The Grey Skirt I thought that would stay.

When you live in a home with three other adults, laundry tends to go missing. The last 2 weeks, I simply could not find my grey skirt and a few other tops. Anxiety did set in but I inhaled and simply re-organised my outfits with my remaining 10 tops, 5 skirts and 4 pairs of shorts.

I survived.

3 days ago, I found my grey skirt (and those tops) hidden in a haphazard pile of clothes and a tizzy of bits and bobs in a shared wardrobe.

I stared at my skirt, apprehensively.

Chewing on the inside of my right cheek, I realised that I have attached emotions to this skirt. The skirt that made me feel good, but not awesome. Neither did it fit well. The negatives outweighed the positives. Something that I was running away from for a few months.

I folded it into quarters and chucked it into my “donate” bag.

I always have a paper bag in my wardrobe as I am constantly editing my wardrobe. My clothes are a jumble of old and new clothes and I live 10 mins (walk) from The Salvation Army. Old clothes are always sorted into the bag immediately. This led me to also donate an old black scarf that is falling apart and some gifts that I never got around to wearing.

The Grey Skirt was not an essential item. It held the image I wanted it to hold and validate me as someone who is attractive when I wear it. I gave it meaning that it didn’t realistically possess.

I survived 2 weeks (half a month!) without it’s validation and I felt better that I did when it was used.

Takeaway- Is your “favorite item” really a crutch?

This period of omission of a single piece of clothing helped me realize how easy it was for us to tag clothes with sentiment and a fabricated mirage of the self.