Simply..first grow your cotton....

12/9/2018

While the chimney was being swept I found myself starting to clear the linen cupboard (thinking of you Mary and being careful of my back!). A day later the job is nearly done. How did I come to have so much surplus linen? Who needs 19 tea towels? I think I find fabric almost as hard to part with as books..

And why do I invest so much emotion in an old faded towel?

Marie kondo says that Japanese people have treated material things with reverence since ancient times and that there are three facets to the spirit that dwells in material things: the spirit of the materials from which it is made, the spirit of the person who made them and the spirit of the person who uses them.

I find this fascinating.

And I'm keeping that one.

But parting with this lot!

18 Comments

PennyL

13/9/2018 04:26:42 am

It’s so hard to part with fabric things. It must be an ancient thing, because we call fabric material, yet material possessions can be anything we own.
I have drawers full of old sheets and quilt covers. Even though it’s inconvenient , I still find myself putting them all back in the drawers instead of sharing them with the world!

Freda

13/9/2018 02:14:12 pm

They are so comforting and I do keep more than I need 'Just in case'.

Susan

13/9/2018 04:30:39 am

Yes, I agree with Marie Kondo.
Before I scrolled down, to discover that you'd decided to keep the first towel, I though "Oh no, Freda's not going to part with that one. It has so much soul in it". It asks to be held against the cheek.

Susan

13/9/2018 08:23:01 am

Reflecting on Penny L's comment re 'an ancient thing', I was thinking of how few possessions made of fabric (garments & linen) people owned in the past, and how costly and fragile (and prone to moths). Apparently, a wardrobe is a relatively recent piece of furniture for most people, their entire family's garments & linen, being stored in a chest or press. So, maybe valuing our linen, is still deep in our subconscious, despite our abundance of fabric possessions nowadays.

Freda

13/9/2018 02:16:39 pm

I can well believe that valuing our linen goes back a very long way. In medieval times it was commonly mentioned in wills.

Gail

13/9/2018 04:32:59 am

I’m with you and Penny L about fabrics

IF any of your lovely linens are dated pattern or maybe a little too worn, animal shelters always need towels

Freda

13/9/2018 02:17:37 pm

My daughter's two rescue dogs are getting some of the towels!

Mary

13/9/2018 06:01:38 am

Just yesterday I put out four very large bags for a charity pick up (a veteran's charity comes around our neighborhood once a month picking up clothing and used household goods--which gives you some idea of how much 'stuff' people have). Two of those bags were things from the linen cupboard, including excess towels, shower curtains, bedding, curtains, table mats and runners, etc., etc., etc.. A third bag was filled with kitchen items. The fourth bag was filled with clothing and shoes. My back has not yet fully recovered, but happy you took care not to injure yours.

Freda

13/9/2018 02:19:43 pm

After the initial shock I get such a good feeling of lightness and headspace as well as physical space when I get rid of surplus. Did it give you a good feeling Mary? I'm sorry to hear your back isn't right yet.

Mary B

13/9/2018 08:32:51 am

Your comments reminded me of Karin Larssons view that the hand of the artist should be seen in the finished textile. Ah, yes , linen.... cupboards full, some dating back into family history, all with memories attached. I had spinning and weaving lessons some years ago and found I looked with new eyes on my hoard. Oh dear, more decluttering needed !

F'reda

13/9/2018 02:23:42 pm

It's an ongoing thing! Karin Larsson's textiles were lovely. Such fine skills to have and the hand made has that 'spirit'.

Julia

13/9/2018 10:24:03 am

And in the past, linens were hand-loomed, hand-made..no wonder they were precious! I have a number of heirlooms that will not be leaving my home, blanket covers sewn by my grandmother..and can one ever have too many real linen tea towels? Confession: that grey towel with the white and yellow looks terribly tempting to me! And here is a heads-up for those of us who live in the usa: old worn out textiles of all kinds that are not good enough for another use, can be recycled through planet-aid. You can find a bin near you, online...i do not throw any textiles in the landfill anymore. Textiles form a huge mass of our refuse and it is a crime!

Julia

13/9/2018 10:25:24 am

And warm blankets can be given to the freeze-shelter for the homeless in winter.

Freda

13/9/2018 02:26:36 pm

Yes to sensible recycling! The grey white and yellow (left hand stack?) is a little Danish printed tablecloth with geese on it. I may have to reconsider that one.....

Lotta link

13/9/2018 12:14:36 pm

I think I'm the odd one out... I don't have any fabric I feel sentimental about. It's not that I don't value it, it's just that I don't seem to have any attachment to it. If anything I find the energy of old fabric too much... too intense, too much embodied past to want to hold on to. And not having a linen cupboard means I have to keep things quite minimal anyway!

Freda

13/9/2018 02:27:52 pm

Each to their own! And minimal is so nice...

Judy

15/9/2018 06:10:20 pm

I clung to a white Wedgewood table cloth I bought for the cake table at my daughter's wedding 14 years ago. It never looked right on my rustic dining tables at home and yet, I still kept it hoping to find some other use for it. I took it out sometimes just to touch the embossed pattern of blowsy flowers. I finally gave it to a charity shop this year and console myself with imagining a young bride discovering it and using it on the cake table in her own wedding.

Freda

16/9/2018 01:16:24 am

A lovely thought and very likely to be the case! I too think things better out in the world than in my cupboard unseen and unused.

Simply..first grow your cotton....

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