Despite the fact that I am not at all thrilled about giving up my vacation habits of general laziness, it feels really good to start this week, to be back. This week marks the first time since last May where James and I are back to our normal schedule, back to him leaving for the office early and that prompting me to drag myself out of bed and start the day. Back to regular little outings around our city and evenings with friends without feeling like we need to rush to squeeze everything in. This weekend just felt like it was back to something that I didn’t even realize how much I was missing.
I rolled back into town late Friday night and a lot of this weekend was spent easing back into life. I opened mail for a solid 30 minutes on Saturday, sorting out bills and opening stacks upon stacks of Christmas cards. That meant I spent another 15 minutes redoing the outside of our fridge, where it will now remain for the next 8 months as a shrine to all the people we know and love.We cleaned, worked on finding places to put Christmas gifts, and I decided that Sunday afternoon was the perfect time to purge all of my belongings. While the whole capsule wardrobe thing just doesn’t work with our professions and lack of storage for out-of-season capsules, I did want to use the basic concepts to do a total closet overhaul. While James calmly napped in the living room, I removed EVERYTHING from my closet and then made myself defend anything that I wanted to put back in. The result is a closet that I can open and easily sort through, 5 garbage bags of clothes to throw/give away, and a realization that while I need no clothes, 2015 needs to be “The Year of Investing in Better Shoes.” It was also humbling to see how much stuff I no longer liked that I have purchased in the past 6 months. Ouch. People, nothing makes me feel back on track like getting rid of stuff. I was stressed Sunday morning about all I needed to start doing on Monday, but by the end of my purge, I was basically zen.
We also used this weekend to live it up before we started the Whole30 today. In theory, you should spend the week before trending towards the diet…. but in reality, we were all “MUST EAT ALL OF THE FOOD WE WILL BE GIVING UP.” Thus, District Taco on Saturday for lunch, waffle party Saturday night, Trader Joe’s pastries Sunday morning, and a potluck of “all the food from the pantry we can’t eat” for friends who came over Sunday night to kick off the Bachelor, complete with our scoffing menfolk in the background. There were brackets, lots of screaming, and high expectations for this season. I am now ready for the Whole30 to start transforming my life, thanks to no fewer than 3 hours spent grocery shopping this weekend and a major junk-food hangover reminding me that this is a good idea, because right now I basically feel like Tara from the Bachelor premier rose ceremony.
I know that January is kind of blah all around, but I am trying to remind myself the simple goodness of being back on a routine. Happy Monday folks!
The Art in Life 
You’ve inspired me to purge my closet of unwanted/out of dated-ness. Thank you. 🙂
It is the BEST FEELING EVER.
I like the way you phrased the “defend anything I wanted to put back in” part of the purge. That’s a good way to approach it. I need to do that myself….
It was rough, but it feels so good now to actually be able to find the cloths I like/wear! I got rid of some cute cloths I liked…. but just never seemed to have an occasion to wear.
*clothes…
OMG, I have been going through my closet recently as well, but still have stuff I love but don’t really want, if that makes sense. I tried to do a clothing exchange a couple months ago (which has worked out splendidly before in Portland), but it didn’t really work out timing wise… would you be interested in getting some ladies together for an exchange? I don’t think I know enough girls on my own. 😦
It’s a great idea! I know that there are some ladies here in DC who do a big exchange every so often (see below comment). I actually spread everything across my bed and when a bunch of my friends came over Sunday night, I let them have at it! There was one garbage back left by the time they were done and I sent it with one girl to drop off in a charity bin on her way back. Thus, the purge and the removal of the clothes happened in one fell swoop and I have nothing left to exchange!
I LOVE purging! I agree, nothing feels better! 🙂 How DO we accumulate so much stuff so quickly??? Happy back to normal! 🙂
I HAVE NO CLUE!!! But we do- Stuff breeds stuff!
You should save your clothes for our clothing swap! We’re hoping to do it at Carol’s place in February. It’s a lot of fun and generally consists of mostly Hillsdale grads. 🙂
P.s. This is Emily Henry. 🙂
Ahhhhh sad day! I actually had it laid out for all the girls who came over Sunday night and what they didn’t take I had some one drop off in a charity bin on her way home. I just wanted to be DONE with it all before it cluttered up another corner of my house. I have nothing left to swap!
I have clothes for you!
-Abbie
We will take them! Do you want to join us for the swap? (Assuming you know Hannah 😉 )
Haha… I DO know Hannah! And I’m another Hillsdale grad. I just don’t know how to sign into my other account! FB me… Abbie Maynard Chrisman
Emily- I can certify that no only is Abbie not a psycho, she also has great taste so she would have some good clothes to swap! : )
I’ve done Whole30 twice and the “Living It Up” week hurts so bad the next week. Is it worth it? Yes.
Ok good- because it sure felt like an amazing strategy at the time!
1. January is one of my favorite months but I’m totally biased because my birthday is on the thirtieth.
2. I love seeing the picture of my little team on your fridge.
3. We have the same Hunters.
4. I need to get a blanket scarf.
1. Happy Birthday month!
2. It makes me so happy having it there – Christmas card fridges are the best fridges.
3. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH. They were a gift from my rocking brother-in-law and I’m obsessed.
4. Girl you need one. It means I can go from style to nap in about 3 seconds.
Need to do a closet purge… I just sent a bag to Thredup (online consignment store – have you heard of it?) but still feel like a full overhaul needs to happen. I like your idea of pulling it ALL out of the closet and then having to justify each item that you put back in.
See, I should totally be an awesome financial maven and do ThredUp or even sell things in Ebay…. but I am LAZY and hate dealing with mailing stuff. I purge and then I WANT IT GONE, like instantly. Because our place is so small that it is just as much of a problem out of the closet as in it.
And I’m telling you — the taking it all out made SUCH a difference. Good luck!
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