It’s almost that time of year again. SPRING-CLEANING TIME!!!  Actually, I spring-clean all year-round, because I can’t stand accumulating junk, but I guess it’s true that I only thoroughly toss out very old things from my wardrobe about once a year.  I’m all for hanging on to things for at least two to three years, in case fashion recycles in time.  I’m still waiting for denim skirts to make a return...Anyway.  It’s very therapeutic getting rid of stuff you’ve had since high school and early uni.  There are some things I must keep for nostalgia purposes; my signed summer school dress, my year 12 jumper, the Diana Ferrari shoes with massively high heels that I wore to every major formal.  Somehow I can’t quite bear to chuck them out, despite never being likely to wear them again.

However, some things are a relief to get rid of; chunky red platform boots (I wore these once on a bus in Gippsland and some creep followed me off and tried to pick me up), really, really ugly square-toed leather shoes (what was I thinking?!), old jeans that do absolutely nothing for my figure, cotton tops that lost their shape after two washes, cheap pants made out of material so thin you wonder what the point of wearing them was.  It’s like a weight off my shoulders getting rid of all this crap. 

Now, there are some things which I really ought to throw away but can’t, not for nostalgia reasons, but practical ones...I’m referring, of course, to comfy old ‘house’ clothes.  You know, you wouldn’t be caught dead wearing them outside, but it’s okay for your mum and brother to see you in them.  Under this category falls my 10-year-plus, faded green, baggy-beyond-belief but incredibly comfortable Rip Curl ‘rugby jeans’ as they were officially called, but what the average Aussie would simply call ‘trakkie daks’.  These pants would probably last until I’m 90, but I am looking to replace them sometime before that.  The second homeliest thing I own is my oversized, mustard-yellow (wait, it gets worse)...HYPERCOLOR t-shirt.  More ancient even than the Rip Curl pants, as is evidenced by the hole* in the back of the neck, the hypercolorness still works, surprisingly.  It goes from mustard-yellow to bright yellow in warm temperatures. I swear, it’s still a novelty to this day, blowing color on your t-shirt.   

*To be fair to the manufacturers of the shirt; the hole was entirely my own fault, rather than a result of wear-and-tear.  I’d recently decided to cut the tag off and of course, accidentally created a hole as a result.  Lessson learned: Never cut off tags!  Unpick them instead!

Anyway, all this clothes-purging made me wonder, what items in my wardrobe couldn’t I do without?  Now, here’s the challenge, girls; if you could only pick one pair of shoes, one pair of pants/skirt and one top to save from your closet, what would it be?  All right, the shoes part is way too hard.  Let’s amend it.  How about; one pair of shoes and one pair of boots?

Here’s what I’d save;
• My silver-weave ballet flats (because they’re prettiest, different and comfortable)
• All my boots (see explanation below*)
• My black, pleated skirt with pink and white ‘spray’ patterns on it (great material, perfect for work, it goes with many things)
• My long, thin, grey-striped jumper (made out of material softer than a cloud!)
*Okay, I failed on the shoes part.  I couldn’t even stick to my own, self-imposed rule.  There’s no way I could leave out any of my boots, I love them all too much.  But if absolutely pressed, I guess I would have to save the ones that cost me $170.