Reversed 100 Thing Challenge items 21-75: Clothes

I lumped several giant bags of clothes into "1" item in 1-10 but I have come to terms with the fact that I am not going to be one of those people who own 2 pairs of pants and 2 shirts. In fact I really do not know how those people function in modern American society, how do you wash your clothes?!

For the Year I am cleaning out my closet:

21 + 22. 2: Floral Dress. I LOVE this dress. I am pretty sure it is from Target and I have worn it a lot. I have, however, A. Shrunk it. or B. Gotten too fat. I am going to go with option A preferably but either way, it now barely covers my butt.

23-28. 6 Black T-shirts.

29-31. 3 pairs of sweatpants.

32-36 5 Sweaters. 

 37-39. 3 LBDs

 40. 1 odd dress.

41-42. 2 sweatshirts

43. + 44. 2 Jeweled tone dresses

45- 46. 2 Sun dresses

47-50. 4 Cardigans

51. 1 Ugly Christmas sweater!

52-57. 6 T-shirts

58-59. 2 items of 'work' attire. Button down shirt. I feel like button downs are always a good go to to have in your closet. Whether that is true or not, I am not sure. However, clothes you do not wear are never a good go to. My mom gave me this as a hand me down and like many things I keep carrying it around with me as I move around and it was not been utilized very well.

60-65. 6 fancy tops.

66-75. Socks/and undergarments. Ok I officially got rid of  A LOT of socks, a few pairs of underwear and bras. I finally did a sock purge and got rid of all of the holey- mismatched (in a not cute way) and nubby socks.

Reversed 100 Challenge 11-20. Shoes etc.

Despite not considering myself to be remotely fashionable, I seem to own entirely too many shoes. 

1. These Adidas Flip Flops I bought for my shower shoes going into Freshman year of college. College doesn't seem that long ago but that was 2005. 8 years. I have also super glued and glue-gunned these back together at least 10 times. RIP slip on flippy-floppies. 

2. Black and hot pink stilettos. I like these in theory. They had originally been my sisters. I think I got quite bit of use of them when I was a hostess at Douzo and had to wear all black. Over the last few years, I think I average wearing heels maybe 10 times a year. These suckers have probably moved with me to at least 5 different homes. It is time to bid them adieu, hopefully to someone who will let them strut their stuff more often than I do. Good Will.

3. Can't go wrong with knock off chuck tailors... until you wear away the sole and have grass and dirt stained them to the point of no return. These went to the shoe recycling gods.

 4. Since I do not wear heels, flats are my go to. I really likes these, however, I bought them before I was knowledgeable enough to know that leather stretched. I am normally a size 6.5- 7, I kept trying on these shoes in bigger and bigger sizes and was shocked to find I took an 8 in them. 2 weeks later I discovered I really did not take an 8 and my feet were swimming but I liked them and had paid good money for them so I have kept them for years and occasionally try to wear them (and then curse them for falling off my feet 100 times a day.) So they are off (pre-stretched!) to a better, more well fitting home.

5. Moccasins. Albeit I do not think these were ever fashionable but they were ultra cozy.. until the dreaded Boston winter and wetness. and now they are icky.. stick... Magoo.

6. Boots. As with all knock-off Ugg type boots (noticing a trend?) They tend to last a maximum of 2 years in New England winters. Add in a over-indulgent Halloween party and these puppies were on the last leg.

7-10. Old bags.

One Thing

In dedication to my friend Stephanie's Blog: 

One thing I learned today: I am a moderator, not an abstainer 

One thing I'm grateful for: Wine 

The Reversed 100 challenge 1-10.

I was watching hoarders so I decided I should work on my reversed 100 challenge.
 

Within the last year I went through a minimalizing kick. Just this past spring I am sure I got rid of at least 100 items,  which is making this go around a bit harder. 
 
That being said, it is only a month into the challenge year. I also found once I got started again, it was oddly easy to get rid of a lot. So I decided to group things and count them as one so as to not make the challenge too easy for myself.

1. My first item was easy.  My not so great food processor. We received a new food processor/ blender for the wedding so getting rid off the malfunctioning food processor seems like a no brainer. However, I keep not getting rid of it because I do not know how to properly dispose of it! It works like 1 out of 10 times so I don't think it's worth donating it.  There are no clear rules about small appliance diposal in Gloucester.  So I keep putting it on the counter until I figure it out. 

2. The Twilight Saga. I got sucked in and bought the books and then shared with a group of friends.  I have no intention of reading these books again. So adios! 

3. Earrings. Someone gave me these. They are cute, but, I can't wear fake earrings without developing a rash. My dad's girlfriend liked them.  Done and done! 

4. Towels.  We have an excessive amount and these are falling apart. Animal shelters are always looking for towels so that gave me the motivation to get rid of these I might otherwise have held on to for junk towels for drying off wet dogs or for cleaning. 

