two faded shirts ...

A few weeks ago Gregg and I purged our closets of their excess articles of clothing. You know, the pants we forgot about - with good reason, the skirts that I can't believe I ever bought in the first place, the pajamas that were always too tight or too big... those articles. We do this clean sweep two or three times each year but it is amazing  how many bags we fill for donation every single time. Where does this stuff come from???  I certainly don't buy ten garbage bags full of clothing every four months. Apparently each time we just dig a little deeper and let go a little easier. It feels great to donate so many items that will finally get to see the outside of a closet-- regardless of which decade they were purchased in.


This time I went all out. I went through every stack. Pulled out every folded t-shirt. Sorted through each bin, box and drawer. And boy, did I find some gems. Did you ever find that you have an attachment to seemingly worthless items? You don't realize it until you are toying with the idea of getting rid of said item. Maybe you come across a cheap, plastic watch that you wore when you were fourteen but you just can't part with it because it reminds you of a summer crush. Or perhaps you have a pair of beat up, brown, leather platform boots that you are certain you'd never wear again but they hold the memory of carefree, bar-hopping, apartment-dwelling days. Yeah, I had several of these heartstring-tugging mementos. And I finally chucked them all.

Gregg and I both came upon shirts that we had a particularly hard time letting go of. Mine-- a plain, black, three-quarter length sleeved, johnny-collared shirt. Gregg's-- a white and navy, long sleeved t-shirt that bore the words Street Legal  on its chest logo. What was so special about these shirts? Well, they were our favorites - on each other - when we were dating. I know, I KNOW!!! Vomitty cute, right?? But after a little bit of reminiscing about those fun, lovey-dove days we made the grown-up decision to toss those epic shirts into the donation bags. Because, let's face it, keeping them rolled up in the back of a closet wasn't bringing us any closer to being ten years younger. Time marches on. Responsibilities might soil the innocence of youth but our love remains. And we didn't need two faded t-shirts to remind us of that.

 {photo source}

So, watch out world, those two very special shirts are out there somewhere... waiting for their next innocent couple.