How do men survive alone?

Seriously, I just don't know how it's possible!

I asked Paul to put the washing out this morning while I was out doing the shopping and buying a new wardrobe (I'll get to that in a minute). It's getting a bit gusty and VERY grey outside so I thought I'd better go and get it all in. The washing was not where I expected it to be; Next doors conifer was wearing my lovely new EXPENSIVE duvet cover, the other duvet was only hung by one peg so the other end of it was doing a fine job of sweeping the sooty dust from the outhouse off the garden floor and the fitted sheet had completely escaped the confines of our garden! All that was left hanging were the pillow cases! I'm seriously thinking I need to give that man a lesson in the correct use of a peg!

On to the wardrobe: you may remember a few months back, my tearful admission of my shoe addiction.

Well, it appears that my shoe fetish was only hiding my deeper, more troublesome problem. Clothes. I have a LOT of clothes.

While Paul has two drawers, I have the other four, I have clothes in a walk in wardobe the length of one side of the house, two hanging rails in the spare bedroom, two drawers under the bed and two chests of drawers in my studio. Before today, the sheer weight of my clothes has broken five wardrobes. One literally fell apart at the seams, the others, the metal rails just snapped clean in two! This morning, I opened the walk in to find all of my clothes in a heap on the floor: yes, another metal rail had snapped under their weight!

Desperate times called for desperate measures. I've tried on numerous occasions to cull my clothing collection but the problem is, I wear every single item. All be it, only once a year because I seem to have enough clothes to wear each of them only once a year... but I do still wear them! I love them all equally, how could I possibly tell one dress that I love it less than it's sister, that it is just not quite pretty enough, or new enough, or sparkly enough... I just couldn't do it to them. They have been loyal to me, they have worn well, washed well and looked good! There must be some other option. But alas, I realise that some of them must go. I have managed to clear two bags full (carrier bags mind, not bin bags, I think I'd be sat rocking in a corner if that was the case!) which I will force myself to take to the charity shop next weekend. I can only hope that some other person will love them as I've loved them.

So, this mornings outing took me to buy a new wardobe. I've gone for a really sturdy untreated pine one this time. Four doors, six drawers. I plan to paint it white, stencil some red/pink roses on the doors and replace the handles for some crystal knobs.

I also bought eight plastic zippy under bed storage bags to store all of my winter clothes and coats so that they are not weighing down the rail in my lovely new wardrobe! I will be able to put a couple of bags on top of the new wardrobe, some under the bed, some under the settee and some on shelves that Paul is going to make me in the walk in. Hopefully, this will solve all my storage needs.... until my next shopping spree that is. Then we'll be back to square one.

Hope you're all having a lovely bank holiday weekend and that your washing is where you left it!