Living Lightly

Susan Vogt on living more simply but abundantly

Browsing Posts tagged Clothes

Perhaps it is wishful thinking but I do believe that we created less waste this second week of Lent than we did the first week. This may be due to us learning more about what we can recycle, the fact that Jim was away for 3 days, or maybe we’re just wasting less. My photo […]

…and Smugness. Today I selected to give away: 4 pairs of slacks 2 sweaters 8 scarves But what I found that was hard to give away was feeling SMUG. I was feeling quite virtuous about continuing to find clothes to pass on to others when I reflected that since I work at home, I really […]

In keeping with my Round 1 order of “S’s” I looked through my wardrobe of shirts, skirts, and suits. I’m surprised that even though I pruned my closet over a year ago, there were still items that I hadn’t worn in years. I found: 4 shirts (OK, I’d really call them blouses but that doesn’t […]

Our adult children were all home for Christmas. Hurrah! I hoped they would take some of the stuff I had been saving (especially for our grandchildren) back with them. A few things traveled to a new home but I again found that items that I’d been saving did not fit the taste or circumstances of […]

My first shoe purge in 2010 got me from 30 pairs of shoes to 13 pairs – the national average. This was progress, but since I work at home, heels hurt my feet, and I really don’t care much about shoe fashion, I felt that certainly I could do better. I just reviewed my shoe wardrobe, but […]

Jim informed me that I needed new jeans. He was right. A hole was starting in my “good” pair. No problem. I went to our trusty Gap Outlet where I knew I could get a pair cheap. I was on a tight schedule, however, so I quickly chose a pair of jeans missing the button. […]

…But being used in a good way. As my reputation grows for being a “go to person” for where to take used but usable clothes, toys, kitchen supplies, etc., I’ve found that people are starting to drop things off at my house. One reason is that my parish has an in-house thrift store and since […]

When I was dispersing my clothes last year, one thing I realized is that I didn’t need any more commemorative T-Shirts. I made a decision not to buy any more. Then, a couple weeks ago I came across one I really wanted to have. Hmmm. I bought it with mixed emotions. Then, I remembered the […]

I counted 29 coats/jackets in our house. It’s December. It’s cold (10-20 degrees F). It’s embarrassing to think that a household of two people have 29 coats when some people are on the streets shivering. Some might call it sinful. I was planning to give away miscellaneous items this week but coats seem more urgent. […]

A contradance friend recently announced a dress swap. This is not an unusual event in the contradance world. Women bring swirly dresses that they are tired of and swap them for someone else’s. The dresses are not usually the kind you’d wear for work so it’s more for fun than practicality. My friend added a […]

“Below the Waist” may be a provocative title, but laying out mostly earth tone pants makes for a pretty boring photo. I did include a couple boxer shorts to bring this week’s give aways to 14. This concludes, for now, my six week stint of giving away our adult sons’ clothes left at home. (Our […]

While we’re on a costume theme, I thought you’d enjoy the two dresses I donated to our local contra dance dress swap. As you may know, contra dancing is a form of folk dancing that has some similarities to square dancing except we don’t dance in squares or wear costumes, i.e. skirts over petticoats for […]

Since it’s Halloween, I’m taking a break from giving away my kids regular clothes and rummaged through our old “costume box” to see if I really needed to save all the stuff for a grandchild who doesn’t live in town or for gag costumes for special events. I decided the ghost costume made out of […]

I think our son was either going through a drab and dull phase (or maybe a European fashion stage) when he acquired these sweaters since they’re all basically black, gray, navy, or brown. I only had 7 sweaters so I added 6 pairs of socks. (Don’t worry, I counted a pair as one.) I still […]

What do horses and shoes have to do with what I’m giving away this week? I have 11 polo shirts and 3 pairs of shoes. (You are now allowed to groan.) Some of these are pretty nice. I hope the new wearer enjoys them. I’m finally through the shirt category. Next week, let’s see what […]

Hanging shirts are sort of like “hanging chads.” How do you count them? I put each of these button down shirts on its own pretty plastic hanger so you could count them more easily in the photo. (I confess that I later switched the nice hangers to the clothes I’m keeping.) I only had 12 […]

This week it’s the “T-shirts Without Words” turn. I didn’t quite have enough to double my numbers so I added a pair of my old bike shorts and a bandanna to bring it to 14 items. Now I’m starting to have room in the blue guest bedroom dresser for guests to store their clothes. I’m […]

Our young adults were just home for a family vacation and I finally had an opportunity to get their OK to give away many of their clothes stored at our house. Since they obviously were not wearing them on a daily basis, I hit the jackpot in the category of “Kids Clothes Left at Home.” […]

Should I count by one’s or seven’s. Technically I’ve only committed to giving one thing away a day, but sometimes things come in groups and it just doesn’t seem honest to count lettuce by the leaf or to count each zucchini for a day. Since last Sunday I chose 7 of our son’s sweaters to […]

Although #3 child balked at me giving away anything in his trunk of childhood mementos, he was surprisingly cooperative about letting me give away a number of his sweaters stored at our house. It could be that these were mostly clothes I had bought him, or which had been handed down to him, that he […]