While I was frantically looking for something green to wear to the group run yesterday, I pulled out my boxes of sentimental and old workout clothing and thought “why the hell do I still have all this?!”
I’ve purged so many old race shirts and clothing, but do I really need to hold on to all my Wisconsin Half Marathon shirts? No, I don’t. They aren’t the most flattering cut or designs, or highest quality. I rarely wore them (except the first one which I wore to death because it was my first half!).
Sure, I will keep the shirts (for now) from my first marathon, my PR half and favorite marathons. I’m not a monster. Ha.
But I got rid of a lot of things yesterday. Some can be donated, some went in the trash. I took photos of the things I wanted to remember – the Wisconsin shirts, and some shirts from college. I said goodbye.
(Ha, I did NOT thank them. Sorry, Marie Kondo. You’re cute, but your Netflix show freaked me the hell out (not in to doing this… the homes and people freaked me out). I didn’t make it past two episodes.)
I still have a lot to go through though. Despite purging before we moved to our rental home in December 2015, we still have so much. Boxes from storage there went in to storage here. So many of these things do NOT need to be KEPT.
Slowly but surely, I’ll get through it… and hopefully not accumulate much while I’m in that process. I tend to wear the same things over and over, so race shirts almost always go straight to donation. I receive a lot of clothing as gifts, and some of it’s perfect and goes in to my rotation, but some of it isn’t, and I feel horrible for not wearing it (often). Sigh.
Oh! And the funny thing is, finding a green shirt yesterday would have been easier had I not purged so many of them before we moved. Ha! I did find one!
Love the green shirt!! Glad you found one.
Lol at your thoughts for the Marie kondo show. I felt the same way. I couldn’t make it past half of one episode.
I also have boxes I haven’t touched since we moved 4 years ago- and recently wondered the same thing- why do I have these. Taking a photo of the sentimental shirts before donating is a great idea!
Thanks!
Yeah, did you watch that first episode with the family? I was cringing so much 🙁
It’s so easy to pack them up and forget about them! I like that I can look back at them with a photo if I want. It’s not like I was gonna make a t-shirt quilt, so why keep them?
Purging feels so good! I finally went through some boxes that I moved from Chicago (in 2014) last summer while I was unpacking here, and ended up getting rid of a lot of really old stuff that I had been carrying around for YEARS, move after move. Some of it was sentimental – stuff from my grandparents’ house that I took just to have *something* from them, but had been sitting in boxes for about 15 years. It’s hard to get rid of that stuff, and it takes time, but once you’re ready to do it, it feels good.
This past weekend we had a clothing swap at my gym, which was a good opportunity to get rid of a lot of my business clothes that I don’t need, as well as some workout clothes that are now too big (this is what most women there were purging!). A bunch of us went “shopping” at the swap together, so it was fun to see some of my clothes get a new home 🙂
PS – I still have the 2014 WI Marathon shirt too, but I suppose I can purge it now that it’s not my PR!
It does! Good for you for being able to get rid of that really sentimental stuff. One of the things I threw out was patterned xmas sweats my grandpa wore when he was sick, before he passed. I wore them a lot, thought about him… but man, I have so much (too much) holiday stuff, so I said good bye.
Oh cool that sounds so fun! Did you find some things you wanted?
Unless you wear it, use it?! I don’t wear tees a ton to workout so they have to be special or super comfortable or at least cute to keep!
OMG – I hear you on the “we moved boxes from one place to another”. That is a HUGE goal for us (or me) for this year. We’ve made progress, but we still have a long way to go!
I’m still a bit sentimental about some of my shirts, but those that I never wear, I have donated and I try to go through workout clothes about every 6 months.
But you’ve made some progress, yay! Believe me, I have BOXES of stuff to go through. A lot of holiday decorations and kitchen crap.
That’s a good plan, go through them each fall or spring or something!
I haven’t watched the Marie Kondo show because I’m pretty sure that’s how I would feel too! Good idea to take a photo of the shirts though. Was that one of her tips?
It wasn’t one of her tips. I just try to take photos of things rather than keep a lot of them, if I can (I mean, within reason!). 🙂
I put clothes (mostly running/race shirts lately) into a tub like yours when I want to clear out my closet but can’t bear to get rid of them. Next time I need to do that, I take that bin out and just like you discovered, I am OK at that point with donating 99% of what I thought I wanted to save. It might not be Marie Kondo’s way, but hey, it works!
