To keep or not to keep?



It’s the unofficial end to warm(ish) weather and the start of freezing our booties. It’s when you can’t find the ONE thing you’re looking for, so you yank every piece of clothing from the closet and throw it all onto a pile on the bed. Just to find that ONE thing. While I’m at it, I might as well weed out summer stuff and my questionable winter stuff.

This year, I invited an objective observer over to help me weed the closet, because it’s tough to be honest with yourself. We’ll call her, “D.J.” She always looks fantastic in whatever she wears, so I thought she would be helpful here. With her colorful comments on my wardrobe, she was like a D.J. And also because those are her initials. She’d be as brutally honest as she’d been years ago at Casual Corner. Too young? Consider it 1997’s version of Ann Taylor, where businesswomen could find suits.

Her comments escalated from polite, to eye rolls, to “OMG! You really wore that in public?” We laughed, because, of course I had. On another item, “I can see it out of the corner of my eye. Dump it!” And another, “Talk about a Sgt. Pepper-ish jacket…” And also, “Don’t even try that on. Get rid of it!”

The Salvation Army now has some new inventory. Yes, I tried a thrift shop first. Its waiting list meant my bad clothes had to live here longer and I might be tempted to wear a piece or two. Besides, some of the castaways were not resale worthy.

The best part was my grey, jumbo yarn, knitted wrap-cape-shawl I found in a funky Chicago boutique. I felt so chic in it, but D.J. said, it was pretty awful. We concluded our session and with a toast of white wine, for her time, honesty, and my appreciation.

Imagine my surprise the next time we visited Korey and Spencer in Chicago. If a cape ever had a mini-me, it was their footstool! The top photo will now make perfect sense. Well, I’ve got to go. I’m off to Salvation Army to reclaim my grey gape-wrap-shawl. I’m going to make a pillow out of it for Korey and Spencer’s wedding gift. I think they’re going to love it!

-B