tidying up: part 3

One week later:

I dropped my stuff off at savers today. Three garbage bags and two plastic bins worth. I did grab one pair of danskos and my boden sweaters out but only because I think I can sell them somewhere. I also grabbed my long brown pullover sweater out, but only until I can find something better to replace it with. I spent about two hours then looking for sweaters and t-shirts and only bought two cardigans. One is in like-new condition and is orange-red with tiny polka dots (maybe I can get rid of the vintage orange cashmere cardigan? We’ll see…) and the other is gray, drapey cashmere huge, feather light and just luscious. It was marked as $30, but I got a 30% off coupon for donating so it was only $21, which would be amazing if it were new. It doesn’t show any wear but it’s sort of perfumey so I’m going to try to get rid of the smell. Wish me luck! [note: after 2 handwashes and a thorough spraying with unscented febreze it is much better.  still not 100% fragrance free, but totally fine and i’ve already worn it several times and i looooooove it!]

and yes, i realize this should be a picture of me wearing this sweater, but the baby woke up from her nap and i want to get this posted, so you get this hanger shot.  it’s pretty blasphemous to have a cashmere sweater on a hanger but… do you fold drapey cardigans?  i’m not sure how….

Thoughts on privilege:

The more I go through this process, the more I realize that there’s a huge amount of privilege that exists in a life where I can get rid of the things I don’t love and if there’s something that I need to own and I don’t already own a version of that thing that I love, that I assume I can just go buy one that I do love.  It will take a great deal of reflection not to just trash stuff that’s not perfect and run out to buy the nicest version of that thing that I can find.  And that mindset? Buying the nicest of something instead of buying the thing that will work just fine even if it’s not exactly right but it’s on sale? That goes against pretty much all of my upbringing.  From my Depression era grandparents to my ‘Live Simply so that Others May Simply Live’ Mennonite heritage. But I’m not sure that hoarding tons and tons of stuff really lives up to those morals either. What if thoughtfully purchasing items that have been made by workers that have received a fair wage were my new norm? Hmmmm…..