Pack Rat In Denial?

I always blame the clutter on my husband. He has a HUGE heavy container of CD cases that he will not let go of even though most of the CD's we own are really outdated. We don't even listened to CD's anymore because of our ipods. I understand wanting to save some of them, but not hundreds. Then there are things like scrap metal, boxes, electronics, and wood that he thinks are valuable or could be made into something that would be valuable. He's pretty amazing and he probably could do something with all the junk we collect, but he does not have time to do it.

I could rant all day and think that if it were up to me we would be clutter free, but the truth is I may have a slight tendency to hoard things myself. This year I am determined to declutter and I mapped out a different room or closet for each month. This month was my closet. The last time I REALLY cleaned my closet was October 2008 and this time it has been harder than I thought. There are somethings that are easy to toss like the empty box to my GPS that was stolen two years ago (yes that was still in my closet). But then there was the Wilson's leather glove that I love and was so hoping that the matching glove would turn up, but never has. I also had to let go of some beloved clothing items that are literally falling apart and about to disintegrate.

I bought these used REI shorts in 9th grade. Here is a photo of me wearing them when I was 15!

I wore them every summer for 12 years. They were like the magical sisterhood of the traveling pants because when I grew they grew with me. They were comfortable and versatile. I even wrote about them in one of my first posts on this blog.

"I tend to live life out of the box. We use cloth diapers, we’ve never had cable TV, and I am wearing a pair of shorts right now that I have had for over ten years and I got them from a thrift store to begin with!"

I would have hung onto them, but last year they got a huge rip across the back, so sadly I think it's time to let them go.

The shirt was also from a thrift store and I have had it since I was a newly wed. I even washed it with a pen at the laundry mat once, but I still wore it even with the blue speckles. It's the kind of shirt that fits/feels just right. These authentic vintage tees are hard to come by, but it's holey, as in lots of holes. It's like some kind of bad 90's grunge wear or something. The above photo was taken in 2004 of me and a band called Radial Angel. The band is still around, but the shirt is not.

There are some things I found that I am hanging onto like our napkins and matches from our wedding.

I looked all over for these when we had our anniversary in November, but I could not find them anywhere. Apparently I never looked in the very back of the top shelf in my closet.

Sorry for the long post, but I have a closet full of stories/memories that I could share. It's hard to let go sometimes. I am sure I will have more therapeutic posts throughout the year as I get organized in 2011 and become a little bit less of a big time mess.