Coming home from college for the summer is exciting- seeing all your friends that go to different schools, homemade meals, and spending time with your family. But one thing that no one talks about until it happens is where you put all your stuff. You know what I'm talking about. Those thousands of tee shirts you never wore, your yoga mat, twinkle lights and your 12,000 pairs of shoes now needs to fit somewhere in your house and you have no room. This is exactly what happened to me when I first got home so I decided to face my biggest fear--cleaning out my closet.
Let me just preface this by saying I have a small closet and haven't cleaned it out in probably three years. It's okay you can judge me.
1. The "Oh, Jesus" stage.
This is when you open your closet and then the realization hits you that you have a lot of work ahead of you. This is also the time you contemplate whether or not you actually want to do this.
2. The "I can't believe I actually bought this" stage.
We all know we all have clothes in our closet with the tags still on them. Maybe it's a shirt you got for Christmas or one you didn't try on until you got home and never returned either way, you probably regret it.
3. The "I swear it's not as bad as it looks" stage.
This is the denial stage. Your pile of clothes to donate has turned into Mount Everest and you swear you didn't own this many clothes. It is as bad as it looks.
4. The "this doesn't fit anymore but I wore it to a barely significant event ten years ago and it looked great" stage.
You'll never wear it again. Just get rid of it already.
5. The "wow, I have so many hangers" stage.
While your donation pile grows your hangers magically appear!
6. The "I feel like I've been doing this forever" stage.
Calm down it's only been an hour. This is also the stage when you realize you're only halfway done and just consider taking a nap instead.
7. The "I can see the finish line" stage.
Your closet is almost completely cleaned out!
8. The "Crap, what am I going to do with all this space now?" stage.
Now that your closet is empty, you have room for new clothes!
Cleaning out your closet can feel like throwing yourself into the fire. But grabbing a friend or playing good music can really help and make the time move quicker. Whether you're coming home from college and need a place for all your stuff or just need to tidy up your closet, I'm sure you've gone through all these stages with a laugh too.
