A good place to start this project is with my clothes. Firstly, it is a fairly simple process to handle them, once the choice has been made. I really have only three alternatives; things that are ruined or just cannot be given away, like underwear and socks, I throw in the garbage; things I just don’t wear, but are in good condition, I give to charity; the rest I keep. I guess some items, as we go along, may be up for sale at some point, but that hasn’t really been a major issue so far.

Secondly, clothes are a good place to start because I have too many clothes to fit in my closet, and I do definitely need to get rid of some of them. On the down side, as I go through the clothes I own, it strikes me that I don’t really have clothes I don’t wear, and it seems I certainly don’t have clothes I don’t like. My three main problems when it comes to clothing are t-shirts, button down shirts and sweat shirts. Every single one has a special meaning, a special emotional bond for me.

Sorting through my t-shirts is a horrid affair. Not so much because I have many ugly shirts, but because I have so many, and they are spread around my apartment and in the attic. This is not the first time I have thrown away t-shirts, but usually throwing away means putting in a duffel bag and stuffing in the aforementioned attic or basement. The problem with letting go of t-shirts is that each one was bought in a particular situation. I don’t generally buy clothes just because I need them, I buy them and then connect them to a particular memory. Letting go of the shirt is letting go of the memory.

The first t-shirt to go is my Autobots shirt which I bought in 2001, while on easter vacation in minnesota. The Decepticons supposedly went a few years ago, although I suspect it may be placed in a duffel bag somewhere. I also am getting rid of a bunch of college team shirts, not North Dakota State University (go Bison!), but at least five or six colleges I didn’t go to all of which I have picked up at different times at Champs or Foot Locker sales. Same goes for a couple of sweat shirts and hoodies. Those things take up a lot of space.

I wear dress shirts every day for work, quite nice ones too. I do, however have a bunch of not so nice ones in my closet, as any good hoarder would. I absolutely prefer Eton shirts to any other brand, as they are 100% cotton and completely non-iron, even after spending quite some time in a suitcase. The Eton shirts get to stay, but the GAP shirts need to go.

A few years ago I decided it was a good idea to buy summer pants for work. Just a little bit lighter than the regular dresspants I usually wear. The only problem was that they looked horrible, so I did the most natural thing, I kept them. I guess we are saying good bye to those now.

I still have too many clothes, but, as they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and I will have to revisit my closet if I get the hang of this minimalism.