This is the first installment of a 2 part post. Part 1: Taking it All Out. Part 2 Coming Soon: Putting it All Back In
As an expectant, working mama my life has been a tornado lately, much like the flips and twists and kicks my little growing boy is doing in my stomach every time I try to rest. I have been getting sick well beyond the anticipated first trimester “morning sickness” and find myself feeling as if I defeated Goliath just by making it up the three flights of stairs to get to my classroom where I teach over 150 of Chicago’s finest teenagers. Then I still have a full day of teaching. When I get to the end of that, I might as well have just slayed a dragon.
Fortunately, at the end of these Goliath-defeating, dragon-slaying days I get to come home. I come home to a dog who wants nothing more than to cuddle with her in utero human brother and a husband who cooks for me every night because my super-strength schnoz cannot even stand the odor of boiling water. Yes, it has a smell. Trust me.
Then, on the weekends, when I finally have a little bit of energy from a few extra hours of sleep and climbing way less stairs, I plan. This little human growing inside of me needs somewhere to sleep, right? He has to have clothes, I would imagine. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs pretty much spells out that my baby boy deserves AT LEAST that, I assume. But herein lies the problem: Chicago condo.
Chicago condo means that there is no linen closet anywhere. It means garage storage is what dreams are made of. It means using your only three closets for linens and clothes and purses and shoes and hats and luggage and board games, oh my! It means you sit and ask yourself, where, actually, do I put the baby and his clothes and diapers and bottles and blankets and toys and bibs and pacifiers? OH MY.
So yesterday, I knew what I had to do. I called my sister-in-law/closet guru and I told her I saved up all my energy and was ready to expend it all on the great purge of 2017. I was ready for her help with all three closets. She warned me that it was going to be hard work. Since most of my week days were spent sling-shotting Goliaths and taking down fire-breathers, I felt I was up for the quest.
We were to tackle the crusade in two parts:
- Taking it All Out
- Putting it All Back In
My closet guru prompted me to remove every item from the closets. Every. Single. One. I was then to ask myself, “Does this item bring me joy?” For clothes I actually had to stop and think, “Does this item make me feel good when I wear it?” For more practical items I had to consider, “Does this item serve its purpose and do I use it for that purpose often enough to hang on to it?” I was told to live in the present. “Is this something I will pull out and look at to make me feel inspired today?” I had never thought about my stuff so intentionally, and what I realized in going through this process is how smothered stuff can actually make a person feel.
My stuff was getting in the way of me finding the few items that make me feel good about my roles as wife, teacher, friend, daughter, hostess, and now soon-to-be “boy-mom.” I was buried in old paper work, pens that didn’t work anymore, and clothes that make me feel drab. I was lost in my things. And to make room for the new little life that will be joining our Chicago condo, I had to say goodbye to things far, as far as the east is from the west far, less important than giving my son a safe space to grow up.
So right now, my stuff is in bags ready to be donated and sold. The items that bring me joy and use are organized and waiting to be placed in their new residencies. And baby boy has a clean slate of a closet waiting for him.
We took it all out. We removed the broken and torn, the lifeless and useless. And as sick as I have felt lately, and as tired as I have been, I felt more healthy and energized than I had in months knowing that I was able to do something so seemingly simple for my family in this time when everyone has so selflessly been caring for me.
The Great Purge of 2017 in process^^^^^^^^
Mary Filline, the closet guru mentioned is this post, is in the process of building her professional organizing portfolio. Please let me know if you are interested in her help and organization services. I can put you in contact and you too can feel the freedom that comes from letting go of the stuff that ties us down. I couldn’t recommend her and her process more highly.
Newfangled 