Rotating and Managing the Textiles

I know it should be time to get rid of this cropped blouse...

Every year at this time I am struck by the importance of one of my biggest tasks: Managing the Textiles. It's time to go through the closets and move summer clothes down to the basement, and then move the fall and winter clothes up. I like to do it in 2-3 rounds, which makes it a more manageable task. I find that there are some warm weather clothes I like to have around a little longer than others (I probably won't wear my summer dresses anymore, but I keep the blouses upstairs longer). The same is true of the fall/winter clothes. I know many people hate this task, but I find it really satisfying.

Of course it's a difficult process to go through the clothes and make decisions about what to keep and what to toss. The old "have I worn this in the last 2 seasons?" rule doesn't always work for me. Being sort of a collector of vintage clothing I feel a special responsibility to some items, especially the home made items - vintage home-made is definitely my favorite kind of clothing. Oddly, I find it easier to get rid of items that I have made - probably because I'm getting rid of them because they were failures, and who wants to be reminded of that??

At this point in my life there is also the issue of "am I too old to wear this?" My cropped "Shapely" shirt with the tiny penguins on it (a favorite at July 4th) should probably be tossed, but I just can't bring myself to.


I love our clothing, and it's such an important part of managing the house that I take it pretty seriously - This year especially as we have to make room for Marc's 18 year old daughter Francesca, she is coming to live with us in November. She will be moving into Marc's den, which contains the closet shown below.

This is actually the way he keeps his closet right now. He claims it's because we are rearranging this room (it also holds one of our 2 computers). How he can keep a plant stand (and what a pathetic plant!) in front of his closet is a mystery to me, but I digress.

This is the closet that Marc and I will soon be sharing. As you can see, I am not ready for him to move in yet!

This is our basement storage. I made a huge "give away" pile and asked Marc to go through it with EXTREME PREJUDICE. He didn't keep a single item - and he took it all to the Brown Elephant. Hurray!

The lovely Francesca. Shown here fresh off the stage after starring in "High School Musical" last year. Mae was just a little impressed :) She has graduated from high school but will be taking a year off before starting college. It is sure to be an adventure for us...