Purge It!

I love the start of a new year. It’s like a rebirth. Or an opportunity to reinvent ourselves by purging past mistakes and bad habits. It’s out with the old and in with the new. And this year, I’ve taken it, literally.

So, over the weekend, I purged two closets, my bathroom cabinet, and even my office space. For several hours, I took stock of things I didn’t wear, couldn’t wear, looked downright awful in or didn’t use and threw it all out.

Bye-bye to that last pair of cut-off jeans, saryonara to that cherry-printed mini-skirt, and ciao to those old Zebra historical novels I don’t read anymore!

At the end of the day, I ended up packing one linen bag and four twenty-gallon trash bags with everything from clothes, books, shoes, unused household items, a clothing steamer (a gift from my aunt) and even a wig.

Admittedly, some of the things I junked have been in my closet from my college days and some of the shoes were older than some 10th graders, still I was a little disgusted by my consumerism. Yes, purging feels like letting go of a heavy load. But I now look at those people who get rid of all of their possessions and live out of a backpack with envy instead of a ‘you’ve got to be kidding me’ expression.

I remember my grandparents closets in New York City. Even though these two lived in the heart of the fashion capital of the world, they could both fit all of their clothing in a tiny closet the size of one’s linen closet and still have space to spare. I think between them they only owned six pairs of shoes. Funny thing is I could probably do the same considering I have five or six outfits I love and wear all the time.

Well after bemoaning my past greed for about five minutes, I packed everything up, except for my dog Napoleon and shoved them in the trunk of my car. I’m going to donate all the stuff to my favorite thrift store. Now if I can only push myself to clean out my makeup drawer and my currentWIP.

So what have you purged so far this year? Friends? Old habits? Past mistakes?