ZK,

I have the hope and fear clothing as well! Those I keep in storage (up in the attic) along with the unseasonable clothes and go through them once a year along with the rest of my wardrobe, shift things around as needed. I pretty much try everything on again, find that styles and my tastes have changed, and find it easier to part with the currently non-wearable items that much more easily.

I have a tiny apartment with one 4' wide closet for hanging and another 4' wide closet with shelves and another one out in the living room for coats and emergency sweaters during the warmer months. I don't even have a dresser. The shelves have baskets for socks and undies and jammies. and if I can't fit my work and play pants and shorts on the shelves, then I simply have too many pants and shorts and have to purge/move to the attic.

I think you just need to organize with the space you have. Start from scratch, get it sorted and organized, and only keep on hand what is immediately needed for the current season. If storing the unseasonable and unwearables is not really an option, there are low risers to prop beds on that allow slim tupperware tubs to slide under.

Be realistic, practical. Bring a friend over and have a fashion show and purge. If I haven't touched something in more than two years, definitely donate it. Be more ruthless with your hope/fear piles. Because really, styles/tastes change. I had some fearsome baby-girl/slutty clothes that were far too sparkly/girly for me and I couldn't believe I'd worn them at one point.

bagels: man, I miss the apartment where I had fifteen feet of hanging closet space and changing out for the seasons meant grabbing coathangers from one closet and walking over two feet.

depths of what I would like to call the Gibson-Sheen Abyss.

I'm grabbing this phrase and running away to stuff it into my personal lexicon, along with geographical descriptors like "Mariana trench" and "Gobi desert."

Julie, I think now I miss that apartment too, despite never having lived there.

I'm at the point where I want to start selling more vintage clothes on Etsy, but I literally have nowhere to put them, short of setting up a rack in the dining room. It's very troublesome.

not to belabor the point, but as a sort of PSA: 911 is entirely appropriate for any crime in progress or need for fire or medical. When in doubt, best to call 911 and explain the situation as succinctly as possible (ladder on the freeway! people fighting! wierd smell in the air!) and expect that you might be referred to a non emergency number. Because if there is any doubt in your mind as to whether an immediate response is needed, get the info out there rather than waiting and looking for another number. I love that buffistas are concerned about tying up a 911 line unneccessarily (love you guys!!!) but i can assure you that anyone answering a 911 line is well practiced at quickly assessing the situation and blowing you off the to non-emer line when appropriate. Seriously, we have a button that transfers the caller to a recording that repeats the non-emer number ad infinitum until the caller hangs up. I can triage most calls in about 10 seconds and then make the transfer with a quick "here's the right number to call." We can make that decision for you!

ION, my darling little cat is so thoughtful. He knows i've been very concerned about his "output" since the overnight vet stay so he left his latest poops on my bed where i'd be sure to see them. While i appreciate the thought, he has THREE clean litter boxes as his disposal.

The only annoying thing, for me, was that if I have a message telling me to say, "emergency" if it is an emergency, I REALLY ASSUME that not saying it will get my call transferred to a nonemer place or hear nonemer options, not hung up on.

Clearly next time I will go about it differently but really I just was frustrated and I know that when I've called with actual emergencies, I've waited for an operator and I didn't want to be the person tying up the line.

Live, ask the hivemind and learn...

I love that buffistas are concerned about tying up a 911 line unneccessarily (love you guys!!!) but i can assure you that anyone answering a 911 line is well practiced at quickly assessing the situation and blowing you off the to non-emer line when appropriate.

I just always remember the commercial that played all the time when I was a kid that shows a shadowy guy breaking into a woman's bedroom, and the woman grabs her bedside phone and calls 911 and gets a busy signal. I swear, in the late eighties and early nineties, they must have shown that commercial at least once an hour on every channel.

Sad to hear about Dianna Wynne Jones.

I am posting from the SLC aiport. They have good wireless.

And I would have thought Jilli! and made sure that you saw the link.

Awwww, you know me well!

What is this clothing organization you people are talking about? I have vague memories of it ...

I wonder if there are people who don't hesitate to call 911. I've hesitated everytime I've ever had to call, wondering if the situation warranted it and not wanting to be a repeat caller if the situation was already under control. Recently I called for a car accident that happened literally right in front of me. The funny thing was that the woman on the phone reassured me that the ambulance/firetruck was already enroute and I should hear the sirens in jut a few seconds, which I did nas I was driving away (happened in a intersection and I felt I could help most by getting my car out of the way), I saw the female driver pull her infant out of her seat, which totally gVe me chills. Of course, the last time *I* needed 911, I was in PR where there is no such thing and we had to wait over an hour for the police. I was pregnant with Frisco and had Ellie with me. Joe was, of course, of the island. Thankfully, a friend came and entertained Ellie with books and chocolate until I could leave b