purge a little, keep a lot

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I've been buried under mountains of clothes.

When I first moved to New York and had two suitcases and after a few trips to Bed, Bath, & Beyond I was happily surprised that I was able to sustain living. That was nearly two years ago, and this is now. I'm far to embarrassed to publish the picture I took of my apartment yesterday, but it looked like my closet threw up everywhere. Space bags really do shrink everything down because when I opened the vacuum sealed bags filled with summer clothes, I could not figure out how I fit that amount of clothing into the smallest closet on the Upper West Side!

It was pathetic really. Living in such a small space I can only keep one seasons worth of clothing out at once. The rest are packed and sealed and stored in the top four feet of my closet. Thank goodness for high ceilings!

It was 50 degrees, sunny and breezy this weekend which got me into a very productive mood. I decided to pull down all the clothes from the top of the closet and start packing up my heavier sweaters and coats.

In the process, I realized, there was stuff I not only didn't wear this season but haven't worn it since like, freshman and sophomore year of college. My second thought was, 'how the hell did these clothes even get to New York?' That is when I got out three trash bags. One for resale and the second for donating, and the third, well, to mail home.

Going through everything I realized that this is not only practical but good that I'm doing it now and not in July. Less clothes to move will be good, although I'm sure my mother along with everyone else will say that I need to ditch several hundred magazines come July, but that is neither here or now, so I won't start that fight yet.

The next step, take three bags of clothes to Goodwill. Easier said than done. The closest location to me is seven blocks and two avenues away, which is very close, but it's not like I can throw the bags in the trunk of my car, whip over there and drop them off. Do you think I can hail a cab holding three trash bags full of clothes? Otherwise I guess I'll be that bag lade walking down the street... stay tuned for the outcome.