I go through my closet and purge twice yearly, so its good I have a couple of drawers i need to go through. In the article she mentioned ”cloth shoes” so i assumed that was the issue. The only thing I own on her list is ankle boots (several pair) and as of last year they were still popular in my area.

As for purging the house, Ive git 2 closets i should go through and basically rearrange. I don’t think i will have much to get rid of. I do have some boxes of clothing and a few household items ready to be donated. I’m also going to sell 3 pieces of art that I’ve held on to for way too long, and 2 antique chairs. I have a thing for can seats but have too many lol!

One thing about the shoe critiques is that the style advice conflicts directly with the medical advice.

I have a bunion on one foot, and since I cannpt abide by a wide toe box, stretchiness helps. I have ignored foot comfort for too long and at some point it can literally become a function issue.

I take issue with universal clothing advice. More often than not, the advice of what to buy and what to purge is an effort to make you buy more. It’s driven by what’s in fashion and not developing your own style. If people focused more on style, fit, condition and quality (relative to budget), then we wouldn’t buy so much. If I don’t follow the advice to buy the latest hot thing in the first place, then my wardrobe doesn’t look outdated.

When I’ve worked with friends to clear their closets, we focus first on condition, then fit and then wearability. We want to find the things in their existing wardrobe that they feel really good wearing.

Then we adapt those things to their lifestyle and comfort zone. When we look for more, it needs to meet those same requirements and go with things they already have.

For example, if you (like me) love to be fancy, wear the fancy blazers with dark denim. If you are super casual, but need a little more fancy, then replace a sweater with a blazer style knit and different shoes. I love the three piece rule.

Three pieces can be a skirt, blouse and matching blazer. Or a sweater, skirt and top. Or blazer, t-shirt and jeans. They take the same amount of time to pick because it’s three things.

Lastly, I wish women made better use of tailoring. Like @Kswl. Our bodies are so different, there’s no one who couldn’t benefit from alterations at least some of the time.

I will never give up my fancy leggings - aka ponte pants. They are travel staples. Final answer. But I do think it is useful to evaluate our wardrobe for the percentage of “good enough” items. Quality (however defined) over quantity (however defined) is key. I tend to keep things that are “fine” but lack real interest, quality or add anything of value to my look.
And I agree, tailoring can take an okay item to great. Well worth it.

I rarely get things tailored. It is time consuming, costly, and the lady is mean. 😢

I have thought long and hard about tailoring some of my faves that no longer fit, but it made more sense to find them in the correct size on sale/thrifted.

@rubyclaire, I’m with you on the travel pants. Mine aren’t leggings as such; they are

”slim.” They are comfortable, fit fine 😉, and look neat. And they don’t drag the floor of public/airplane bathrooms!

Just saw this on FB.

The ones that made me laugh and/or roll my eyes:

6 mugs? when all kids are here, we have 7-8 coffee drinkers.

Purses. Two. TWO?!?

Craft supplies. One project’s worth? This person knows nothing about me.

We went to the dump last weekend and they had the monthly paper shredding too, so every little bit helps.

DH took out 3 pr of shoes and a pair of jeans in an off brown color he has never liked.

He is done purging.

He then took his pile of clean clothes , opened the top drawer of his dresser and stuck them all in. I asked ” what are you doing??? He who is ” Dr. Science” said ” I am maximizing entropy”.

The highest level of disorder. So that is how my DH responds to purging and order. c 😳🥰

My DH, the book hoarder, took about 10 books to our library (they take donations and sell them for super cheap). Maybe I can get him to do this annually? Seasonally would be better. He also set aside some old camera bags he’s not using but they haven’t left the house yet so it doesn’t count!

Books! Twenty years in the same work office. We do have a way at school to recycle books, so I have to start working on that. Give away some and recycle the rest.

@gsciencechick DH had many decades accumulation of Mathematics and Theoretical Chemistry etc texts and papers all of which he opened his doors to the Grad Students at Auburn U.

He started working in Pharmacology at Tulane when he was in High School at Cor Jesu in NOLA so a vast accumulation from the 60’s.

We moved them from 1971- 2010 when he let them go at his retirement.

He said he was ready but …

I donated all my Nursing Texts and my huge accumulation of Nursing Journals when I was through school.

Letting go is hard to do…. someone wrote a song … ❤️

As I was packing up our kitchen yesterday I threw away a multitude of spices, one from — wait for it— 2010 😳

Also my helper held up a few items asking ”what is this for?” In one instance I had no idea and it was tossed into the donation box along with the ricer that I had to have during the pandemic when I was obsessed with making the perfect mashed potatoes 🙄

I signed up last night for a purging challenge. The challenge is to get rid of 1,000 items in the 30 days of November (or 34 items a day). According to the site, they will give you tips and hints to make it easy. I don’t know the particulars yet. Can I throw away an old box of toothpicks and count that as 100 items? Even if I don’t fulfill the challenge, something is better than nothing.

