I’m a closet case or I was for almost four years.
I’d left behind the name and home of my Oppressors and moved into a sort of flop-house. -that could use a lot more exposition but I don’t feel like it I slept on the floor of a girl’s room, with my head stuck in the bottom of a cloak closet for ‘privacy.’ It wasn’t your normal American bedroom closet, either. It was a cloak closet.
The smell of leather trainers and gym socks makes me think of those years…fondly.
Moving there was the Beginning of Good Things For Me. Mostly, I was living in a safer place! I was almost 15 years old as I moved in and had started my first year of uni when I moved out.
What brought this to mind today wasn’t the smell of leather trainers but an ad referring to ‘your shoe closet.’ I’m aware people have walk-in closets these days but are you telling me that people have closets just for their shoes? This reminds me of the nice lady telling us about her Purse Wall. I didn’t know what that meant but after explication, if you think of a handbag display at a shop — that’s how many she had and how she stored/ displayed hers.
Me? I’d have loved to have had an entire closet floor to sleep on but as it was, I was pretty damned pleased to place a pillow over her shoes at the bottom of that cloak closet. It was just about as wide as the pillow, so it worked out nicely!
opinions expressed may be incorrect 
Four years living like that must have been character-building. People these days own so much ‘stuff’ they need closets for everything. (I won’t hit the ‘like’ button because sometimes it must have been tough for you)
LikeLike
Seriously, this was such a better place for me. My home life-childhood had positive aspects but mostly was ghastly. People should still be in prison, literally.
About the 4 years, tho, I never owned more than could fit in a laundry basket. After this time, that went up to ‘fit in a car.’ I had some DAYS when I lived in my car. I can’t go on about it because it was a few days–though I didn’t know how long it would be. Nevertheless, from laundry basket to car, it took about 10 years of living back on the ranch before I acquired a laugh to fill more than a car. To this day, while I love my stuff, I could walk away from it all.
That’s not because I’m an illuminated soul but because I’ve done so before. I’d not love it but ya know. Whatever. Gotta be free to be whole.
LikeLike
Having lived through years of simplicity in PNG I understand the ability to live without a lot of ‘stuff’.
LikeLike
I knew you would! Whatever you couldn’t haul along up a muddy trail, right?
LikeLike
That’s it….and when we started on the farm here we had a car and a 10-foot caravan…nothing else. Over 30 years we’ve accumulated all the crap you recently saw in the aerial photos, plus all the other shit in the sheds. We really should start cleaning it out, but you know what it’s like on a farm……never throw stuff out today because tomorrow you’ll need it.
LikeLike
Especially if you’re handy!
LikeLike
I know someone who has a closet just for shoes – she lives on her own in a 2-bedroom place so she sort of converted things so she basically has one bedroom and 3 large closets. The shoes share their closet with handbags and then she has a closet for bottoms (skirts/trousers) and a closet for tops/dresses. She has so many clothes I swear she could go 5 or 6 years without having to wear the same thing twice. I don’t think she’s been extravagant $-wise she’s just never thrown anything out and has shopped in op-shops.
LikeLike
That’s an amazing testament to preservation! If they’re in good shape, which I presume from the description, maybe she plans on something later–like donating them all as a sort of free shop? I saw that done years ago where it was like a consignment but the women who went to shop didn’t have to pay. It was a beautiful thing!
LikeLike
Oh, yes, I’ve seen something similar on a tv news story. My friend is in her 60s and has the wonderful advantage of never changing weight – she has been the same size since she was about 20 years old! She’s had about 45 years to amass her collection. My size tag is a yo-yo! 🙂
LikeLike
😦 I like to liberate myself from “stuff”. But yet there are things I do hoard…tools, kitchen stuff, PYREX!, Pampered Chef! But never shoes and clothes. If I haven’t fit them or worn them…of with them to Goodwill! We have boxes withing feet of work, the Y and out house! No excuse not to purge to charity!
LikeLike
I think that everybody has the hoarding gene. I have a problem throwing away scoops or other thighs like lids. ‘Might lose one and need a replacement.’
But I really could just walk away…again. I wouldn’t love it but when you’ve already done it for years, you learn that MOST of that stuff? You’ll forget you ever had it.
I was very attached to an old Pyrex mixing bowl. They’re a collector’s thing now, the size and colour. I know because I broke mine (had been my mammy’s from long before I was born and I grew up eating breakfast or lunch out of it, hence the connection).
I cried.
I was talking about it to one if Mum’s friends. She said, ‘that sounds like the little bowl I use to mix my hair dye.’ She ran off and came back with IT.
She gave it to me–wouldn’t take no for an answer.
It is NOT my mammy’s bowl and doesn’t have any such emotion BUT I keep it for the other connection: of Rosie’s sweet nature (the lady who gave it to me).
So I do it, too. I could also leave it behind. I wouldn’t be pleased but life goes on and let’s face it: I’d probably break it in a move!
LikeLike