I don’t know how you can guard your heart against a title like that one.
Today’s task: finish listening to last week’s The 451 podcast while cleaning out a drawer that no longer closed: my sock and underwear drawer. Here it is at the beginning of this project, and I am sorry to say I had to look HARD at the before and after pictures to tell which one was which, so visually-speaking this is not going to be one of those giant catharsis projects:
My socks and underwear used to fit easily in two of the smaller drawers above. Let’s not waste time discussing WHO should have fewer socks/underwear, let’s just say that as I began this project, the much larger drawer I had moved them into could no longer open or close beyond what you see there, unless it was getting toward Laundry Day.
I took out the drawer and dumped everything out on the bed:
This left a nearly-empty drawer, containing only a back-up bottle of perfume I bought when it was discontinued (L’Artisan Tea for Two):
Here is the underwear sorted into “pairs I will wear” (left) and “pairs I hate” (right):
Here are the socks sorted into seven piles. Starting at the top left and going down the left hand side, it’s ankle socks, trouser/dressy socks, novelty socks, and knee socks. Starting at the top right and going down the right hand side, it’s crew/boot socks, singleton socks I needed to think about, and singleton socks that could go right into the trash :
I should not have shifted the point of view so often in this series, nor should I have put the underwear I like back in the drawer before taking this picture, nor should I have put the things I got rid of further away so that they looked smaller—but I did do all those things, so here we are. Farthest from the viewer are the things I got rid of: the underwear I hate, almost all of the novelty socks I like but never wear, almost all of the trouser/dressy socks, two pairs of ankle socks I don’t like, and the crew/boot socks I don’t like or don’t wear. Nearer the viewer is the unfortunately-still-large quantity of things I’m keeping; the largest piles are ankle socks, crew/boot socks, and white crew socks. Then some little piles: three pairs of trouser/dressy socks for the rare occasions I need them; two pairs of novelty socks for the rare occasions I wear them; and I put the two pairs of knee socks in a big plastic baggie with the ankle brace I wear them with, and put that back in the bathroom closet.
Here is the trash can, afterward, though it was half-full when I started this project:
Here is the drawer, afterward, and brace yourself for a disappointing picture of a still-quite-full drawer:
I do wish I could TELL that I had half-filled a trash can. But look, it closes:
And even though it doesn’t LOOK a lot emptier, I can now rummage around in there, which I could not do before. And sometimes I need to do a first pass before I can get rid of more stuff. It would also help if I would rotate my clothes seasonally: I wear the ankle socks in warm weather and the crew/boot socks in cold weather. But I do not rotate my clothes seasonally, so.
I JUST DID THIS. Last week. I have a small drawer of underwear and a small drawer of socks. The socks drawer was so full that frequently when I tried to cram more in, some would escape out the back into the next drawer down. Underwear drawer wasn’t quite that bad, but it was still stuffed to the brim unless I hadn’t done laundry in a long while.
I couldn’t figure out many pairs of underwear to get rid of (partially because all the ones I haven’t been wearing are the nice Victoria’s Secret undies from before I got pregnant…almost three years ago…and I can’t quite bear to get rid of all that $$ underwear yet since maybe someday I’ll fit them again). I donated a whole grocery bag’s worth of socks, though! The drawer is still full but now it closes easily.
The main reason I wanted to comment, though: if you haven’t thrown out your socks yet, consider donating the not-totally-worn-through socks to Goodwill. I was reading recently that it’s one of the least-donated and most-needed articles of clothing because everyone thinks they should trash their socks.
Congrats on the progress! Feels good, doesn’t it?
Your socks are a lot more fun and colorful than mine! I have 10-12 pairs of the same black socks that I wear to work or when getting dressed up on the weekend. I also have 10-12 pairs of the same white socks that I wear with casual shoes. So much easier to match them up when they are all the same! If you want to get rid of more socks, think about how often you do laundry. If you do laundry once a week, you could pick your 8 favorite of each type and throw the rest away. I like to have 15 pairs of underwear so I can skip a week of laundry now and then.
Oh! I’ll dig them out! I WAS thinking they wouldn’t want socks donated! But a lot of them are in really good shape.
