One of the things I’ve needed to do is to sort out and dispose of Christopher’s clothes. That’s a really tough job, so I’ve been taking it slowly and doing it just one shelf/drawer at a time. I’ve been sorting the clothes into a number of categories, each of which I’m dealing with separately:
- Clothes in “nearly new” and eminently resellable condition – such as his suit & jackets, a new batch of polo shirts which he bought earlier this year, his “smart” shirts etc. I’ve donated all of those to my local Oxfam. They do a “tag a bag” scheme, whereby the donor signs up for GiftAid and is given a sheet of stickers with a unique identifying number on them. That enables Oxfam to claim back tax on the amount the clothes raise, at no extra effort for me. They seem to have it well-calibrated too – the sheet has twelve stickers on it, and so far I’ve donated ten bags full of clothes with probably another one or two yet to go.
- Clothes with a lot of wear left in them, but a bit frayed around the edges or otherwise not really resellable, including his warm but somewhat worn winter coats and some sturdy shoes. I’ve given those to two homeless shelters (one in Worcester and one in London) to hand out to those who need them.
- Underwear, plus the sweaters with large holes in the elbows and the really shabby T-shirts etc that were fit only for gardening in (not that he ever did…..). I recycled all of those at the “clothes bin” at the tip. Some of his shoes went the same way.
- Clothes that I closely associate with Christopher, such as the brown microfibre jacket that he loved, and the sweaters I knitted him over the years. I haven’t decided what to do with those. Malvern is such a small place that if I gave them to a local charity shop I can bet that I’d later walk slap bang into someone in town wearing “his” clothes. And I don’t think I could bear that. So for now I’m keeping them.
