Life Lessons From The Closet

What can you learn about yourself from cleaning out a closet? Let me tell you.
My daughter and I cleaned out a storage closet in order to give her a walk-in closet in her room. The task was long overdue, mostly because I knew it would be an all-day event. I knew it had to be done and that she'd appreciate it, but I'm a lazy procrastinator. I hardly knew where to begin.
Enter: HORMONES. I only feel like cleaning one or two days a month, but on those days I feel like a mother bird who has to feather her nest for her soon-to-arrive baby bird.
At the end of the day, we had gathered up 5 bags of clothes, 5 boxes of recycling and garbage, eight boxes of donatable goods for Value Village, and then we redirected the rest of the things we wanted to keep to other closets.
We found my wedding gown and my 16 year old tried it on. It fit, except for the length. My husband asked, "Were you really that small when we got married?" Yes, he really did! I asked him to rephrase the question.
We also found all of the nursery school curriculum from when I toyed with the idea of home schooling. I put away those toys and sent the kids to Christian school instead.
My daughter kept a few treasures. She even saved one of the homeschool posters about character, which says, "Jeff goes to bed when his mother tells him to. He obeys quickly." She put it inside her closet door.

I LEARNED:
1. I have way too many clothes. I don't even miss what I sent away.
2. I'm a pack rat. I didn't think I was, but the weight of the evidence is greatly against me.
3. We don't have enough closet space in our house. That's probably because of #2.
4. I'm nostalgic.
5. I'm only organized when the mood strikes me.
6. I don't know why I'm saving my wedding gown. Yes, I do. See #4. But if my daughters are anything like me, they'll want their own wedding gowns. I remain hopeful that they'll want to at least cut it up and use it somehow. Because it's OBVIOUS I won't be fitting into it again.
7. I hadn't cleaned out my closet in years. See #5.
8. I'm a lazy procrastinator.
9. It feels good to get rid of junk.
10. After it's done, I wonder why I didn't do it sooner. Oh, yeah, see #5 and #8.

So what are you waiting for? Go clean out a closet and see what you learn about yourself.