of my work bookbags. That plastic bin is more sweaters because my sweaters are so enormous you can see that barely any fit on those silly shelves and they are a pain to slide out. What you don’t see under the bag is a box where I keep stockings and my ballet tights. Ballet tights are the most durable tights on the planet let me tell you. In the winter/fall I do wear tights when I wear a skirt or dress but not in the spring/summer so really these lighter stockings don’t get used. Sam bought me some very lovely fishnets, like a bunch of them and well I still have several packs I haven’t worn. I do actually love the look of them it just boils down to not feeling good about my body and not bothering to dress my best. I am thinking if I start making the effort fitness might follow. I mean if your body starts to resemble what you wear it is no wonder I look like a sack.
mindlovemisery 