5. All of my old CDs! (If I counted these all individually this could have easily been my 100 things right there.) Based on the "Have you used this in the last year" rule, these should have been disposed of years ago! I already have all of the music backed up on my computer and eternal hard drive so really it is rather unlikely I will need the physical CDs. But, similar to the food processor, I was not sure the best way to dispose of them. Plus knowing how many hundreds of dollars were spent on those over the years made me feel guilty about just tossing them. My dad's girlfriend has a jukebox and is always trading in old records so I figured I would give her the CDs to see if she can get something useful that she would use. My phone was dead when I was giving these a way so I unfortunately could not snap a picture- but I assure you, it was an impressive pile from Back Street Boys and Brittany Spears, Korn and Static X, to Ziggy Marley and The Celtic Classics. I had the gamut!

6. A few cookbooks. I love food and cooking, and so people frequently give me cookbooks for gifts which is very thoughtful and I do appreciate it, however, I rarely ever use cook books. I hate flipping through them to find recipes and then try to keep the open and get food all over them when I cook. I generally either make up recipes or look online. I do have a few physical cookbooks I really like and use a lot or other ones that I keep for references, but overall I do not need nearly as many as I have filling up the book shelf. 

7. Outdated manuals. I don't know why I felt the need to hold on to all of the paper work and instructions from my first laptop or my cell phone that I have not had for over 5 years, but I think I can safety get rid of these things.   

8. Automatic Jar Opener. I will admit this is a pretty sweet device. It had been my 85 year old grandmother's for when her arthritic hands could no longer open jars. When she passed away and no one wanted it, it seemed to have wound up in my old bedroom. It is very useful, especially for anyone who is older or had any hand issues. However, I do not really need it, nor do I have room in my tiny kitchen to store it. It obviously was not doing anyone good sitting in the closet of my childhood bedroom. I tried giving it away to several people I thought could benefit from it but in the end it would up in the garage sale pile.

 

9. Old coats. This one was kind of cheating because it was not necessarily my stuff, but my father has been stating for YEARS that he was going to clean out the closet in our mud room, which was namely filled with my mothers old coats (there was literally a trash bag full) that she had left there when they got a divorce. Similar to the jar opener, they were nice coats, but obviously she was not wearing any of these coats at her old house and no one else was using them so I packed them up and dropped them off at her house for her perusal, which presumably will be donated.

10. Clothes.  Again, I am sure if i added up all of the clothes I donate throughout the year that would likely be close to the 100 items, so I am compiling this one donation bag as one item. I would like to mention, that I rarely buy clothes. I like to buy work out clothes and sneakers and that is about it. I seem to inherit most of my clothes from my mother and sister. We are all roughly the same size and they enjoy shopping. My sister is the type that buys nice things, but does not like being seen wearing the same thing too many times, so once that occurs she passes it off to someone else. My mother, is a bit of a recovering shop-a-holic. She tends to give me things she bought years ago that still have tags on them. 

Miss Minimalist outlines that one of the important steps to being a good minimalist is to be a good gatekeeper, which I will admit I am terrible about. I am generally not motivated to try things on when I am offered them so I just take them home, and then deal with them from there. Or, it it fits I will take it, even if I am unlikely to wear it. 

Like most people I am always worried about the "What ifs." For example, I probably own about 10 pairs of high heeled shoes. I have probably worn high heels maybe 5 times in the past year. But I keep them because I might need them. Right now I wear scrubs and sneakers to work, so I do not need many fancy outfits or dress shoes. I have bad feet (status post bunionectomy) so I have trouble wearing cute shoes in general.

So I am now 1/10th of the way done with my reversed 100 challenge! I look forward to continue minimalizing but I know one of the big things will be to stop letting more things come into the house! 

30 Day Do You Yoga Challenge Recap

I successfully completed the 30 day Do You Yoga challenge! It was nice to get just a little bit of yoga in everyday. Erin Motz also showed a lot of various poses and movements that I have never done before. There was an entire class dedicated to hands and arms it was pretty fantastic.

There was a great variety in it, some days being very active, and others being completely the opposite. I cannot tell you how much I liked the yoga for better sleep one, never mind the fact that I did it right before going to work!

And now it is July and I need another challenge. I will admit, though I did my 30 days of yoga, they were only 10-20 minutes a piece and I really need to get my butt in gear and do some more intense activity.

Updates on my 26 while 26:

• Volunteer – I completed volunteer orientation at the Cape Ann Animal Shelter.
• I have now held not one but TWO babies so far this year. I am pretty sure that is an annual record for myself. 
• I slept in a tent this past weekend and I am going real camping this coming weekend!
• I have read 2 books so far: “Silent Spring” and “The Devil Catches You and You Fall Down.” Currently accepting new book recommendations. I am still partially reading “The Dioxin Wars”  (I have been on chapter 1 for the past year) and “World War Z.”
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• I have tried several new recipes- more on that to come. 

26 while 26

I saw on A girl and her Mutts blog about her annual 33 while33 and 32 while 32 lists. Since I recently turned 26, I feel like I should try this. So here is goes:

26 while 26

In no particular order 

1.   Volunteer – somewhere! They really make some forms of volunteering really difficult. I went on a rampage of wanting to volunteer at an animal shelter, but none of the ones near me were taking volunteers or they required a ridiculous time commitment at impractical times. So, I am still on a mission, if anyone has any good ideas let me know

2.  Hold a baby. Babies kind of scare me, but alas people seem to keep having them, and as I get older those people seem to be closer to me. I think I need to get over this fear!  -- This past weekend I held my friend Melissa’s new baby. She pretty much cried the whole time, so it did not help to alleviate my fear but on the positive side she cried when anyone held her not just me so I did not feel as bad.