When I have stuff I’m not sure if goodwill wants, I drop it in the big box at the gas station (planet earth, or something? I think it’s yellow but it might be purple)- they sort through what’s worth something to someone, and then send the rest to textile recycling. I did some poking around online to find someplace that would want/recycle stuff like worn through socks and jeans that ripped in the crotch. Goodwill gets the good stuff, though.
Actually, Goodwill also does textile recycling! So you can drop off items that aren’t necessarily wearable (underwear, things with rips and stains) and they will stay out of the landfill. From the main Goodwill website FAQs:
What happens to donated items that aren’t sold at Goodwill stores?
Our goal is to try to generate money to fund Goodwill programs from every item that is donated. So in most cases, we’ll do what we can to get items in salable shape.
As for items that can’t be sold in our stores, we’ve found other creative uses for them. For instance, some member Goodwills recycle old clothing scraps into industrial wipes (cleaning cloths) for industrial buyers. Other items that are too damaged for retail sales are sold to salvage brokers.
Another option to keep old clothes and linens out of the landfill- if you like to shop at H&M, you can bring in a bag of old clothes or whatever (no shoes), and they will give you 15% off your purchase. I do not go there often, but when I do I always do this, even if it means taking random pieces out of my fabric scrap bag. Worth it!
Love the improvement! When I needed to thin out my socks and undies drawer, I moved a lot of the things I don’t use but didn’t want to get rid of (in case I might use them someday) into a hat box that I put in my closet. I do occasionally dig in there for nylons and other stuff that’s not in the daily rotation.
i have only one thing to say, and that is that the best use for underpants that you never want to wear again is to take them on vacation and discard them along the way. i probably should have done that with the pair that i wore to the doctor the other day, but, whatev…
:)
I did this with clothes when I was in Thailand a handful of years ago. Made room for gifts and such. :)
You did well, be proud of yourself! That does actually look like you tossed about half of the contents.
And this is funny timing. I’m currently sitting in the middle of an underwear-blizzard in my living room. I pulled out two boxes and a plastic bag with underwear and socks that are partly aspirational, partly bought wrong, partly so old that I am thinking why the fuck didn’t I do this sooner. Also, single socks, expensive-ish tights that don’t fit etc.
My *actual* drawer – note that all that stuff isn’t even in my usual rotation – I did sometime last year, and it’s probably time for a repeat, but the result looked similarly… whelming … as yours. But it did make a huge difference in day-to-day use, because it was very satisfying to be able to just grab anything from the drawer and not go through the whole no-not-that-one, no-not-that-one-either, ugh-this-is-ok-I-guess-routine each time I’m standing there getting cold after a shower.
One thing I did that helped was simply getting some sub-dividers for the drawer. Not actual boxes, but a kind of fold-up boxes for sorting they have at Ikea. So my ankle socks don’t mix with the taller ones and my fluffy bed socks are separate, too, etc.
I also started to fold them a bit differently. I notice you only fold over the very top of them, and to me, that makes a drawer visually messy (just personal preference, really). I used to just pull them over each other completely, and had big knobbly lumps lying around. Until I watched my best friend fold laundry one day, and she did basically the same, but laid the two socks flat onto each other before pulling one over the other. That small change made for nice flat packs of socks that need a lot less room than the lumps I was creating, and I’ve been doing it that way ever since. Takes no extra time, I really recommend it.
Oh, I should do that with dividers: I’m always losing socks under the underwear and vice versa.
I love “whelming.”
If you are a word nerd like me, you may like to know that there is a word, ‘flype’ for folding socks together like this. It’s of Scottish origin meaning folding or turning back, and is used quite specifically for making socks into pairs. My mother always flyped our socks and now so do I.
Ha! I do this too and it freaks out my friends because it makes my drawer look like there’s a sock-army lined up inside…
(My friends and I do a lot of sleepovers, hence their familiarity with my sock drawer, in case anyone was wondering ;) )
I desperately need to do this. But for some unknown and irresistible reason, I cannot get rid of all the stringy sexy super uncomfortable underpants I used to wear in college. Maybe I could at least move those to another location in the house.
