In the words of the great Marshall Mathers, aka Eminem, “I’m cleanin’ out my closet”.
Now this is not some metaphorical discussion. I actually am talking about cleaning out the actual closest.
I’m not in the business of making generalisations, and I haven’t seen many other men’s closets, but I can comment on mine. I have the bare essentials; one pair of black trousers, a few shirts, one ‘good’ shirt, a couple of jumpers and that’s it. I don’t really need a wardrobe. Even if we extend it to drawers, I have underwear, 1 pair of jeans, some t-shirts and anything I don’t want to wear often goes in the bottom drawer which is reserved for exercise, manual labour and at a push pyjamas.
This Spring, I have been witness to a new phenomenon. I have seen this previously but only paid attention recently due to all of the women in my immediate circle doing the same thing, “Cleaning out their closets”.
These immediate women are my wife, my mother-in-law and my sister-in-law. Each of them have gone through their closets and bagged up a bunch of clothes they no longer want or need. When I say bagged up, this isn’t a small carrier bag, this is about 3 or 4 large bin liners. Firstly, where were these clothes stored, as even now they are removed, the cupboards are still full. Secondly, what do they do with these clothes? The answer is…..give them to each other. Why? What’s happening here? This is just redistribution.
Redistribution – “A distribution performed again or anew”.
Now there is a hierarchy. The Mum hands clothes down, but at no point are clothes handed up to Mum. Then my wife and her sister swap clothes, it doesn’t seem to matter about who is older or younger. They are on the same level which seems to equate to an even swap.
Then the clothes that no one wants goes to charity for someone who obviously has a past-dated fashion sense or no money to look how they want to.
My wife, I don’t remember the last time she bought clothes, however, regular as clockwork she is cleaning out a couple of bin bags full of them. How does this happen? It’s like the clothes are reproducing. Maybe a belt and a jumper got together one night and produced a scarf?!?
I’m not sure if this practice transcends the sexes. I don’t remember the last time my father gave me a bunch of his clothes, “Here son, I want to give you a pair of my jeans.”, errrr no thanks Dad.
I guess the cycle will continue. My daughter will be passed all sorts and she will pick and choose the best and hand the rest to charity. My son will continue to wear what’s in his drawers until unacceptable and he can afford to buy items new.
Although a fresh challenge, I’m going to pass my son as many hand-me-down clothes as possible. The day he wears one, I’ll be celebrating!
Loved this…Dad probably still got shirts you handed to him xxx