Today we delivered a huge bundle of my clothes to the Salvation Army thrift store. As I was unpacking my winter clothes last week and repacking the summer wardrobe I decided it was time to go through all the items with an open mind as to how often I wear each one, if I truly liked it or not, if it was a piece of clothing I enjoyed wearing over the past year or was deliberately ignoring it in favour of other items, keeping the ignored item because of some weird internal self imposed obligation to keep it when rationally I knew I would likely avoid wearing it at all costs. The amount of clothing I dragged to the thrift store today nearly filled a giant backyard leaf collection bag!! Wow, it felt good to rid my closet space of items that have been less than satisfactory for one reason or another for the past year or two. There are so many other people who could enjoy having them. They are great, in most cases still pristine, condition. Most of them look new or nearly so. What a waste to keep them hanging unattended and unworn here in my home. As the bag left the back of our car to be put into the collection unit at the store it felt like a small weight was lifting off my head. Hallelujah! So grateful it was this easy to part with my nice, but relatively unworn clothes that have been collecting for the past three years or so. Purses, belts and jewellery accompanied the clothing. When the day comes that we finally get to move out of here I will be far more prepared in terms of having less personal "stuff" and that feels amazing! I am not certain I want to Do The Drastic that some friends have done by keeping only two weeks worth of clothing and getting rid of absolutely everything else, but I don't need to have a couple of months of outfits hanging up in this tiny room taking up space! That's just bad stewardship on my part.
Speaking of clothing, we were at a mall today where my husband was seeking to purchase some items at a fabric store that will repair a couple of small glitches in two of the coats he received last weekend. He found exactly what he was looking for and it won't take long to make the repairs. Both jackets will be like new once those are done. While he was in the fabric store.....a venue I avoid like the plague because of the guilt I feel for being so Sewing Ability Challenged.....I looked at the few stores remaining in the big old hunk of mall and found a nice little clothing store. There hanging on a rack was the perfect black dress I have been looking for since the winter clothes first showed up in town as we were preparing to leave on our holiday. It is lightly patterned with leaves in fall orange and white, but the black background takes up most of the dress. It is long enough to wear as a dress but I can also put skinny pants/leggings under it for the winter and wear it with my patent leather winter boots. SO HAPPY! I have given up on getting new shoes. The only shoes I can get narrow enough for my quadruple A feet here in town are not actually here in town. They have to be ordered in from the USA and with the tariffs on materials etc., one hundred or more dollars has been added to the cost of each pair. The pair of shoes I purchased on an out of country order three years ago at $170CAD including sales taxes are now now nearly $300CAD, plus then I have to add on the Canadian sales taxes. I have a pair of sandals that are created to handle wearing pantyhose in them if necessary without looking odd to be wearing in October and those are going to have to do. Getting my dress today on sale just solidified my decision to leave the shoes until either the present issues of getting shoes imported from the U.S. are solved or they are obviously not going to be solved and I will know I have to fork forth on a big price for any kind of decent footwear. Local shoe shops had already stopped bringing inventory in my sizes some years ago simply because there is so little call for shoes that narrow, so special ordering has been the done thing....until now.
My husband cleared all the glass recycling out of the basement today, so that was a big deal and has left him with more sorting space for going through his old camping and climbing gear. Most of that will be leaving us and only the most basic camping equipment will stay....a proper two man tent, a few camp pots and utensils, a camp stove and kettle, a sleeping bag and mat. The rest is all going very soon.
So, a good day all around! Now I will iron a few items from this week's laundry and we have leftovers to eat for dinner later so we don't have to worry about cooking tonight. YAY!
It is chilly today, but the sun broke through the clouds late this afternoon, making the last part of the day much nicer than the first part. Despite the chill I was able to wear only a winter cardigan over my blouse and wear open toed sandals on my feet, which I will do as often as possible on any "not going for a walk today" days, until the ice and snow arrive or the temperature during the daytime hours dips below +10C. More nice, dry weather is forecast over the coming week! YAY!
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