This indecision's bugging me
/ If you don't want me, set me free
/
Exactly whom I'm supposed to be
/ Don't you know which clothes even fit me?
"Should I Stay or Should I Go" The Clash
Over the weekend, I filled four large bags with clothes to donate to charity AND I put them in the trunk of my car. That last part is the key to my lighter feeling today!
Interestingly, at least half of the clothes had already been bagged and set aside for a year or more. So why the delay in actually getting the stuff out of our house??
Too many ifs...
I wasn't sure whether to consign the kids' clothes with a local store where I have an account OR find a friend with younger children who could appreciate the clothes OR donate them to charity.
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| Griffin, age 6 |
If I donated the clothes to charity then I should go through the bags and inventory everything for tax-purposes. If you itemize, you can claim a portion of the cost of the clothes. A pretty good deal for the quality and quantity of stuff I would be donating.
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| Bela, age 3 |
If I gave them to a friend, which one? Who has a son just younger than Griff, and who else has a daughter just younger than Bela? Are they the right size? And when will we ever get together to make the swap?
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| Griffin, age 7 |
If I took them to the consignment store, it would mean an out-of-the-way trip for my {already long} daily commute. And I would probably have to make an appointment. There is a limit on how many items you can consign at one time. And they may not even be accepting new consignments right now since they will be moving to a new building soon...
Bags of clothes that no longer fit, though, are not part of the design plan I have envisioned for this house.
On a deeper level, keeping the little shirts and pj's that Griffin and Bela once wore will not prolong their childhood. These clothes WILL make someone else's life easier. I know that we have certainly been blessed by friends who have passed down clothes to us.
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| Bela, age 2 |
Releasing the attachment to the clothes, and to the idea that I need to make a perfect decision about what to do with them, is so liberating. Not to mention, the liberation of extra closet space!
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| Griffin, age 5 |
Do you ever have this problem?? How do you make decisions to let go of your clutter more easily?
What about selling the items you are undecided about rather than just donate it? Or you could do both by selling them then dividing the sales into your part and half for the donation. I know that will consume time, but given that you are pondering about doing the perfect decision, you might want to give it a thought. . ~Alison
ReplyDeleteDefinitely a good idea, Alison, but it didn't work for me at that time. Luckily, my kids outgrow things so much that I get lots of opportunities to try again. Thanks for visiting! :)
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