Tuesday, March 01, 2011

A Successful Sunday

A few months ago, my sister raved about the stuff she made out with at* a friend’s clothing exchange. I thought it would be fun to host one myself. I’ve been nagging my roommates about it since then, and they finally gave in. We picked a date, invited tons of people (I invited literally every female I know who lives in Chicago) and got to purging our closets.

Purging one’s closet is fun. At first, it’s difficult. ‘Maybe I will wear this…’ you think to yourself as you hold up the shirt you loved so hard three years ago. But then you remember that you haven’t worn it for three years. And it goes into the giveaway pile. Once the pile starts growing, you gain more and more confidence to get rid of more stuff. Soon you have a leaner closet, lighter shelves, roomier drawers and a happy heart. Getting rid of stuff, no matter what kind of stuff it is, feels so damn good.

My roomies and I piled everything up in our living room, and we did a mini exchange ourselves. I scored an AWESOME Mizzou sweatshirt (I wore it all day onwards) and a couple other things. Then our fellow clothing exchange guests started arriving, shoulders heavy with bags stuffed with clothes. I was super stoked by how many people were showing up and how much stuff they were bringing. Once everything had been put out, we simply got to it. Everyone started rummaging through everything. It didn’t take long for everyone to find some stuff they liked.

The thing is, adding something new to your wardrobe, regardless of it is technically new or not, is something that makes every girl giddy. Even if someone else is tired and sick of it, it’s new to YOU. I was surprised by how much some people walked away with. Even better, it was absolutely free!

After all was said and done, we packed the remaining clothes, shoes, accessories and hodge podge of stuff into bags and dropped it off at the Ark, a non-profit thrift shop that uses proceeds for social services. I’ll be perfectly honest that the clothing exchange was entirely selfish: to get rid of stuff and get new stuff. But the leftovers are doing a bit of good. Hooray!

*is a string of three prepositions even allowed?

1 comment:

Jen McCleve said...

When you are living in a small apartment it is almost a must to purge your closets every few months. Great tips, you really made some good points.