Clothes Horse


You've heard the expression, "She's a clothes horse!"

(It's always a 'she' isn't it?)

What a "clothes horse!"

Ever wonder where the expression came from?

From 1788. A clothes horse is an upright wooden frame used for hanging clothes to dry. You probably have one, that flimsy wooden thing that you set up to dry some things, not many things, maybe your delicates, because it's wobbly, and you have to make sure it's balanced, and Oh, do you feel righteous, because you're drying your things on a rack and not putting a load in the dryer. But the dryer is running nonstop because you can only dry one pair of jeans on the clothes horse, and it takes at least 24 hours to dry them, and that's on a dry day. You'd put it in the sun, but it would probably blow over.

Clothes horse also means a person (It's always a she.) whose sole (soul?) purpose is to wear a lot of fancy clothes.

No. The purpose of this blog is not to make you feel guilty about using the dryer, or wearing a lot of fancy clothes, or having a lot of clothes, or buying a lot of clothes. (Though if you're into guilt and want to feel miserably guilty, see the blog storyofstuff.org/blog/never-look-at-clothes-the-same-way-again).

No. This blog is devoted to the stuffstream of your clothes. How your clothes move through your house (not when you're in them), on their way eventually out the door.

To implement this streaming, you will need a closet, a spare room or closet, and a good-sized box.

Keep in mind again that there is nothing implied here about SHOULD or HAVE TO or YOU BETTER. Nothing about (I hate this advice) when you bring one thing in, another thing must go out.

What if you don't know what to kick out the door? What if you don't want to take anything out? Now you're at war with yourself, and you feel bad. Now you're depressed and guilty, and so you go out and buy something else, it's comforting. Now you have to take two things out. You don't know what to get rid of, and you have not one thing but two, now. So you're more depressed and guilty and go out and buy something. Just a small something, which you really need, a packet of bobbie pins. You are a horrible person.

So. A closet. Your closet. Everything hanging in there, in whatever order you choose. I have no advice about color-coding, or frequency of wear. It's up to you.

But you do want to look at your clothes now and again when you open the door. Just look at them. Touch them. Think about them.

It could be your closet is bulging at the seams. That's O.K. Still take items out, throw them on the bed, look at them. Think about them. Hang them back up, or throw them back onto the closet floor.

This streaming strategy does require that you Know Your Clothes and you Know Yourself.

So. One of these days, as you're looking, your hand touches a blouse, and you just know that you won't ever wear this blouse. You may be sad to think this, but someone might really be happy to wear it.

But you're not exactly sure.

Here's where the box comes in.

Now if you have a pretty roomy house, your box can be in an extra bedroom or another closet. Put a box there, and leave it. The box needs to be somewhere other than your room or closet, because the act of walking to the box is important. It's a sort-of commitment.

Put your blouse in the box. Don't fold it. Just toss it in.

It may take months to fill up. A year to fill up. But eventually it will fill up, and you can schlepp it to the Goodwill, or Epilepsy Foundation or somewhere. In the meantime, the clothes in it, or other small household items, like an extra carrot peeler, will sit there until you're ready.

Like the pile, the box gives you some breathing room. You may change your mind. That's O.K. It could be you look at everything again before you take it to Goodwill. And take the carrot peeler out. That's O.K., too.

I have one blouse that I really never wear because it's covered in polka dots, but my two-year old grandson loves all the "cicles." I wear it when I visit him. We've drawn other circles on it with magic marker.

I may put it in the box in a couple of years. Maybe. There's those freehand "cicles" to consider.

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