A friend came over on Monday and let me borrow her vacuum, since mine was on the fritz. Better than that, she vacuumed while I cleaned the kitchen and the bathrooms.

Afterwards, she asked to see the closets, since that's what I'd done all morning was clean closets. So we started with mine.

She looked in the closet and said, “Is this all you own?” Then she said, “These are just your winter clothes, right?” And then she said, “Are you always this organized?”

All I own:

one sweat shirt

one pair of shorts (not for exercising)

three sweater shirts (one is cashmere, though)

two cardigans (I'm always cold.)

one skort

two mini-skirts

two midi-skirts (meaning tea length, or calf length)

two silk blouses

four shirts

one pair of slacks

two pairs of jeans

four dresses

numerous assorted undies

six pairs of shoes: boots, sneakers, high heels (2), sandal slip-ons (2)

five exercise short/shirt combos which are not respectable enough for public viewing

Wow, that looks like a lot when I write it down. Compared to the rest of the world (non-West), I do have lots of clothes. But I have discovered that many people around here have more clothes than I do.

My sister-in-law is wearing some of the same jeans she wore in high school, 20 years ago, because she owned 40 or 50 pair then, she's still a size 0, and she's bought tons of others since.

My mom has a walk-in closet the size of our spare bedroom, no, it's bigger, which is floor to ceiling clothes. She doesn't get rid of any of them. So she has a size spread of about six sizes. (Which probably means she can't wear half the clothes in there.)

My sister has a walk-in closet that is bigger than the biggest room in my house. Her clothes/shoes are organized by color, starting with the lightest, to the mustards, through tans, to light browns, then hitting the navys and blacks. I don't think she has any red outfits and I hope she doesn't get any because that would spoil her color scheme in her closet.

My brother-in-law shares the closet with her and his suits and shirts and shoes also are color-organized. Both of them are in consistently teeny sizes, so they never have to have the tailor make them a new suit unless they just want a new brown outfit.

(I buy my clothes at Wal-Mart and Target. Which may be why mine don't last as long as theirs.)

Makes me want to go look in my friend's closet.

And, no, they weren't just my winter clothes and, yes, I am that organized in my closet at all times. I will admit, though, that I cleaned out clothes I've gotten too small to wear and took them to the local ministry this past month.

When we get rich, I'm going to get some new clothes.