Donating Our Clothes and Sharing Our Thoughts

"Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends… Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts." - Henry David Thoreau

Today we donated five more bags of clothing and shoes. This follows on our previous donation of five bags of clothing. It's astounding how when these clothes were in our closet and on our shelves they didn't seem like so much. It's a very stark realization that we donated ten trash bags filled with clothes (and a couple pairs of shoes each) and we still have some more clothes recently given to us to go through and the lot that we kept. Thankfully I can now say I have distilled my clothing down to enough to fit comfortably in my half of our small closet (including t-shirts, but not including underwear) with room to spare. That also includes the three or so outfits of each of two sizes smaller so I'm prepared for the weight I'll be losing over the rest of summer and autumn. Clothing still takes up more than half of my list of 100 things, but I hope to lose enough weight to get rid of at least the current stock, if not also the next size down, by January 1.

Five bags of donated clothes compared to the blue and yellow laundry bags, which contain one week of laundry for our family of three and three blankets and a bathrobe that we've put off washing for a while.

The more we work toward our goal of 100 things each (plus 100 shared family items at most), the more liberating it feels and the less reluctant I am to get rid of stuff. I can already see and feel the difference in our home, and how less cluttered it becomes with each donation. I can't wait until we can have a big yard sale!