You know how great it feels when you’re shopping for clothes, and all of a sudden you see something beautiful on the rack next to a bunch of ordinary stuff, and there’s only one and you think “Please, please let it be my size,” and YAY, it is!

I had a memorable shopping trip like that in 1988 when I found a pretty white and gray blouse full of sparkly silver and gold threads, which was love at first sight and the perfect size for me.
 

Old blouse with silver and gold threads. 

The only thing I had to wear with the blouse was a cheap gray suit from Value City, which my mom had bought for me when I was still in school, but I expected that I’d buy a better suit to go with it. That never happened, though, because I spent a few years staying home with my kids when they were little and then got a job where I didn’t need to wear suits. I gave the cheap gray suit to a charity that was helping women on welfare to transition into the workforce, but I kept the blouse just because I remembered how happy I felt when I bought it.

Obviously, I’m never going to wear it again. Even if the material hadn’t gotten yellowed from almost three decades of hanging in my closet, it has 1980s-style shoulder pads, for heaven’s sake, and would look absolutely ridiculous with any of today’s fashions. Also, one thing I’ve learned over the past year while cleaning up my clutter is that holding onto useless stuff just because it has good memories is counterproductive. That causes unhealthy feelings of stagnation and takes up space, both mental and physical, which could be put to much better use! So I’m letting the blouse go, while reminding myself that whatever may come my way in the future, it’s all good.

About Clutter Comedy: Every Sunday (which I envision as a day of rest after a productive week of de-cluttering) I post a Clutter Comedy article describing my most memorable clutter discovery of the week. Other bloggers who wish to join in are welcome—just post a link in the comments! There’s no need to publish any “before” photos of your clutter, if they are too embarrassing. The idea is simply to get motivated to clean it up, while having a bit of fun too!

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