I'm going to give you a little insight into the mind of Ken. The contents of this post were initiated by a conversation with Matt and Sara on Sunday night.

There are some items of clothing that can be worn more than once. Seriously, think about this. Shirts worn for just the evening? Worthy of another wear. Socks, in certain cases, can be doubled up. Jeans are the ultimate.

You can wear jeans many, many days without visible signs of multi-wear. Sometimes, it even takes a day or two to get jeans broken after washing.

Here's the quandary. The clothes have been worn. Clearly, one cannot just place them back in the closet, amongst all the other clean clothes. No, they have been soiled and tainted. They will contaminate the other clothing. But you can't put them in the hamper, either (assuming you own a hamper, or a hamper-like place). They'll get prematurely washed. Not good. You're just getting the jeans broken in.

So, if the closet is clothing heaven, and the hamper is clothing hell, then the "middle state" where my jeans often reside during the nighttime hours...

... is clothing purgatory.



I have utilized the concept of clothing purgatory for many years. It has taken many forms. In high school, it was a stool that say in front of my wall-sized Led Zeppelin poster. It held as many as 20 items at a time. In college, there were designated areas (just ask my former roommate). Now at home, there is a cozy little corner between my side of the bed and the wall. Purgatory.

In talking through this, Meg began to realize that since our marriage, and 4 houses later, I have always (unbeknownst to her) engineered our sleeping arrangements to allow for a bedside clothing purgatory. (It was an "ah-ha" moment for her).

Am I the only one? Are there others with a clothing purgatory? Perhaps you have one and just didn't know what to call it until now. Do tell.

AVed at 5/24/2005 05:03:00 PM | LINK |