Simple Giving: Simple Service

As I’ve said, my girls are opposites in many ways. One profound difference is their individual takes on clothing storage. The Practical One keeps her clothes neatly organized within the innie options. One station for blouses… one for shirts… another for jackets, dresses, slacks… and the beat goes on. When stressed, she loves to pull them out, sort, and reorganize.

Miss Whimsy, on the other hand, views clothing storage as drudgery. She tends to stuff them wherever she can find the extra inch.
No order.
No plan.
No possible way that she can see the forest for the trees.

(Honestly, I think it's genetic. I flunked Clothes Closet 101 too.)

So periodically, I have to require that she sort out her clothes. This generally takes place during the seasonal change out. First, we pull everything out… of the closet… of the drawers…and of the box under the bed. And then we sort. We eliminate anything that is very obviously too small, very obviously too worn, and very obviously too outdated.

And then we sort the remaining items. This requires trying on anything which has earned “iffy” status. Not so much of a big deal these days, but back in the growing- like- a- weed days, it was a royal pain.

To her.

Because she always had four times amount of clothing of any normal child. This wasn’t the result of overindulgence as much as the fact that she’s the family Second Hand Rose. The fourth of four girls, she was the recipient of every “I paid good money for that” survivor of other seasonal sort piles.

I think this has left an indelible mark on the girl because to this day, she has a Pavlovian Response to the words, “Clean your closet”.

The instant they are uttered, she begins to morph into a human question mark. She drops her head, hunches her back, and drags her hands at her knees…

And she hrrrmphs.

She’s done it for years. I don’t know why; it has never reaped any peculiar reward for her. It just makes her look like Neanderthal Girl trying on a sundress.

So Tuesday while she was at the lake, I made the Great Closet Clean Up gift # 5. I pulled everything out, including those shoes (another post another day…) and I sorted it myself. First, I sorted everything that I thought would probably be given away. What was left, I stacked by style of clothing and season. That which I was sure she would wear this season was organized in the closet.  When she got home, a very grateful daughter gave a thumbs up to the give away pile.

She gave a grateful two thumbs up to being given an additional weekend to decide which winter clothes should be saved for another year.

We stored them here...

...in her sister's room.  

By the way, if you hear of an earthquake in central Georgia, never fear. It will merely be the sound of The Practical One hitting the floor in a dead faint ...