ETA: I just found the 2025 chart. One day‘s challenge was to remove 33 things from your coffee table. I can’t do that. I have 3 books and a decorative piece of metalwork. That is all.

33 things from your coffee table????

My closets are usually in pretty good shape, and I switched the master closet up for the season and donated some things. I need to go through some decor things in the office closet (stuff mostly for outside - wreaths, etc.) and see if any of that needs to go. I did get new Christmas wreaths for the windows, so need to toss the old ones, but they are in the attic. So that will come when we get the lights,greenery, etc. down. This week I have been going through drawers in the master BR and one cabinet in the kitchen - a couple of shelves are used for medicinal type stuff. Gone are many bottles of vitamins, etc. Other kitchen cabinets are good but I should probably ck my spices too. Weeding out the office is still on the list . . .

We’re waiting on our local junk guy to pick up the stuff we’re getting rid of so that DH can park in the garage again. Our garage was painted Thursday and everything was piled in the middle of it. After the paint dried DH and I moved it all back and in the process are getting rid of half of it. Deeply satisfied with that outcome.

@bbstx That plan sounds very ambitious. Maybe it’s meant for actual hoarders, but even doing some of it should feel like an accomplishment. Keep us posted.

Before my husband went out of town for the weekend, he jokingly said to me, stay out of my office. I rarely go in there, it’s such an eyesore, so I asked, why would I go in your office? He said I was afraid your sisters might come over and you’d start getting rid of stuff from the office. D’oh! that idea hadn’t occurred to me, what a missed opportunity.

But then I DID go into his office because I needed some way to wear my sign for my costume. As I hoped, he did have a clip on badge holder. It held his yearbook photo from his class reunion. Which was two years ago. And still sitting on a shelf. 🙄

Good thing I don’t purge in there, his junk helped me out. I will NEVER tell him that. 😆

@texanjana, I think you might be right about it being a plan for hoarders.

Day 1 is finally posted. The challenge is to get rid of 34 items in your pantry. Only because the pantry is where I store paper shopping bags, I might be able to get close on this one. I will work on it tomorrow.

Day 2 is going to be the refrigerator. I’m not sure, but I don’t think I’m going to find 34 items to pitch. We’ll see tomorrow.

The person who has 33 things to purge from their coffee table needs more help than challenge—both literally and figuratively. 🤔

I’m doubtful there is a total of 34 things in my refrigerator!

This is not really making any sense! Did AI dream this up?

We worked in the garage Saturday and pitched a bunch but not sure it was even 33.

I go through the fridge weekly; the night before garbage pick up.

I went through the pantry. I found pasta from 5+ years ago. My late DH loved pasta; I don’t. There wasn’t much else.

The oldest thing I found was in my freezer. It was unopened Dorot frozen cilantro that went out of date in 2017! It was a Trader Joe’s impulse buy that I totally forgot about. I rarely use cilantro, but if I do, I buy fresh at the grocery.

What surprised me more about my fridge was how few things needed to go. A jar of yellow mustard and one of Dijon mustard were both a few months out of date. I don’t use much mustard. @1929Spanish-GW, like you, I don’t have much in my fridge. Mostly condiments.

I don’t think it is AI because this woman has been doing this challenge for several years now. Apparently she has some sort of podcast that ties in. Her target audience must be those people who are nearly hoarders - clutterers.

Flylady used to have the ”27-Fling Boogie”, but it was usually just 27 items, and if you want to count each shopping bag as an item, that’s fine.

DH told me this weekend that part of the waterproofing being done this week calls for a Metro shelf unit to be moved. Well, okay, I removed the boxes from the unit, and realized that several of the boxes are from a time when I thought that my style as an unmarried woman would be different than it turned out to be, married with children and shrinking extended family, and I could probably let those things go. That will be emotional, as some of those boxes have my grandmother’s crystal glassware (which, admittedly, has a flare that makes it hard to drink from anyway). So, where to take it? I have plenty of options, just have to pick one.

Assignments for Days 1 and 2 completed. I made another pass and counted before I pitched. I found 12 items in the refrigerator/freezer and 19 items in the pantry, including ~6 paper bags and 2 antique Lifesavers, flavor unknown. Total time, less than 30 minutes.

I decided to begin the garage without DH. I started in his tool closet, mostlly the top shelf with Christmas wreaths from RH (Mom and I both purchased one year, so I inherited hers) that I do not use in this house. The closet has a 15ft ceiling. Moved a few painting supplies to the carport storage room. Then I went through two Sterlite plastic drawer stacks in the garage we've easily owned 30yrs. Mostly reorganzing and cleaning them out, but there were things to be tossed. If I could train DH to put things back where found, it would never need organzing again.

2 antique lifesavors. LOL!

I did a food cleanout the other day. Some of my spices were expired 3+ years ago, oops. I’m not replacing anything until I have a need for it. Obviously we don’t use cardamom pods or bay leaves very often. DH gets into a mild panic when he sees me getting rid of things, so I did that when he was away for a couple of days. ”I was just about to use that vintage bay leaf!”

