Emotional Hoarding + Purging My Closet
6:00:00 PM
After reading Mandy Ferrugia's blog post Emotional Hoarding, I realized I've been doing some hoarding my self.
When I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism in 2012, I began taking medication every day. During that time I began gaining weight, and in the last 4 years I have gained 70 pounds.
Due to these changes I started buying larger clothing, but ultimately I was hoping I'd be able to get back into the other clothes. So I kept everything, and continuously added more too.
My friends and family tried telling me how much healthier I looked, but that's not how I saw it. Over the course of time, I went from a size 0 to a size 14 in pants. A size extra small to an extra large in shirts. I also went from in between an a and a b, to in between a d and a dd in bras.
I moved from my parents house, to my husbands parents house. Then from there I went to college, and now I'm living with my husband. Yet during this time, I always brought all of my clothes.
It wasn't until I read Mandy's blog post, that I decided it was finally time to go through everything. My husband and I started with his clothes first, and then moved on to mine.
As you can see from the before pictures, it was a huge project physically, before it even got emotional. As Mandy mentions, "I started to realize that the reason I was having trouble getting rid of stuff was because I had become emotionally attached to things - and thus, began "emotionally hoarding" possessions."
I remember every piece of clothing I purchased, who I purchased it with, and where I wore it. I didn't want to get rid of the memories that came with each piece, like the dress I graduated high school in. Or the outfit I wore to my Resident Assistant interview. Each piece had a memory, and I think I felt like getting rid of the clothes would get rid of the memories too.
I remember every piece of clothing I purchased, who I purchased it with, and where I wore it. I didn't want to get rid of the memories that came with each piece, like the dress I graduated high school in. Or the outfit I wore to my Resident Assistant interview. Each piece had a memory, and I think I felt like getting rid of the clothes would get rid of the memories too.
Another part of the problem is, after we moved we never really finished unpacking. Hence the bags of clothes that are covering the floor. It wasn't until yesterday that I even realized what filled those bags. There were shirts upon shirts, and sweaters upon sweaters, many that still had the tags on them.
I know my husband was trying to be supportive, but not many people truly understand what it feels like. I've always hoped that I would be able to lose the weight, but after all this time, and more diagnoses later, it seems impossible. I don't think I've truly accepted this, but I think I'm one step closer.
Now that My husband and I are done, you can see a tremendous difference in our closet. We ended up getting rid of:
- 5 garbage bags of trash and/or clothes that can't be sold
- 7 garbage bags of clothes to be sold
- 1 garbage bag of shoes and belts
- 1 shopping bag of jewelry and accessories
- 1 garbage bag of coach purses
I was able to free up over a hundred hangers and three dresser drawers. I probably could have gotten rid of more, but I didn't want to clear out everything before I could buy new clothes.
Even though it was hard, I'm glad that I did it. Moving will be way easier now that we've minimized the clothing in both of our dressers and our closet. And on the plus side, I might be able to make some money off of the clothes!
Are you doing any emotional hoarding?
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