Everyone's a Critic

After a trip to the basement to store my summer clothes, I realized that most of them had not even been worn this year. Some were on hangers with tags still attached from shopping trips last March before the shutdown.

It has been a summer like no other with us socially distancing, quarantining and ordering our food online. Since we were eating mostly at home, not going to restaurants, gyms, or visiting friends’ homes, my lounge or exercise clothes have been my outfits of the day.

As life begins to normalize hopefully in the new year, I realize that my weekly shopping excursions will not be necessary. My closet looks like it contains everything I need for various life functions. I’m now treating it like a store and asking if I really do love a piece of clothing ala Marie Kondo. Supposedly we only wear 20% of our wardrobe 80% of the time. So I’ll be donating many of the rejects to the Salvation Army, the Ann Arbor Thrift Shop or a local charitable group.

Another idea which has been successful in the past is a Clothing Swap Party. Friends will be Invited and encouraged to bring items to swap in a party atmosphere. Refreshments will be served and everyone will go home with something new. Leftover items can be donated to charity.

Shopping will be on my to do list and I will still visit the mall and favorite stores. I’m now looking at my closet as not just a storage place but as a whole new experience into fashion. It’s a treasure trove of my own preferences and tastes, and I will be able to browse to my heart’s content. Some of us haven’t exercised as much as usual during the shutdown, so we hopefully haven’t changed sizes. But that’s a whole other story.