grace grits and gardening

ramblings from an arkansas farm girl

Kelsey’s Closet

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When our neighborhood was platted and the homes constructed, property taxes were assessed per room. And a closet was considered a room. To avoid the closet tax, most  Munger Place homes were built without closets. This didn’t much matter back then when people only had a change of work clothes and a Sunday-go-to-meetin’ outfit. Later, closets were added in corners and odd spots as needs changed. Now that everyone has way too much stuff and new outfits arrive daily on the porch steps via one simple mouse click for next day UPS delivery, those closets are stuffed with barely worn clothes and shoes and prom dresses and halloween costumes and business suits that haven’t seen daylight or a boardroom since business casual became the new professional norm.

Kelsey's Closet

In our house, Kelsey’s room has the coolest closet. It’s big and spacious and comes with it’s own stained glass window. I do some of my best shopping in that closet. Full of treasures, it’s convenient and the price is always right. Some items were left behind when she moved to Austin for college and some were left behind when she moved to Washington DC for work. On a rare trip home, usually around the holidays, she may leave clothes and take others. So the inventory sometimes changes.

I scored an awesome Michael Kors bag in there. Never mind that I probably originally bought it…. Only so many purses could go off to college. Sometimes I find the perfect tank top right off the rack for a special event. And I found the best pair of J. Crew skinny jeans after Christmas that I can actually wear! Clearly if they were really skinny jeans, she wouldn’t have left them, but they make me feel better anyway.
There is also a shopping bag full of beauty supplies like nail polish remover, lotions of all kinds and shampoo. I haven’t bought toothpaste in a long time. We don’t wear the same size shoe unfortunately, but that’s just as well – she managed to make room for the best of those.
Kelsey's Closet
The closet is also full of memories. Like the plastic tub of drill team things, the box of toys including Baby. She never went anywhere without Baby, until she did. And board games we played for hours. There are boxes of awards and ribbons for her many school age accomplishments. The needlepoint “Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep” I made for her nursery before she was born, rests behind an old jewelry box on the closet shelf.

Kelsey Tate and Baby

Kelsey is happy and thriving, busy working and preparing for law school. As she should be. Her baccalaureate poster sits on the closet floor, and sometimes I like to go in the closet to look at the photos on it, just remembering. The closet still smells like her perfume.

Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

Musical Pairings:

“This One’s for the Girls”, Martina McBride
“I Hope You Dance”, Lee Ann Womack
“A daughter is a day brightener and a heart warmer.” – Unknown

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Comments

  1. “She never went anywhere without Baby, until she did.”

    For some reason, that line just tore at my heart.

  2. Haha nope, I’m still very much alive. In fact, I’m wearing a sweater that you donated to me years ago, Mom, (a thin, plum colored one from Loft), so this post is particularly salient. The trading works both ways! ~Kelsey

  4. Love this one…it makes me miss my daughter even more….I love her closet too. When she left for college I didn’t go upstairs for a week. I finally took some clothes up to put away and the next thing I knew, I was in the fetal position on her bed crying like a baby…..I had trouble letting go of my kids…I really like them… : )

Food. Farm. Garden. Life.

THANKS FOR READING!