I watched all of her episodes but my gosh, the people who needed Kondoing were just. so. messed. up.
It’s hard to get rid of them right after you’ve gotten them, unless it’s a completely crappy shirt! So I get that 😉
THANK YOU. GAH. It made me feel so anxious!!!
When I moved in 2017, I tried to be as Marie Kondo-y about it as possible, and anything I didn’t like (or that didn’t “bring me joy,” in her words) didn’t come with me. That included a lot of things I was holding onto for sentimental reasons: t-shirts from things I did in college, letters from people who were in my life at one point but intentionally aren’t anymore, books that meant something to me when I was younger but were just taking up space at this point. It was, to steal Kondo’s phrase, life-changing. When I unpacked in my new place, there wasn’t anything that I didn’t specifically want or need anymore, and it made the unpacking process SO much easier. And it made my stuff-in-general load so much lighter, too! I have had a couple of occasions where I was in a situation similar to your green shirt situation–where I used to have something, got rid of it because I never used it/needed it, then had something come up where it would’ve been helpful to have it–but it happens SO rarely that I’d say I have, like, maybe two regrets about all the purging I did before my move. Using that mindset has also helped keep me from accumulating too many new things just for the sake of accumulating them – like I don’t keep every race shirt I get anymore, even though I used to. I keep it if I like it, but if I don’t like the color or design, off to Goodwill it goes. I think (hope) it’ll make moving later this year easier as well, since I got rid of so much stuff before my last move – but I’m sure I’ll have more to get rid of this time around, too!
Good for you! I am glad it was life changing and made the move so much easier!!! I bet you will still find a few things to get rid of in this next move, but it would be weird if you didn’t, right?
I also rarely regret getting rid of something. I’d rather have a lighter load. Having all that stuff does NOT bring me joy.
Well done on the decluttering! I also took a picture of all my French books I got rid of when I was at my mom’s in November…it somehow makes it easier to part with them if you have a visual reminder.
As for Marie Kondo, I don’t like her method so much, but I still was fascinated by the show and watched all the episodes. Some of them were cringey but others were good. I think one of my favorites was the woman whose husband had passed away and she was trying to get rid of his clothes and other things in her house.
It does! Because all I am going to do with them if I keep them is look at them, and a photo does just that!
What don’t you like about her method? Bravo for you for making it through the show. I just couldn’t do it! That episode does sound good though 🙂
For me, it’s too rigid and I could never do the “piling everything up on my bed” technique – that would stress me out! I prefer to declutter gradually, doing a drawer or a box at a time…way less disruption!
I see what you mean! I wonder if that is always her technique, or if that’s only for people who can’t declutter a little at a time… or if she only helps that sort of person!
That’s great that you were able to declutter a box! I think it’s so normal to move boxes from one place to another and to be afraid of getting rid of sentimental items. I am ruthless in my decluttering, in the sense that I often get rid of things I later regret, haha. But my apartment is small and I have to be really diligent about what I keep around!
What have you regretted?! I want to be more ruthless, but hold on to gifts I don’t care for way longer than I should. Sigh. I feel like such an ass saying that!
I am doing a lot of cleaning and purging right now too. I don’t have may race shirts yet, and I don’t even wear the shirt I got for my first ever half marathon, because I hate that silky fabric so many are made out of now. I like good, old-fashioned cotton!
Some of the tech fabrics are so icky, right? (I have also gotten some nice Brooks and Nike ones that actually feel good… but I don’t wear tees that often to work out). So you like to work out in cotton? Or like a cotton shirt remembrance of the event? 🙂
Oh man, that show also freaked me out. People were SO into it, and I couldn’t make it past the first episode. I love purging things, but I feel like it’s better just…not to buy and accumulate as much. Free stuff is hard though; I hate feeling like I’m “wasting” it and/or being ungrateful.
I bet now that those old, less-than-great shirts are gone, you won’t even miss them, and you won’t have that unpleasant surprise of finding them again in the garage!
Yeah, what we need is a show to show how NOT to accumulate SO MANY THINGS. When that is what we are encouraged to do every day!
I totally won’t miss them! I never even thought about them!