Friday, May 17, 2013

How Many Tee-shirts Does One Woman Need?


From Sammie:

 How Many Tee-Shirts Does One Woman Need?

Reading the book “7” by Jen Hatmaker was another wake-up call for me as far as possessions are concerned.

I’ve been living simply for many years. I truly reuse, reduce, and recycle anytime I can. I’m quite an avid recycler with stacked bins in my garage for dividing recyclables. I buy from thrift shops, especially for garden projects.

I try not to be a consumer. Don’t buy many clothes and those frequently come from thrift or consignment shops. I repurpose when I can, being the non-creative and non-mechanical person I am. (Now, good friends are snickering as they ask, “And what about those books you bring home by the armload?” I’ll have you know, books are off-limits! Everyone has something that doesn’t count, and in my case, it’s books! SSSSHHHH!)

But Hatmaker takes living simply to a new level. For seven months, she determines to concentrate on one area of her life and reduce what she uses/consumes to 7 specific articles. For instance, on the month she focuses on food, she decides on 7 foods she will eat for the month. On the month she focuses on clothes, she designates 7 pieces of clothing that she will wear for the month. She continues the next months with possessions, media, waste, spending, and stress.

Hatmaker definitely brings up some challenges to our consumer culture. Could we live with seven articles of clothing for a month? (That’s not counting, if I remember correctly, underwear and socks.)

I spend very little on clothes and I know all my friends wish I would go shopping a little more. I have 3-4 things to wear to church each season. Then I have casual pants (usually a pair of black pants, a pair of khakis, and a pair of jeans to be matched with casual knit shirts or tee-shirts for everyday going to the grocery, a meeting, etc. I also have my home scrunge that I wouldn’t wear to the grocery or a meeting, but those pieces are comfy and loose and me. THEN I have two gardening outfits. These are the ones I wear to crawl around inside the flower beds, tote pine straw, water the plants (and me, too), scratch weeds out of the compacted Alabama red clay, etc. etc.  These clothes go straight to the washing machine when I peel them off at the end of the day.

BUT…… I have to admit this: I have other clothes in my closet. Most of them fit. Most of them look just fine. Most of them are in colors I think are complimentary. But most of them have hung there for several – well some for many – years. I mean to wear them. No real reason I never wear them. But I don’t. After all, how many cutesy tee-shirts do you really need? I don’t get around to most of them. And some of these clothes are just on the edge of looking weary. Not really slapdab worn out, but not looking fine, either. So I hang onto them . . . but I don’t wear them.

So my goal this next week is to make the hard decisions. I admired Jen Hatmaker for getting down to 7 pieces of clothing, but I don’t think I’ll do that. I’m not even much a clothes person. Simple really does it for me. But only 7?

The thing is, someone else could use and appreciate these pieces that I just overlook. Someone else might make that cute denim blouse her favorite. Or someone else might have the perfect earrings for that pink sweater that I keep pushing aside.

So that’s my goal this week. Not to reduce to 7 pieces, but to focus on what I do/will wear and share the rest with the folks at the community clothes closet a few miles from my house.

HHHmmmmmmm……. Maybe food next? I’ll have to think about that one.