I get rid of stuff in the fridge pretty regularly. No need for a purge there.

Does vinegar expire?? I couldn’t find dates on the random vinegars I had, but I knew they were years old, so out they went.

Vinegar does not expire. However, the ”mother” begins to settle in the bottom of the bottle. I’ve strained the mother through damp cheesecloth. I love Perel’s Spicy Pecan Vinegar. Although the flavor may have dimmed a bit, I’ve used it years later.

Yay, I dropped off a Trashie bag of textiles recycling at FedEx office.

In moving things in the basement, I was able to empty a box from my parents’ house. couple of sweaters and shirts for donation (in the wash right now), and great rag candidates for me, and others for textile recycling. Tomorrow I’m out and about and will drop things off around town.

I found this the other day. Some items cannot be purged!

The woman running the 1k items tossed in 30 days project said that the challenge is to help clutterers get rid of clutter. I don’t think I fit in that category, Nevertheless, I think I’ll follow along just for having the goals.

Today’s goal is to get rid of 34 mugs and waterbottles. I own precisely 2 water bottles. I’m off to drag out the ladder and get the never used coffee mugs off one of the upper shelves. There may be 6 of those. Possibly 8.

If I took all my casual dishes, I might have 34. How many does she advocate you keep? Seems like a better measure is the ratio of things to occupants.

I’m flabbergasted at the idea that some of this is possible without getting rid of everything.

34 mugs and waterbottles? What is this for, the Duggar family?

I actually found 10 mugs. I’m keeping one of them because it was hand made by someone I know and it is the perfect size for my coffee. I’ve pitched 2 that were chipped. I’ll try to re-home the 3 Christmas mugs (‘tis the season!).

DD doesn’t have a lot of mugs, but the number of water bottles is amazing. It is what happens when there are 3 kids. Each takes a water bottle to school each day. Frequently, no water bottles come home, so more water bottles go to school and more do not come home. New ones get bought then the delinquents turn up.

I saw a comedian comment on kids taking water bottles to school. He asked ”when did this become a thing?” He went on, when he was in school, kids lined up for a couple of sips of water out of a communal water fountain twice a day.

We have three mugs: his, mine, and a spare (for when we leave a mug upstairs and don’t feel like going up to get it) Then there are some mugs tucked away in a cabinet that came with the dishes. I like them, but I use my gifted mug.

Ah, but: there are the ”winter mugs”. I have a 24-box of Crate&Barrel, and some others. They are so cute! Holiday is its own decluttering.

Water bottles. They breed in the cupboard, you know. Especially the freebies from college visits, sports, parade handouts, etc. Got rid of those, have 4 now, actual metal ones. We didn’t bring water to school, though we did get milk after recess while the teacher read to us. We didn’t bring snacks, either. ”Snack” is a whole new culture!

When is the ”table linens” day of the program? Then I’ll really have something to talk about!

Tomorrow is utensils - duplicates and things you never use.

I did all this way upthread ...

Let’s not talk about how many coffee mugs I have.

I have a very basic number of dishes, though. I don’t have any fine china. I have Crate & Barrel Hue plates in 2 sizes, and some Anthro luncheon size plates. I have a set of 8 cereal type bowls, and I think 8 pasta bowls. And a bunch of little bowls. The end.

Utensils, eh? In moving things for the waterproofers, I came across the box of utensils, including a couple of small serving dishes, from the parents’ house. All 1956-ish, stainless with walnut, for condiments and such. Hmm. Dare I?

Wouldn’t an MCM fan like those serving pieces? Try facebook marketplace or a buy nothing group? Drop them off on the porch of an MCM style house, ring the bell and run. 😆

Hhi, now THAT sounds like a plan!

LOL @hhireno

I found 3 things to pitch. One was a pair of scissor-style silver salad tongs that never got used because the pivot was messed up. Couple of bangs with a hammer fixed the pivot. Back in the drawer they go.

Today’s challenge is food storage containers, primarily matching lids to containers. I may participate; I may not. I have a lot going on today.

Update: I threw away 3 lids.

My kitchen is in great shape. It's much smaller than my previous kitchen so when we moved we donated boxes and boxes of cookware, utensils, china, serving dishes and platters and various appliances that we seldom used.

Having a smaller kitchen means organization is crucial. The pantry and refrigerator are organized, items in the freezer are labeled and dated which makes it easy to stay on top of things. When I bring home spices I write the date with a Sharpie so it's readable.

My downfall is my closet--- and the closet in the guest rooms --- and the hall closet. I have a hard time purging clothes that fit, even it they haven't been worn in a while - because who knows? I might wear them again. Maybe if I enjoyed shopping I'd have to purge to make room for new items. But I have just about everything I need and I don't have much desire to add. Actually the only event where I'm lacking an outfit would be a wedding and thankfully we tend to get advance notice for those.