Knowing when to say when or time to "Let it Go"

I've thought a lot about this topic for the past few years but even more lately for some reason. The idea of letting something go applies to so many areas of our life and so often just thinking about letting something go can cause a lot of stress. Something that has always been hard for me to let go of is clothing. When I was a teacher and a coach I was always well dressed thanks in large part to my wife. As a result I had a large closet full of clothes. When we sold our house and I moved into a studio apartment I was forced to downsize.

At first I didn't get rid of a lot of clothes that, "I might need someday". I put them in bins and put them in a storage unit. It has been ten years now since I taught and in that time the one job I had for any length of time required me to wear required me to wear khakis and either work provided t shirts or red polo shirts. It was nice knowing that for five days a week I didn't have to decide what to wear. A big change after 28 years in the classroom. I still kept all of my other clothes, in case "I might need them someday".

At some point I decided that I was tired of wasting my money on storage bin rent every month for stuff that I had not used or even looked at for at least a couple of years. So I got rid of a lot of stuff. I did however keep many bins of clothes that "I might need someday". I moved out of my apartment into the lower half of a friends house and stored my stuff in the garage, above the garage and in a closet below the stairs. Included in that stuff were several bins of clothes that "I might need someday". During this time I was wearing jeans, shorts, and mostly t shirts if I had to dress nicer I had a couple sets of good clothes I kept in my closet wherever I was living. No more than I had to get "dressed up", I didn't need many but I still had bins full of clothes that I kept because "I might need them someday".

I moved to California and brought with me just what I could fit in my car. Eventually I returned and retrieved my belongings from my friends house. I had bought a pickup and put a shell on it and I was able to fit everything in the back. I bought a small storage shed to put my stuff in here in California including several bins of clothes that "I might need someday". I have been here almost 3 1/2 years and the majority of the clothes are still in bins.

Bin full of clothes

This bin is just one of the bins full of clothes that I have kept. This particular one sits on top of a bookcase in my closet.

I think it's pretty obvious where I'm going with this. I need to stop hanging on to things that I don't need. As I write this I'm wearing a shirt that I got when my daughter lived in Williamsburg, Virginia before she was married. It is from a raft trip that the four of us took. She has been married 10 years in July so that shows how old the shirt is. "But it's special". When is it time to let go of those things that have special meaning? Especially when so many things that we have do have "special meaning".

The picture doesn't show how worn it is around the neck. Why do I resist getting rid of so much? Why is it so hard to just give it to a charity where someone else will get some use out of it before it is so worn? Two reasons come to mind. One is that we grew up without much money and new clothes were something we got to go back to school and for Christmas. You wore them even if it wan't something you picked out yourself because that's what you had. Everything I have now I either picked out myself and therefore I obviously like it or it was a gift from someone and I appreciate their thoughtfulness. The second reason and probably the biggest roadblock is the memories that the clothing has attached to it. Obviously this is particularly true if the item is from a special event with special memories attached.

I have a shirt. It's nothing special. We bought it on clearance at Kohl's probably around 2002 or 2003. The school colors where are coached were cardinal and gold so I wore the shirt coaching despite the blue stripe. Blue and gold was a rival high school. That's what I mean about memories.As I'm sitting here writing this and thinking about that shirt in particular the coaching memories are coming back. When I first wore it in California my niece started calling it my Charlie Brown shirt and it stuck. I finally decided that it was time to get rid of it and our cats are enjoying sleeping on it. To commemorate it I made this picture.

Silly I know but one of the great things about technology today is that you can make up your mind to get rid of stuff and still have something to generate the memories.

One type of clothing that is even harder for me to get rid of is race t shirts. It is ridiculous. Since turning 60 I have run 144 races and have received a t shirt at the majority of the races. While some are nicer and some are more meaningful they all represent an accomplishment. Like everything else though, how many can you even use? I find that I wear the same few over and over because they are obviously on the top of the drawer, get worn, get washed, and get put back on top of the drawer. So again the question is the same, what do you do with them all? And the idea of keeping them because someone else may want them someday is ludicrous because they've got the same problem getting rid of stuff as you do.

The shirt from my first race as a 60 year old. I've got to let things go!

Another thing that I have a tough time getting rid of is running shoes. This is really ridiculous because I wear my shoes out and when they reach a certain point then there is a risk of injury. So why can't I just get rid of them. A lot of races even collect "gently" used shoes to distribute to those in need. The problem is that I wear my shoes beyond the point of gently used and if they are a shoe that I like I hate to get rid of them. I've got to let things go!

This shoe for example still looks decent but you can't see all the wear that there is on the heel area from the way that I run.

That's probably enough about that for now. I need to take my own advice and start going through stuff and getting rid of it. Letting it go. If the memories are that important they'll still be there. I believe that our t shirts often tell our story and that is another reason it is difficult to let go of them when they reach the point that they should no longer be worn in public. I guess I need to try to hang on to those memories and tell the story through pictures and things like this blog. It sure takes up a lot less room.