Time for the Pending Shelf

By Rebecca Willis

One of the best things about staying in a hotel is the sight of your clothes swinging freely on hangers on a near-empty rail. I imagine mine stretching their limbs and taking deep breaths, glad to have a well-earned holiday from the crowded and claustrophobic conditions they live in at home. If Narnia was through the back of my wardrobe, no one would ever find it.

Unfortunately, wardrobes obey the basic laws of physics, so until someone invents one with the bigger-inside-than-out properties of the Tardis, anyone who loves clothes will eventually reach a point where theirs is well and truly full. Exactly when you reach that point depends on a number of variables – volume of wardrobe, rate of shopping, garment-folding skills – but what is certain is that it will come, as inevitably as bibliophiles will one day run out of bookshelves. You can go to ikea and buy as many clever storage solutions as you like, but in the end you will have to face up to it: the time has come to chuck out some clothes.