Day 3 - socks and tights

I'm some kind of superwoman, in a very narrow category. I don't run ladders in tights. I genuinely get confused listening to other women when they get a hole in their tights. It's not that I don't, it's just a very rare occurrence. Which is why my tights collection contains tights I've had since junior school. Yup, when I was 12 years old! The only reason they still fit is because I've stretched them so much over time but that's amazing, isn't it? My favourite pair were my best friend Hannah's that I accidentally picked up after games one Wednesday in 1997. Well, when I say favourite I mean for nostalgic purposes! I still used them for work as recently as the first half of my last pregnancy, in early 2015, that's almost 18 years of use.

So I gathered together my tights from their three locations; a bag in the back bedroom, one of those over door storage  holders and two plastic storage containers next to my work clothes. There were 74 pairs. I kept 13. The book says you have to handle every item, and it was amazing how many pairs looked ok but felt a bit tired. Maybe saggy at the waistband or bally at the ankles and it was only feeling each pair one after the other that subtleties became clear. I was left with a pile of about 20 pairs and I decided I didn't need that many. I kept 6 thick pairs in a range of colours for wearing with boots in winter. I then kept 7 smart pairs-3 nude, 2 grey, 1 navy and 1 black. I wear navy most often so will need to buy a new pair or two coming into the winter. 

What amazed me most was how the new sushi roll presentation means I can see all my tights easily, they won't get stretched and they all fitted in one small plastic box. My socks fitted in another box. 

The discard pile is as impressive as the 'after' picture. I put them in piles of 5 pairs so it was easier to count!

So that's over 80% of my tights discarded with no hesitation and already I can see how much easier it will be to find my stuff when it's purged and properly folded.