More Thrift Store Donations - Undergarments and Son's Clothing from Early-Mid 2000's

Yesterday I started going through more items in one of my dressers and in my son's closet.   Most of the above was in a drawer that I had some of my craft stuff in front of I don't think I had opened it since 2004.

I had stopped at a garage sale a week ago and picked up 6 items so I needed to get rid of at least that many items to stay of my continuing declutter plan.

It has some pretty lacy bras from Frederick's of Hollywood, Victoria's Secret and other such brands that I used to wear.   I now buy more utilitarian ones and the goal is not to look sexy, it is to try to prevent sagging.

There are also a few girdle-type products for a flat tummy under all garments.  That too has changed and I now buy one with a less firm hold for more comfort and the goal is not to jiggle. 

There are also a few pairs of socks as I need to wear ones with more support/compression:  either athletic socks, like Puma (which my son left behind when he moved out) or lighter weight compression stocking, mostly off of Amazon.com.

I have to admit it was easier to let go of the above that it was some of the items that remained in my son's old closet that I have been going through. 

This is a shirt my son wore all of the time for several years, but he now shies away from bright colors and it is too big on him as he lost a lot of weight when he worked at a scale company and was lifting weights to calibrate machinery and walking vast distances.   

This shirt is still in good condition and I hope it goes to a good home,

I remember my son wanting to get this at the thrift store and begged me to get it because it had a race car on it and he has always loved cars.  I am not sure he wore it more than once as he was worried about getting it dirty before it made its way slowly to the back of the closet. 

This is another one my son liked to wear during his skateboarding phase as it protected his arm from a rash in case he felt .

I don't think he ever fell while wearing this one because except for being a little faded, it is still in good condition.

There are a few other items like a short sleeved denim shirt and a khaki outfit that always seemed to need ironing so I would say "pick something else" and it too made it's way toward the back of the closet.

This is the one item that is newer - itis a pair of Propet shoes I bought 2-3 years ago.   The black area on the right shoe is cosmetic as I only wore the shoes a few times.

They are to be washable and after they got a little muddy after wearing a few times I washed them in a lingerie bag and put in the dryer.  They shrank.  I tried a trick I found online to try soaking them in water with a high concentration of fabric softener and air-dried but it only helped a little so it is time to donate them. 

I have purchased over half a dozen pairs of Propet shoes in the past five years as they are very comfortable and the soles have 1,000 guarantee and they have styles that are more contemporary without looking gym-shoe-ish (which is not suitable for work).

I have a pair I have put at least that many miles on and the soles are fine, but the uppers started falling apart early on and I have repaired them several times with E6000 glue.

This was taken to the North Franciscan Family Thrift store.

Thift Store Donation and a Haul

A local thrift store, the Franciscan Family Thrift Store, was having a half-price sale recently, so to keep up with my de-clutter agenda to not bring home anything without getting rid of the same or more I packed up a few items in the box above.

There is an answering machine with caller id as some school kid might have a "Bring some old technology to school" day to share with the class. 

There is a Halloween mask tucked in the right lower corner that was my son's from probably 2002. The Teddy bear is probably from the same year and I had planned on making a shabby chic wreath using him until I realized he was too thick for the screen door to close if I did. 

The rocking horse candle holder I bought through a fundraiser at my son's school when he was in Jr. High.  I rarely burn tapered candles and the rocking horse with toys looks a little out of place a middle-aged woman's bedroom.  For some reason, I keep picturing an old movie with Bette Davis called "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane" that I watched on late night tv one time.  Let's just say her character was a few quarters short of a roll so it was time for it to go.

The Christmas decoration is attached to a wicker sleigh that I had intended to take the decoration out and adapt the sleight for a  GI Joe and  Barbie my son had that he no longer played with (he insisted GI Joe needed a girlfriend when he was young.  Mostly of the time her legs were stuck in a dinosaur's mouth and GI Joe would come to the rescue).  The pinecone were to have been transformed into me reindeer with pipe cleaner legs and googly eyes and red pom-pom nose.  That was over 10 years ago too and as I never got around it, maybe someone else can enjoy it.

In the back is a light-up Christmas painting of the Nativity that I won at a family Christmas bingo game and put up for years.  Since my son moved out, I don't decorate for Christmas anymore so in the box it went.

As the box was full, the below Trivial Pursuit game ended up in a plastic grocery bag. I thought this would be fun to play but no one was interested in family gatherings we had so no reason to keep it around.

THRIFT HAUL

This is less than half the stuff I started out with inside my cart t as I went through it several times and asked myself:  "Will I really wear this on a regular basis?".

I ended up with a sweater for $2.50 and 3 scarves for .99 cents each.  On the scarf on the left, I was on the fence about because it has colors that are in my wardrobe and I don't have a scarf with those colors, but not a really liking the blotchiness.  I decided if I find I don't wear it much I may bleach it, dye it or just donate it back.

Does anyone else have these dilemmas?

Closet Purge - Thrift Store Donataion

As part of my continuing declutter, before I went thrift shopping this weekend I went through more items to donate to charity.

An article I read indicated taking a picture of items to let go can help if it is sentimental so here goes.

In the above picture, the yellow baby hat was crotcheted by a former co-worker when my son was born. There are also several shirts that were his that are too large, like the Shelby Racing shirt in front, or too small.  I hung on to them in hopes he would have a child that might want to wear them someday.    He is now 26 and has no children and he has said before he doesn't want any.  Time to let them all go. 

The vest below was used in a movie that my son was in through a local video production company, Windsong, for their movie "Michalimacinaw" set in the 1770's.   I couldn't afford an authentic costume so I bought a blazer, took the sleeves off, shoulder pads out and changed/added buttons. 

While the transformation was minimal on my part, there was a lot of effort on my part to get him to rehearsals and shoots and many times I tried to sleep in the car as I had to be into work at 7pm and work until 8am.  We also went up to Mackinaw City where they filmed at the Fort up there.  We had a good time and have great memories of our few days up there.   

Not something he would ever wear again and Halloween is coming up; maybe someone else can use it.  

Nope, never going to wear parachute pants again.  Maybe someone has a 90's themed party that might love them.

This was a little more painful as I loved these shoes, but I can no longer wear heels. I haven't worn them in over 15 years so time for them to go too.

This was a present and I did like the scarf, but see how it wrinkles?  I don't like to iron so it is going too.

This was probably the hardest of all to let go of as I have had it for many years and only wore it around Christmas.  I am sure people are tired of seeing it and it is bulky and takes up too much space for something I wear a few times (or less) in December.  Also, I have lost weight and it is way too big and would be a pain in the butt to resize it to make it look decent.  Time to be welcomed to another gal's closet to bring holiday cheer.