Oh, April, you’re here at last. I’m relieved because it means this yo-yo hot/cold will finally stop (and will creep toward summer faster than we know, but at least the flu will knock it off a while).

It also means I’ll stop biting my nails when I get a text about my bank account, because I got paid today and will finally have more than $1.38 in there. The bills paying part isn’t so fun, but at least it’s one little bit of strain off my back. And my payment to the gym will go through today.

It occurred to me late last night and this morning, that a big problem with my organizational skills is my forgetfulness, or I just automatically think “just save it for later.” And what’s that gotten me? There’s a bag full of green socks with Polyfil and safety-pins in the back of my laundry room, which I glance at and move on.

They were part of a Cthulhu Halloween costume I put together…3 years ago. Well, I’m working today and will spend a lot of time after at my fave caffeinated hole to work online, and then a few more organizational totes.

Yeah, I have some crazy freaking plans–or they’re crazy in my slightly hoarder-ish lifestyle, anyway. I call it “put up or shut up” regarding my fitness and health plans. One of the biggest things I considered this morning, which would really free up some closet and drawer space, is getting rid of my “fat” cold-weather clothes.

I mean, every winter I dutifully put back the big jeans, the oversized sweaters, and it takes up a lot of closet space. More than that, because I hate being too hot, I rarely ever wear them–so they’re in there for no reason and would benefit someone else come next winter.

Well, crossing my fingers and making crazy-good plans today. First, I have to make sure the money went through so I can go to the grocery store for some staples. Then, best buy for a new HDMI cord for my baby DVD player (I let dad keep the one for the living room, but forgot when I hooked mine back up that it wouldn’t hook up–oops). That way, I can move all my fitness equipment out of my office and back into my bedroom, where I have good floor space to work with (sort of). Can’t do “rainy day” dvds without a player and space, after all.

But tomorrow (and maybe a little tonight), I’m going to box up all those big winter clothes, and use smaller totes for the winter clothes I’m keeping. There’s a lot of space I can work with if I prioritize it right. Besides, I have jeans that I’ve had since high school hanging in that back closet area just in case I ever lost weight and kept it off again (they’re my “skinny” jeans–I wasn’t skinny at all in high school). So, I’ve already got jeans I can fit into when this weight goes down.

That will be a dream of mine (and I confess I’m curious how I’ll feel about my pine-tree and mulberry-colored jeans when I can get into them again–hee hee–but most are normal blue, so no worries). I want to throw out the bigger clothes because they’re a crutch. I have a thing about waste when it comes to clothes, which is ridiculous because I’m an impulse buyer. I buy clothes with foolish optimism–like the ton of skirts I have in my closet for those teaching gigs I was going to have, and in different sizes in case I lost a lot a weight and needed THAT skirt in THAT size.

Yeah, I broke the cardinal rule of buying clothes when you’re fat. Probably 70% of what’s in my closet I can’t fit into (and when it comes to professional dress, the number’s closer to 90%). So, hence the 4 different sizes of skirts in my office (though in my defense, the “vanity sizing’ bullshit really makes it tough to get the right size number–some were too big). And when I was teaching, I wanted nicer clothes with a little color to them, and a dark top to go with. Dark slacks + southeast Texas + middle of May = torture. Skirts were the closest I could get to shorts during the school day. Made sense to buy ’em.

Anyhoo, boxing up my bigger winter clothes to donate would be a great idea. I can give ’em one last wash (get the dust off, in some cases) and pack ’em in nicely.

And it’ll make more room for my workout clothes–easy access next to my “just hanging out and working around the house” older summer clothes. That’s the real trouble with my organization–I can’t find the workout clothes that fit me right because drawers share space with obsolete clothes.

I gotta go through them all (a lot of shorts that “didn’t fit” other people ended up in there with stuff that fits me fine) and really organize. Hell, I’ll make “what fits me now” in one drawer and “what will fit later” goes in the bottom drawer.

I don’t even want to think about my closet right now, because that’ll take the longest. Admittedly, all these novelty t-shirts I impulse-bought online take up over half my closet space–and I barely wear any of them. Yeah, my office-closet will take the ones that don’t fit for now (the international sizing was weird and some shirts shrank a bit, and the women’s cut shirts were WAY too small–but I want them for later when I get rid of the tire around my middle).

That’s the problem–women’s cut shirts can accentuate and account for the chest very well (sometimes), but then it’s like they taper down to a skinny waist. I don’t need to look like I have 2 sets of breasts because of the damned bulge showing through the shirt down there at the beltline.

And for the friends that get annoyed when I don’t wear shirts cut to flatter a woman’s figure, now you know why. I stick to guy’s larger shirts where the fabric just comes straight down under my chest and doesn’t cling as easily to the tire. And, again, that vanity sizing rears its ugly head and I’m perpetually between sizes because they never get it right. It’s frustrating and I HATE trying on clothes.

But I really wanna get this settled because next Monday I’m going to start Jiu-Jitsu again and will need plenty of access to my workout clothes. I mean, those things are gonna be flying in and out of my drawers–makes sense if I know how many outfits I have to work with so I’m not doing laundry at midnight several days a week.

So, that’s the beginning of April, full of new promises (that I’m damn-well gonna keep), a measure of hope and happiness, and some time outside in the sun.

Oh boy, gonna have to plan some bike-rides here and there.  I want this to be my fit summer…the first of many.

Yeah, that’s my idea of a great time–walk (or bike) and take in nature. Doing something like this in Big Bend National Park again would be awesome. BUCKET LIST!!!