3.  Do a 365 photo challenge. This is going to be tough. I am terrible at taking pictures, I do not even know where my camera is. They may wind up being very crappy cell phone pictures and there is a good chance they will all be of Leo and Ghreylin. Almost a month into 26 and I have not started this yet so It might not be an official 26-27 documentary.

4.   Start looking into doctoral programs. Going along with my quarter life crisis, I felt I needed a change and that I may want to become a PhD to get more involved in research. Thus far that is as far as I have gotten on that mission.

5.   Do a girls trip. Beach trip, adventure trip, whatever I just need some time with the ladies.

6.   Go camping.  I go hiking on a regular basis but I have not done an over night wilderness adventure in a few years and I think that needs to be amended. Ironically right after making this list Jordan decided we need to go camping. I have enlisted the help of my father who goes backpacking frequently to help us plan a trip. We even discussed getting Leo a puppy backpack! I think he would do great with it. He is a fabulous hiker.

7.   Become at least conversationally competent in Spanish. I bought Rosetta stone to learn, but no it is a matter of actually doing it. It seems effective, but every time I do it Jordan makes fun of me!

8.   Learn to knit or sew. I have a ball of yarn and some knitting needles on my dresser that I have attempted to do something with via several websites, you tube videos and tutorials, but I still cannot seem to get past that first row of knots.

9.  Plan a trip (and ideally go on one…) We have discussed going to Colorado where Jordan’s sister lives or to Florida where a lot of his family is.

10. Read at least 12 books. I just finished The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. Taking recommendations on books to read.

11. “Blog with intention” I am stealing this one (though I now cannot recall the source!) but it is very pertinent. I have a running list of these “BIG” things I want to write about, I get 2 sentences in and put them on the back burner.

12. Try a new recipe. As much as I like cooking I tend to just throw things together and Jordan refers to it as shlop.

13.  Stay better in touch with people. I have done a decent job at this the past year but it has definitely taken effort. When left to my own devices I am perfectly content with being by myself and not seeing any friends for weeks at a time. That being said I love seeing my friends and family and hate having to do the once every 6 months catch up. I know I need to make a conscious effort to contact people and make plans in advance.

14. Organize and minimalize! Donate/Throw Out/Give Away 100 items. I have the constant goal to become a minimalist but I am just so bad at it! We just have so much stuff. I feel like I do a good job about cleaning up, donating and minimalizing in the short term but as MissMinimalist would say, I am a bad “gatekeeper.”  Things seem to keep making their way into our house!

15.  Monthly workout challenges such as the 30 days of yoga and 100 push up challenge. They keep things interesting and keep me accountable.

16.  Go on a spending diet.

17.  Get out of some debt. I have no delusions I will be debt free in the next year but maybe try to be in less debt than I am now would be nice.

18.   Do a date night at least once a month. Nothing fancy, just some quality time.

19.  Submit something to be published. Ideally a science type of paper but I will take anything!

20.  Calm down – meditate. It is funny how some people describe me as so mellow and even keeled and others think I am completely crazy. I would like to be mellow and even keeled, but I have anger management surrounding certain issues, namely noise. I discovered there is a name for my “condition” – Misophonia. My goal is to be less tightly wound about the little things.

21.  26 random acts of kindness- hopefully more but at least 26 very intentional ones.

22.  Try a new kind of work out. Last year I tried trx, cross fit, barre, bikram yoga.. what will be next? Accepting suggestions!

23.  Be able to do the splits again. It is amazing how inflexible you can become without effort.  This seems like an attainable goal within the next year.

24.  Make my wedding scrapbook. I have the album. I have the pictures. They just need to go together.

25.  Attempt to make myself look acceptable at least once a week. I wear scrubs to work and come home and put on sweatpants, I tend to not try very hard. I do not feel the need to suddenly become fashionable but I think putting some effort in every no and again may be good for me.

26.  Watch the star wars movies… I have never seen them. I have been told for years this needs to be amended.

Do You Yoga Challenge

After my not-so-successful month of a yoga challenge I heard of the “Do you yoga” 30 day yoga challenge which they email you a < 20 minute yoga video a day. So far, so good!  

I love the Erin Motz who is teaching the classes. She is very easy going and encourages people to only go as far as they can, and gives tons of options for people of all levels. Her biography on “Do You Yoga” starts with “I'm a carnivorous, red wine and French cheese-loving,” so basically I decided I liked her after that.

One dilemma I see happening is only doing the 20 minutes and then deciding I do not need to do any longer classes, so I think I will make the agreement with myself I can skip one of the challenge videos and opt for a longer class, and then maybe do a couple days worth on another day? So far this has not worked out and I have only done the 20 minutes or so a day which is not really acceptable for physical activity. 

I really need to crack the whip! 

On a seperate note, Louis made his movie big screen deput in one of Jordan's videos!