Ziploc bag, back of the drawer. Trust me. :)
I know this post isn’t exactly about socks, but let’s discuss anyway. I love boot socks, but I find if they have too much pattern (stripes especially) they tend to be too tight. And I think I have normal size calves.
Also. I’m currently pregnant but retain water even when not. I find many novelty socks have tight cuffs that I especially can’t abide right now. I asked my mom for socks “without a tight cuff” for my birthday and she bought me some roll-cuff ones. LIFE-CHANGING. I want to wear nothing else (well, in the sock dept anyway). I am going to have to buy some more because I can’t currently make myself put away laundry in a timely fashion.
I’ve also noticed this problem with striped socks!
I have two recommendations things that worked for me:
1) I asked myself: “How many pairs of socks in the same category is it REASONABLE to have?” If I do laundry every 7 days and I want a buffer of 3 days AND I wear socks everyday (which I don’t) AND the socks are almost identical (colors differ but comfort doesn’t), then I should keep 10 pair maximum.
2) I bought a honeycomb divider like this one on Amazon so that I could SEE everything (except that I can fit two pair of underwear per divider, but still): https://www.amazon.com/Whitmor-6025-3928-8-Piece-Honeycomb-Organizer/dp/B00CA26HGW
Since you can’t allocate another drawer for yourself, I think you need to go to Target and find the most adorable lidded sock basket. The seldom-worns can live in it, not seasonally, but all year long.
I have been reading you forever from France and have never commented before , but today I just HAD to tell you how much I LOVE reading you.
You brought a smile to my face (again) with this post, and I wanted to thank you
Keep being yourself, because you are awsome!
and also your comments section is often a delight in and of itself, so I must thank your readers as well ;)
I consider the comment section a whole other post – I love the comments almost as much as the post.
P.S. I think the difference IS noticeable. Very neat and thinned out.
Nice work, Swistle!!! I can tell there are fewer items for sure!
*groan* I CANNOT make myself throw out socks! Ever! This is why we have them piling up in the rag section of our linen closet. They are great for dusting! And cleaning the bottom of the shower drawer and tracks of the patio door!
I say good job! I have a goal of decluttering one item per day (throw out / donate / or sell) and this is way more than one item. Also I love your quilt and your dresser!
Yes, there’s a noticeable change.
One thing I’ve discovered, if I fold my stuff the Konmari way it saves TONS of room in my drawers and gives me the added bonus of seeing what I have. Except for the socks – I have yet to figure out socks. So those suckers reside the three baskets – one for tights; one for with ankle socks – which I rarely, if ever, wear; and one for colored socks.
Flatten your socks and put one on top of the other. Fold double. Pull one entirely over the other, flatten again. You can then line them up on their sides so they barely take up any space and you can see all of them at once.
(I wish I could post a picture of my sock drawer to illustrate but I just moved countries so all of them are currently stuffed in and around the fragile items in my suitcase…)
This post was delightful! And like the reader above, I also love your comments section. Always good laughs, great advice, and fun anecdotes in the Swistle corner. :)
I see the progress! Well done, and I love these posts btw.
Today our admin asst lifted up her pant legs to show me she was wearing two mismatched socks because she keeps losing one of a pair. I’m impressed you had pairs of socks and no singletons.
If you like political podcasts LET ME LOAD YOU UP. I have tried dozens. I love the Slate Political Gabfest the most. Verrrrrry close second is FiveThirtyEight. NPR Politics I also really like. Katie Couric’s podcast is amazing. I also think David Axelrod (The Axe Files) is a good interviewer. You probably know The 451 was started by the Keepin it 1600 podcast guys. NYT’s The Run Up is pretty good.
Also, I thought maybe it was on your blog I discovered that Goodwill takes fabric in any condition. Maybe it was somewhere else. If the clothing can’t be sold it’s recycled into insulation or other things. I put anything that’s torn, stained, or otherwise won’t sell (underwear) into a separate bag and mark it “fabric recycling.”
I have a useful suggestion! Hooray for me!
Put the stuff that you are keeping but don’t wear often into a Ziploc bag and squeeze all the air out and put it in the back of the drawer. That way you’re not digging through it to find the stuff you *do* use regularly.
