New Year cleaning

Traditionally, before Chinese New Year, people clean out their houses, to make room for the blessings of the new year. This year, CNY is on January 23, and my duty this Saturday was to clean out my closet.

The closet purge of 2012 is below.

Three piles of clothes, belts, and a rain jacket, a fluffy hat, and a quilted jacket in the back.

The leftmost pile is the great condition pile. It's mostly sweaters, since the sweaters were washed infrequently, and washed the delicate cycle and air dried when washed. Not only that, since it's the beginning of winter, (well, the middle of winter, but it's been such a warm winter) they were the most relevant/timely clothing. I had intended for this stack to go to the local St. Vincent de Paul charity, since I had heard that they give vouchers to people too poor to purchase clothing. The rest of the clothes were in good condition (I don't donate clothes that I think are too old and faded), and I was going to give them to Goodwill. 

It ended up that the local St. Vincent de Paul thrift shop was closed when I went there, so all the clothes ended up going to Goodwill.   

I found it funny that the belts I gave away were mostly my best belts. You can't really see in the photos, but the dress belts were stitched around the edges, and are quite thick. The belts that I kept were of thinner leather, and not stitched around the edge. I suppose I need to be willing to pay more money for a good belt.  

Do others feel sentimental about clothes? Myself, I could tell a story about almost every item of clothing in that picture. That was what I came here to do, really, to tell stories about my clothes, but who would want to read them? They're just clothes, after all. 

It is enough, I think, to show them, and say goodbye.