The Burning Urge to Purge!

Every few months, I like to schedule a clothing donation pickup or put things on my stoop. I put it on the calendar so that I’m motivated to get rid of things before the pickup date.

Sometimes I have the patience to list items on Depop, but most of the time, I don’t. Throughout the year, I like to reflect on what I own: Does this still excite me? Do I still see this in my life? Do I want to give this a second chance and see how I feel about it in a few months? Do I want to hold on to this purely for nostalgic reasons? And if so, that’s fine. As I was stepping out of my apartment yesterday morning, I noticed my neighbors had put out around 10 bags of clothes. It’s purging season!

My bathroom was the room that underwent the major purging this past week. I love my bathroom but the thing with having a clawfoot bathtub is that you don’t have any storage. Everything was starting to get cluttered: way too many shampoos and soaps on top of an old stool that was starting to get mildew (!!!), items hiding behind the tub, a basket that was starting to get filled up with the most random things. So we took everything out. And I realized I need to be better at throwing out empty bottles.

Now the bathroom looks like when we first moved in. Crisp and clean. I only have my essential shower products out: Roz Shampoo and Conditioner, Cyklar Body Wash, gentle bar soap, and a Soft Services Buffing Bar. That’s it. And I got an adhesive shower shelf to stick on the tile behind the shower curtain so that I don’t see all the bottles. The less I can see clutter, the better. (The bathroom cabinet is a whole other story, though, but that’ll have to undergo a deep clean another time).

Another thing I did last week was change up the entire layout of the home office. The desk now faces the window and it completely opened up the room. There’s now also a cork board so I can print stuff and pin in on the wall—an IRL mood board because I can’t keep up with my Pinterest or Cosmos or Are.na boards!!! It feels like a completely new room.

With the urge to purge comes the urge to COLLECT! Maybe it’s because it’s Taurus season now and my birthday is in a couple of weeks, but I’ve felt the desire to gift myself just a few things, especially after a long winter of not buying myself anything clothing or accessories related. I’m also still doing the thing where I physically write down in a notebook every single purchase I’m making. It’s been really fun actually and somehow, I’ve managed to keep it up since January 1. But here’s what I’ve acquired this spring so far:

1. GAP Poplin Easy Barrel Pants: I needed more pants! I went to GAP IRL with my friends the other day. I needed to confirm that the pants I had been eyeing online were actually nice—and they were. I hurried home to order the short inseam length and a couple of days later, they arrived. I already know I’ll be wearing them all the time.

2. GAP Eyelet Bandana Scarf: And also the cutest scarf ever for summer.

3. Camper Casi Myra Flat: You know I love my Camper sandals because they are the comfiest shoe ever and I trust Camper, so these flats have been on my wish list for ages. I finally got them in a beautiful blue color (now sold out) but all the colors are incredible. And of course, they’re unbelievably comfy.

4. Brooke Callahan Cuff Top (in Pink): I’m patiently waiting for this to arrive.