Clean Your Closet Week: What's Hidden In Yours?

(It's FABIO'S Birthday! Visit http://www.fabioifc.com for info about and photos of FABIO!)
Before I start this blog, I'm announcing a NEW YAHOO GROUP you can join: ROMANCE BOOKS R US, at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/romancebooksrus  Authors and readers are welcomed...check the schedule on the Home Page!
And: TOMORROW is the last day to vote in the Book Boost's BEST FIRST LINE CONTEST! Go to:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HHC8TC2  I have two entries:
 "Your dog ate your underwear." (from "Gone to the Dogs" by Marianne Stephens)
 AND
"I'm upping the ante. Bring underwear." (from "Strip Poker for Two" by April Ash)
Would appreciate your vote for either one!

BLOG:

I've put this off as long as I could, but now that an official week is dedicated to doing this, I guess I should boldly go where no one has gone before...namely my closet.

Oh, I've tried "weeding" out stuff over the years, but other stuff just gets added to the mess and seems to multiply what's inside my closet. Where did I get it all from? Why do I keep it all?

The where is easy...sorta. I buy stuff. Shoes. Lots of shoes. Also have enough medications/pharmacy items in drawers and on shelves to rival drug stores. Then, there are all the promotion items I save to give out. And, my handbags. And, clothes. Lots of them. All sizes. All colors. For all seasons.

The why isn't easy to answer. I'm...a shopaholic? Love to buy things? Use my closet to store stuff because there's no other room in the house to put things? Holding onto my clothes has been ingrained in my being. What if I gain weight? Lose weight? Styles change? Styles that were out are now in again?

Sigh.

I have a dress from the 60s/70s. Wore it for a retro party. Held onto it all these years, although I was finally able to fit into it last October. But, damn. I had that hanging in my closet for decades and wouldn't part with it.

Another confession. I have a Dr. Kildare shirt from the 60's (anyone remember that TV series?) that will never fit me...but yet, I've been unable or unwilling to part with it.

Could I sell it on eBay? Is it worth anything? That might get me motivated to part with it.

When we first moved into this house, there was only one master closet...for the two of us and all the medications and all the towels and sheets since the only linen closet was on the second floor and our bedroom is on the first floor. Since then, we've added a closet (for my husband and I kept the larger one), and also added a first-floor linen closet.

And yet, I still don't have enough room. And probably never will...until I clean my closet to make room for future purchases.

In "Gone to the Dogs", my heroine, Katie, spreads out all her closet items on the floor as she sorts through to look for "something to wear". You know that feeling. Full closet but "nothing to wear". I didn't have the heart to make her throw out what no longer fit (she had some pounds to lose) so maybe I put something of myself in her character?

Are there any treasures hiding in your closet? How will you know if you don't clean. Anyway, that's the mantra I'll be parading through my head as I gear up to do battle with my closet. Never know what I might find!

You have a better chance of "finding" a treasure if you enter the TWO CONTESTS I'm running at my website to celebrate my latest book, "Anything You Can Do". Go to http://www.mariannestephens.net/ for information about the contests and my mainstream contemporary/paranormal romance books.
Visit http://www.aprilash.net/ for information about my erotic contemporary romance books.
"Gone to the Dogs" is available in ebook and print format at:
http://www.jasminejade.com/m-310-marianne-stephens.aspx

"Anything You Can Do" is now available at: http://www.breathlesspress.com/
Photos: Flickr: debcil, Praveen Rajan (Marketing.com), slurpiesandstraw's photostreams.