Write for You: Your Clothes in Categories

by Nancy Casey

If you want to be out and about in polite society, you have to wear clothes. So people tend to have lots of them.

If you were to count up all the people in the world and all the places and reasons they wear certain clothes, not to mention the clothes they own and don’t wear, and the clothes they wished they had, you would probably have a number equal to the number of stars in the galaxy or gains of sand in the Sahara desert.

What about your own clothes? Chances are you have quite a few. And different groups or categories of them, too. You can divide them into categories in many ways. Clean and dirty, of course. Or, whites, darks, and colors if you are standing in front of a washing machine. Underwear and outer-wear. Summer clothes and winter clothes. Hats, shoes and gloves. Pants, shirts and sweaters. Clothes you love and clothes you hate.

You can divide clothes into categories according to when and where you ought to wear them. Some situations (such as work, and fancy restaurants) require certain clothes. Other situations have special clothes that aren’t exactly required, but people tend to conform. Think of the gym, the beach, or church.

Do things that you always wear, like glasses and jewelry, count as clothes? What about a purse, satchel, or backpack that you never leave home without?

Do you have a collection of clothes that you never wear but don’t get rid of? Perhaps you expect to wear them someday, or maybe they have sentimental value. Do you keep clothes around because they belong to someone else?

In your writing today, think about all the different categories of clothes you have and write about some of your clothes by category.

Begin with any category at all. (In my closet… At home… My uncomfortable clothes… My favorite clothes… In the laundry basket…) Write about the clothes in one category, then move onto another category until the page is full.

Your page could turn out to be a big list of different clothes. Or you might have so much to say about the first article of clothing you write about that it fills up the whole page. Maybe you will decide to draw the clothes as you think about what you will write.

However your page comes out, give your work a title. Make sure the date is on it somewhere, too. Add any decoration and color that you think the page might need. Here is an example of what a person could write.

Share what you have written! Post it as a comment below. You can type in your work. Or post a picture of it. Here is an example of what a person could write.

Nancy Casey has lived in Latah County for many years. Sometimes she teaches writing classes at the Recovery Center. You can find more of her work here. She offers (free!) writing help to anyone in recovery. This can be for any kind of writing project—resumes, letters, stories novels—email latahrecoverycenter@gmail.com for more information.