It has been over two years since I retired (2 years and four months, not that I care), but over a week ago I realized that my sock drawer had not kept pace with my retirement driven lifestyle/attire changes. Since I no longer work, my clothes needs have completely changed. At work I used to dress pretty much what would be described as business casual, that is slacks, and a polo shirt, or button down shirts of short or longed sleeved. I wore jeans only one day in my 32 years at Fitchburg, and that when I was in the field most of the day, and only wore shorts on my last day at the office. In the winter, due to the cool temperatures in my office, I wore a sweater most everyday. Well, the type of socks required with dress or casual dress slacks is quite different than what I wear with shorts, or jeans. I realized, that my sock drawer was still dominated by the dress socks I wore to work, and only a small part was assigned to the socks I now wear pretty much everyday.
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| Woolly Bear Caterpillar |
As the weather had started to get colder, at least a week ago, I realized I could switch my sock drawer around and make more room for the heavier weight socks that I wear in the winter--wool, or Smart Wool socks or heavier weight cotton socks. These could be moved from a container in my closet to the sock drawer. The advantage is I would not have to bend down to get the socks from the container in my closet. I would pack away my extra dress socks, keeping a pair or two of the main colors in the dresser. As I thought of this on my morning walk, I figured I should accomplish the task as soon as I got home.
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| Token Creek County Park |
Well, I had a major timing error. That morning, while I was out for my walk, my wife decided it was a good day for her to change around her summer clothes to clothing for colder temperatures. She was completing this task as I got upstairs. I should have waited until she was out of the room and on to another one of her make work activities. As I was going through socks, she started grabbing them and looking to see what kind of shape they were in, and sorting out those that in her mind should be dumped. So, it went sock pair by sock pair, until she got bored, or disgusted, by my keeping socks she thought unsuitable. That simple project was somewhat upended by my wife--the organization woman. She suggested that I should examine each pair of socks and ask myself if that pair sparked joy. Really, who needs a pair of socks to spark joy? To me, socks are utilitarian, they need not spark joy. I am not sure if she was kidding or not, but since she is a fan of Marie Kondo, I doubt she was kidding. As I worked to pull out some dress socks, but save others, she started commenting on my clothes in my closet, and how I should switch my summer shirts out for the fall-winter-early spring wear. She then looked into a dresser drawer with varied clothing items like long underwear, exercise clothes, swim suits, and pajamas. As only she could be, she was perplexed as to this "lack of organization." I noted it only needed to make sense to me. She then commented: "This is stressing me out!" She likes to be very organized and well, my methods are, apparently, not up to snuff in her mind, or for that matter Marie Kondo's mind. A few years ago she had Marie Kondo'd my t-shirt drawer and was now displeased to see that, while the shirts sit on edge (a difficult way to put shirts back in a drawer) some were in the "wrong way." I do not properly Kondoize my t-shirt drawer.
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| Black-eyed Susan |
If I got rid of every t-shirt that she thinks is unsuitable, I would be left with perhaps half or less of my current t-shirts. I would be like Frank Barone, in the one Episode of "Everybody Loves Raymond" when Marie cleans out all his clothes (she donated them to a second hand shop showing they could not have been all that bad) and buys him a new wardrobe. My wife, several years ago, suggested that should be done for my clothes. I will admit my clothes are not very trendy, but they are me. To me everything is circular--my clothes are so out of style at this point that by next year they may well be back in style. One example is the short rise or no rise for ankles on socks. By the time I was "forced" into wearing them they now seem out of style. If one thinks of teenagers as trend setters, I can say that I now see teenagers with high rise socks, sometimes black or navy blue, with shorts no less. So you have old men wearing the socks the kids used to wear, and now the kids are wearing socks old men used to wear. I have yet, however, to see a young person wearing tall black socks with sandals. Perhaps that will be the style next year, and if it is you know the world has gone full circle. Yes, the world is topsy-turvy and it was happening before Covid.
The wife likes to organize and she organizes differently than do I. For example, when I put my t-shirts away, I simply find space and try to nudge them in, or perhaps more accurately shove them in, doing the difficult on-edge, Marie Kondo method, or my variation of her method. I shove the row of existing shirts to the back of the drawer, with one hand and stuff the other freshly laundered shirts into that row. Sometimes, due to lack of space in one row, I have to pull some pull some that I tried to stuff in back out and do repeat the procedure with those shirts in another row. Needless to say, this manhandling causes some of the folding to be somewhat undone. (I can't wait to hear how stressed out she gets when she reads this blogpost and about how I put my t-shirts in the drawer.) What began as a sock drawer task now was larger. Of course, my folding of t-shirts is not up to snuff either, probably adding more stress to her life. When we do laundry I try to help fold, but she often refolds what I folded. As I pulled out my t-shirts to refold some and replace I set them aside in piles, and she asked if I was going to organize by color, which she had done originally. I said no, I organize by type of wear. For example, those that are nice t-shirts go on one pile, those that are well used (most commonly worn) and stained go on another, and third for the in-between. She seemed to be somewhat pleased with my response. Or, perhaps she was just getting too stressed out to wish to be involved. Although, it is not like they stay that way. I just happened to do it that way to get an idea of how many not nice and not nice t-shirts I have. At that point, I really did not know.
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| Trail heading to I-90/94 |
As I worked on my t-shirts, she replaced my polo shirts in the closet with long sleeved shirts. When she was about to do this, she found a polo shirt hanging where button down casual shirts go (she organized my closet a few years back, too). I heard about the polo being out of place, not once, but twice. Then she pulled out a nice and decent polo shirt and said it should be thrown, and I asked why, and she said because it is too worn, to which I asked where is it worn. She said it is piled on the front, which I had trouble finding. Heck I even took off my glasses and held it up near my face to see if I could find the pilling. Then she pointed to some pilling on the front of the shirt. I suggested it has plenty of wear left, and I could use it for more everyday wear. We compromised when she suggested I place it in my t-shirt drawer for everyday wear. I guess, her organizing has only the better polo shirts hung in the closet. So, my t-shirt drawer now contains a polo shirt that feels like it must be on the island of misfit shirts. I am not sure if I can expect Santa to come and rescue it from the t-shirt drawer this Christmas or not.
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| Prairie |
Well, the job may have become larger than intended, but it was a cold rainy day, so it was not like I could have been outside enjoying the weather. I did however, find out that the condition of my drawers causes stress in my wife. I may not be as organized as she, and may not place things in order by color, but I seldom pay great attention to what I wear. I suppose she will say, "and it shows." For now, the sock drawer is in order, and I will see how it holds through the coming winter. But the best part is that I will not have to bend down for my winter socks.
Photos by author at Token Creek County Park, Oct 5, 2020
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