About three weeks ago I went through my closet and pared down. I took the clothes to our old church’s garage sale.

But today R and I were talking about keeping the 20% of clothes you wear all the time and getting rid of (most of) the rest.

So we stopped talking about it and started doing it.

Even though I had gone through my closet three weeks ago, I still got two big trash bags full of nice clothes that don’t fit me any more (or never did). I also pulled out all my belts and three pairs of shoes. (I hadn’t done those before.)

R went through his closet and his dresser and got two more bags full of clothes, plus a bag of trash.

We also got rid of an entire brown grocery bag full of hangers and kept only the hangers I actually like to use.

We’ll take those down to the thrift store that supports women who are abused at home and are trying to get them and their children out. Last time we went they didn’t have very many clothes. I don’t know if they had sold them all or if they were trying to make the room seem bigger. It did seem bigger. It also seemed empty.

Between here and there you used to not be able to find anywhere to donate. But Goodwill opened a donation site. Maybe lots of the people in my area now give there.

But I’m going to pass them up and go to the thrift store because I know that they help families.

And I can’t believe how empty my closet is now!

I still have six pairs of shoes I only wear one time a year, but… Most of the rest of the stuff is gone.