I bought some new summer clothes yesterday and as a personal rule, I get rid of old clothes when I buy new ones. I've noticed that I've been holding on to certain "dress clothes" that I never wear anymore. Sweater sets, knee length skirts,slips, god awful dress shoes...these clothes were some of the last things about Mormonism I was hanging onto. Why? Why was I still keeping these things in my closet?

Oh man was it therapeutic to toss those things on the floor to donate! I had a huge pile of Sunday Best that I haven't worn in 4 years.

Sometimes I think I'm fully recovered, but I'm not, and maybe I never will be. The town I live in, the family that surrounds me, the 29 years I spent inside a cult might not ever leave me alone, but when I purge out the old and bring in new....damn it feels good!

Just throwing those 'sacred' things in the trash like the garbage they were felt really good and helped break the psychological trap that they were. They were pieces of clothing, weird looking things, that really carry no meaning except to remind people of the mind **** you put yourself through.

Those clothes don't work for the person you are now for sure!

I'm currently reading an interesting little book that, funny enough; I bought at the BYU bookstore when we attended our son's graduation a few weeks ago called "You Are What You Wear - What Your Clothes Reveal About You". The author is a clinical psychologist and runs a wardrobe consulting business. There's lots of insight there about the reasons we keep all sorts of things that don't really work for us in our closets. Good stuff there you're interested.

We're getting ready to move to a new town, partly because we need a new start where we are just normal people and not know as Mormons. It's very hard to just turn into a normal person with all of the old things and people still hanging around.

Congrats on cleaning out some of the deadwood!!

I'd purge anything that reminds you of Mormonism....clothes, books, and even people if they are annoying you. Bet you do feel better.

Sometimes your lifestyle changes and it takes a while for your wardrobe to catch up. When I left my office job for teaching, suddenly my wardrobe of silks, woolens, and high heels was no longer suitable. I needed inexpensive clothing that could take hard wear and that I could throw in the washer. I needed sensible, comfortable shoes that I could run in if need be.

It took me a couple of years to figure out that my office wardrobe was so much deadwood in my closet. I kept the nicest pieces and chucked the rest.

My daughter has to wear a suit jacket with a nice shirt. She got a whole new work wardrobe when I left the church. The skirts all went to the donate bag. Goodbye panty hose, and high heels. A relative stole my garmies. Deprived me of throwing them out.One of these days I'm going to ask them what they did with my underwear.

All those years of covering my arms and knees!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That was when my arms and knees were GREAT!

Now I wear sleeveless dresses and blouses just to BARE ARMS!! They look like relief society chorister and lunch lady arms but they are MINE and THEY ARE BARE!!!!

I cut up mine and hubbys garments,
tore them into strips,
And made an AWESOME rug!!!
Damn, that so, so soft and secret/sacred
100% cotton feels great under my feet!!!

Passive agressive, I know......
Am I evil????

wheeee!!