Cleaning Out A Closet Is A Pain In The Hip

I got back from vacation and had to unpack my bags. My closet is stuffed to the gills. Some of what’s in it I can’t stand anymore. Some of it I need to give away. But more than that, there’s just too much stuff in the closet, so it doesn’t make unpacking a pleasant task at all. I’m always jockeying to find space to hang something, which makes me insane. It’s my own fault. I’ve made it this way.

Additionally, with the recent diagnosis of arthritis in my hip, my hip hurts even more when I wear heels. There seems to be a direct correlation, which I try desperately to ignore. It’s sad. It’s sad because I can rock a heel. At 5’1″, heels have pretty much been an extension of who I am. But now, sadly, I am wearing more and more flats simply to fight the pain.

Which is another reason why I REALLY need to get into my closet and begin to dissect it. My mother asked me what I wanted for my birthday, and I told her I wanted some money for–you guessed it–new clothes. And new shoes. Ones with lower heels. I always update my wardrobe as the semester begins and I head back to work. I love to freshen up the existing wardrobe with some new blouses, pants, jeans, and dresses primarily. But I can’t begin to see what I want to add to the wardrobe until I begin to declutter the crap that’s in there. It’s a pain in the neck, or in this case, a pain in the hip. I must get motivated to get in there and do some work, but I have trouble knowing where to begin. How do you motivate yourself to tackle a job you hate to do?

The mere act of starting the closet clean-out has me bamboozled. I just can’t seem to motivate myself enough to get in there, get rid of things I no longer wear or like, and commence the very sad task of discarding high heels that my hip no longer wants to associate with–it’s heartbreaking.

If you have an idea of how to begin this closet dissection, please advise.

I seem to be finding anything else to do–including weeding in the heat–to avoid this task.