Honest Simplicity

There is a plastic storage bin in our closet moonlighting as a stand for our floor-length mirror.  Its true purpose is to hold once-worn t-shirts.  The plan was to repurpose the shirts into a t-shirt quilt.  That sounds great, right?  We have a bunch of sentimental shirts we don’t wear any longer, so making them into a usable item, such as a quilt, seemed clever.  Lately, I’ve been thinking, though, about whether I would actually love this quilt.  Would it just be another item full of sentiment but under appreciated by me?  I think so.  Therefore, I’ve decided to say goodbye to the shirts.  I’m not saying goodbye to the memories they bring up in me, such as the times my husband and I have enjoyed walking the Hippopubamus pub crawl, the year I worked (sweated) for the Montana Conservation Corps and learned what hard work really is, the times I spent with the Girl Scouts as a camp counselor as well as designing one of their 5k shirts, and my mid-twenties spent wearing out a now-faded pink pig Tee.  These memories are held inside me and not contained within a blend of cotton/poly fabric.  I’ve taken a photo of my shirts before parting ways.  When I offered to put my husband’s tees back into the closet, he nonchalantly replied “you can just put them all in the donation pile.  I won’t miss them.”  Done!

saying “goodbye” to my shirts