Black Sacks of Surprises

I am not great at buying clothes for myself but I do love finding a bargain on a sale rail or in a charity shop or occasionally a jumble sale. Even better than this is when a stylish, generous friend has a wardrobe clear out and brings a car boot full of clearly labelled black sacks containing neatly folded, good as new, floral fragranced, quality clothes for you to sort through and take your pick from.

It was like Christmas opening the bags and finding out what surprises were contained within. 

It didn't take me long to sort out a dozen items destined for my wardrobe.

It didn't stop at merely a dozen! I now have enough warm woolies to help me cope with whatever winter throws at me. I won't need to buy another plain T shirt, short or long sleeved, for a very long time and best of all, I have some things that  I probably would never have thought to buy for myself but fell in love with when I tried them on for size. 

Two of my grown up daughters have found some keepers and I'm sure my other two will once they have had a chance to look through. 

My mum thought I must be preparing to go on holiday when she came to visit and saw a hanging rail full of clothes in my front room. I told her about my generous friend and invited her to take a look and see if there was anything that she liked. She liked everything but didn't think she'd find anything in her size. I was so pleased when she found some skirts and blouses that fit her and totally suited her elegant style of dress.

There will no doubt be some things left over that can't find a home in any of our wardrobes but I will take great pleasure in donating these on to the local charity shops in the knowledge that there will be some very happy customers walking away with some gorgeous bargains that I really wish had fitted me!

Coat Hangers

I love getting my little boy dressed in the morning. It doesn't seem to matter what pair of trousers and top I grab, they go together and he looks great.

It isn't quite as easy with my little girl. Trying to co-ordinate the colours, patterns, designs ands styles that make up her wardrobe can be virtually impossible. Sometimes she looks likes she has fallen into a clothing bank and emerged as a mismatched fashion nightmare.

It didn't really bother me too much until she started Nursery school. I am never at my best first thing in the morning so trying to find a pair of leggings that didn't look too shocking with a particular T-shirt and then digging through the huge box of cardigans and jumpers, lovingly knitted by nana, to find one that vaguely matched was driving me to despair.

I came up with a plan. I spent a whole afternoon with every item of clothing she possessed laid out in her bedroom and put everything together in outfits. I hung the complete outfits on coat hangers and put them on her hanging rail. I actually really enjoyed doing it . It reminded me of when me and my sisters were children playing with our Action Girl, Sindy and Barbie - swapping fashions and dressing our dolls for every occasion. As well as an opportunity to reminisce, it also made me realise the importance of having key wardrobe essentials - the things that everything else will mix and match with. Next time I go clothes shopping I will have a much better idea of what I should be looking for rather than just rummaging through the sale rails for bargains that end up unworn!

It has certainly worked so far. Getting my little girl dressed in the mornings is a breeze. I grab one of the complete outfits from her rail and away we go!  I really feel as though I have created order out of chaos.

It tried to apply the same order out of chaos idea to my loft this weekend.

In this age of Reduce, ReUse and Recycle, it seems very wrong to measure the success of your day's work by how many bags of rubbish you generate to take to the dump, but that was what I did - and it was a very successful day's work.

I threw out two black sacks full of coat hangers. I am ashamed to admit that whenever I buy clothes and the cashier asks me if I'd like to keep the coat hangers, I hesitate a moment then invariably say yes. I don't know why I always say yes. I know I don't need any more coat hangers. This is how much I don't need any more coat hangers:

I sorted out the hangers, I kept a few spares in a box in the garage and the rest went to the dump. I took the photograph as a reminder of what happens when you can't say no when the cashier asks the do you want to keep the hanger question. When I go shopping for those wardrobe essentials I now know I need, I will rehearse in my head no thank you and hope that those are the words that come out of my mouth at the appropriate moment.

The ironic part is (and I really don't understand this at all) that despite this massive excess of tangled plastic and metal that I have lived with, on ironing day I can never find enough hangers for my husband's shirts.