This post reminded me that my own socks and underwear drawer needs to be cleaned out ASAP.
I think the difference is noticeable! The first picture looks too full, while the second picture looks just the right amount of full. It’s GOOD to have a lot of socks and underwear, but it’s also nice to be able to find everything easily.
You’re an inspiration. I have two, TWO! drawers full of pajamas I do not wear. Like, ever. The pajamas I do wear sit on top of my dresser because there’s no room in the TWO drawers that hold the pajamas I don’t wear. My oldster daughter is having a slumber party this weekend for her fourteenth birthday. The younger is going to her Gram’s house for her very own slumber party with her cousin. I’m going to be hiding in my closet cleaning out those pajama drawers! Thank you for motivating me. I might even remember to take before and after shots of my dresser and drawers.
I think you accomplished a LOT. I recently did this with t-shirts and … things are better, but it remains a struggle. Something I HAVE found helpful in deciding what to get rid of , in recent days (speaking as someone with hoarding propensities, though not outright tendencies — so far), is asking myself, “If we move to Canada, will I pack this to take with me?” Unsurprisingly, the answer more often that not is, “No.” And off to Goodwill it goes! My DH thinks I’m nuts (the moving to Canada idea) but he likes the result, so we are jointly happy, albeit for different and arguably quirky reasons.
I really like this: “If we move to Canada, will I pack this to take with me?”. I’ll try to remember it when making those decisions.
Another tactic I use is asking myself if I’d accept it if someone was offering it to me for free, and , surprisingly, the answer for that often is “no” as well. Letting go of things has become easier since I realized I am for some reason more attached to things simply because I own them, not because I actually need or want them. It’s weird. The Canada-question will probably help with that.
This task is on my 2017 To Do List. I currently have FOUR drawers dedicated to socks & underwear. Underwear in one, dress socks in one, white athletic socks in another, and wool hiking socks in the last. It’s ridiculous. I also currently have a pile of socks on the top of the dresser that I weeded out already to see if I could live without them (haha), so they are in a transitional phase en route to the trash.
I really need to do this. I can’t see anything in my drawer.
Totally unrelated: hasn’t Questionable Content been great lately?
SO GREAT
It looks great! I mostly wanted to comment about how much I enjoy coming here and reading your posts Swistle, and then the community’s comments. It is such a lovely break from my stressful, sometimes overwhelming day/life.
I’ve heard of these people that rotate their wardrobes seasonally and it boggles me. Even as someone who aspires to have all of my cleaning/maintenance tasks laid out by month in a binder.
I have a lot of things (so, so many) that I don’t do that I should, but I rotate my clothes seasonally, and I cull through socks and underwear every time I fold the laundry. I have a sparse wardrobe and I like it that way. It helps that I HATE to shop. I have winter socks (black) and summer socks (no see um white). I have 10 pair of black and 3 pair of summer. I mostly wear sandals in the summer. I probably have 20 pair of underwear though.
I feel so cleansed explaining this. I too love the comments on this blog.
Tangential question/request: would you mind sharing info about the flooring in your bedroom? Your photo shows a bit of it, and it looks quite lovely. Nice color, and the planks look narrower that most hardwood floors I’ve seen. Is it bamboo?
I agree with the comments above, thank you for writing!
Sure! It was here when we moved in, so I don’t know much about it, but I think the guys who took out the carpet that covered it in the living room and hallway said it was oak. Our house was built in about 1960, and was part of a mass-produced development, so my guess is that it’s whatever was pretty inexpensive at the time. I measured it just now, and the planks are 2.25 inches across. The bureau may be larger than it appears: the knobs are oversized.
I feel as though decluttering is one of those activities in which you spend a lot of time getting rid of stuff with not much to show for it. Like, the trash bags and Goodwill bags and Freecycle messages show I’ve gotten rid of a lot, but so much clutter remains, for so long. And then eventually a room *does* look different or work differently (which is to say, I can find things), and it almost feels worthwhile.
See also: exercise, filing paperwork, trying new recipes.
PS This was going to be the weekend I threw out all my uncomfortable bras. I guess that’s next weekend.