I have accumulated a motley collection of shirts, trousers (‘pants’ to my US readers). T-shirts with long and short sleeves, underclothes – some of which I could tactfully say were of the era in which they were  purchased. I have laid them all out in my living room, every last one, and they are a sorry site. I have 24 shirts mostly in good condition but I only wear half a dozen of them.

Do I get them away to charity? Do I kick the can down the road and put them in a bag and leave them in the Attic? I really need the equivalent of a desktop and an archive. On looking at them I cannot think why I bought most of them because they are the standard greens and graves and dark blues, navy blues we used to say, and they’re just taking up space.

This whole topic was occasioned through my receiving a little plastic bag through the letter box asking for donations of clothes and saying that the proceeds would go to Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. I’d be surprised if more than 50% of the value would actually reach the hospital because of course expenses have to be deducted but frankly  any course is better than taking them to the recycle.

For all I know the items I’m going to put in the bag will be shredded anyway but at least it will be turned into something else.

I am reminded of the Spice Girls song what do you really really want (my goodness that dates me doesn’t it). I admit to being rather besotted with the glamour and the unity of the group members.

The words are not exactly profound but they are

Yo, I’ll tell you what I want
what I really, really want
 so tell me what you want
what you really, really want

this song was entitled ‘Wannabe’ and was published June 26th, 1996. Just thought you’d like to know.

So I’m going to do the same thing with my clothes, what do I really really need. I have the great benefit that I don’t have to look at myself and so long as I don’t scare small children and feel warm and comfortable, I’m not really bothered. I know Françoise would like an occasional change of  landscape so if I were the same shirt for more than five days in a row she will tend to notice.

Shoes are more tricky. I tend to wear them until they wear out typically through having holes in the soles.  I have some black dress shoes with pointed ends that look a bit funny but they are very comfortable so I will keep them.

I’m a bit mean on the price that I want to pay for shoes and have never spent more than one hundred pounds on shoes in my life as a result the country of the shoes – namely China – is obvious and so they are somewhat heavy and don’t last an awful long time. I guess I’m a complete nerd in this matter.

I have never been interested in fashion and would rather dress in such a way that I do not stand out from the crowd. It is otherwise called mingling, a lovely word that don’t often use. (late Middle English: frequentative of obsolete meng ‘mix or blend’ (related to among), perhaps influenced by Middle Dutch mengelen .

I eventually decided to have two categories, one winter and one summer and all the short sleeved shirts and the short trousers go up to the archive in the attic.

The main thing is to be at the right body temperature – and comfortable.  Thank goodness I was born a bloke.  The idea of having to wear high heeled shoes is – well- horrific.