My Mother's, Now My Jacket

Closet Analysis: My Mother's Stuff

Noteworthy:

Funny the things we save. I have been working at following my own advice. After all, I developed and wrote a guided journal about de-cluttering and here I am holding on to stuff. I decided to attack the "junk room". Some people have junk drawers; I have a junk room. 

Because I write, I save articles that inspire me or that I might find useful in the future. Therefore I still have many boxes of paper files. Paper is one of the easiest things to recycle and so, I thought, I can do this. After all, I wrote about how easy this would be in the guided journal, didn't I? Well, I did. 

One of the files in the piles of files was about, you guessed it, de-cluttering. And one of the articles was written by Ronna Lichtenberg in a 2008 More magazine edition, "Selling my Mother's Stuff". She wrote, "For daughters, there is stuff and there is Mom's stuff." All in all, the article was about the fact that decisions such as these are all about the heart. Yes, ten years later, I still have things from my parents' home that will be worthless to those having to look after my estate after I am gone. 

Nice:

Over the past ten years, since my mother's passing, I have given away many of her things to my nieces. I am grateful that they want them. The wondrous thing is that Mel and Kim use the china and hang the photos and retrieve the tree ornaments at Christmas. I have learned from them and am now using both my mother's and my mother-in-law's things — things I didn't particularly like but have grown fond of, with use. 

Relative to the theme of this blog is my mother's swing jacket circa late 1940s, early 50s. It was stored in a cedar chest for years and it is just recently that I have taken it out and started wearing it. The fact that it might be a 70-year-old jacket, purchased perhaps in the late 1940s, is amazing. The fact that I loved it when I was growing up and would take it out of my mother's cedar chest and "pretend" makes it all the more precious. Although I never saw my mother wear it, I imagined her wearing it when she lived and worked in Winnipeg. I believed that some day I would wear it. Well, it is mine now and I am wearing it. And yes, I am loving it.

The swing style hits the top of my hip bones and looks great with a pair of skinny jeans or a pencil skirt. 

I believe the fabric is wool, it's fully lined and has no holes or tears. It's in immaculate shape. It has no tags which leads me to believe she might have had it tailored. The buttons may be lucite since lucite was the most popular material for button manufacture from the 1930s to the 1960s (but I do not know for sure). If any of you have any ideas about the style, the vintage, the buttons, or the look, I would be most appreciative to hear from you.

When my mother died, my brothers and I invited the closest family members to come and take what they wanted. It was all very civil and no one disagreed over anything. In retrospect, I sometimes think, I should have, would have, and could have, but I didn't; and so it's over. I am enjoying what I did decide to take. Mel, who was the only unmarried grandchild, had taken my mother's wedding dress and another swing coat and admitted to me, that the coat was just sitting in a closet and if I wanted it, I could have it. I thanked her and told her she would be getting it back. It's a royal blue velvet 3/4 length version, longer than the yellow swing jacket in the photo. I do remember my mother wearing this one to my grandmother's funeral when I was very little. It was her Sunday go-to-church coat that would have been worn in the spring and fall. The velvet feels very formal to me now and I'm not sure when and where I will wear it, but there it sits, now in my closet waiting for the perfect time to be worn.

If you need to de-clutter, enjoy journaling and appreciate the goal focus of guided journals . . .

Click Here to Visit the Buy Page for

A Box a Day: A 30 Day Journal to Triumph Over Clutter 

Your Personal De-Cluttering Guide