Edith | PinkFemme

My OCD has a way of manifesting in unexpected ways. Here in Spain, we have recycle bins specifically for clothing and shoes, and these tend to trigger my OCD. I never dumpster dive these bins as the clothing is distributed to the homeless by about a dozen charities – though I’m sure that there are others who do dive into these bins. These bins are designed with narrow slots as a way to discourage dumpster diving, so you have to feed clothing into the slot, one garment at a time. Because of this, people who have a large bag of clothing will just leave the bag on the sidewalk next to the bin rather than stand for half an hour feeding garments into the bin. Many times when I walk past these bags, they are ripped open, and pretty clothes are strewn across the sidewalk, dirty. I find this triggering to my OCD and feel compelled to collect as much of the dirty clothing as I can, take it home, and wash it before returning the garments to a recycle bin. In the process, I’ve found a few unexpected treasures in my size. For instance, the casual wool/cashmere sweater I’m wearing today. When I picked it up, it still had its original store tags from Zara – never worn. When I saw the topic of today’s caption from Candace, I specifically picked out my unexpected treasure Zara sweater to wear while writing this. Do you have any unexpected treasures in your closet? Tell me about them. Hugs. One thing before we continue: It is thanks to fabulous people like you that Pink Femme can stay free for everyone to use. We are an Amazon.com affiliate which means that we receive a small commission on any items you purchase after clicking our affiliate links - at no cost to you. The commissions we receive help us pay for web hosting fees and other costs associated with running this website. Thank you for using the affiliate links on Pink Femme and keeping the content free for anyone who wants it. This post was created by the talented Candie Hart and originally appeared on her Tumblr blog. It is reproduced here with her kind permission. Be sure to check out more about Candie at the end of the post and give her some Pink Femme love. Through the years of my crossdressing, I have stumbled across a few treasures that were meant for trash. There were times when I took advantage of my wife’s discards, but I wouldn’t call that a treasure find. More like a repurposing. Even then, rarely was anything a good fit except for some workout clothes. When I was in college, a group of us did a clothing drive. Clothes were donated in boxes and I was responsible for taking them to the community drive’s drop off. No worries. I didn’t dumpster-dive the donations, though I remember being tempted to do so. But what did happen was a late donation. It was too late for the drive, anonymous, and now in my possession. Perhaps I should have found another venue to donate to, but I succumbed to that temptation and looked to see what was offered. Shoes that were too small, shirts that were out of style, and socks with holes in them. What kind of donation was this?! But there was one sweet little surprise. It was a long denim skirt. It was cute, it fit, it felt nice, and was easily hemmed to a short mini. Have I ever told you that I kept a portable sewing machine in my dorm room? Another treasure was absolutely sheer luck. It was during a rare visit with my parents, only about 10 years ago. My father still had his business and needed some help throwing away old boxes, machinery, stationery, etc. As I took one of the first piles to the dumpster in the alley behind his business, there was a blue dress hanging over the side of the bin. There was a dry cleaning business nearby, so maybe it came from there. There were other clothes in the bin, but I wasn’t about to dive in. The dress looked to be in good condition, wasn’t soiled, and nobody was around. Free! I was elated. I took it home, carefully washed it because of the material, and tried it on. It was too tight to zip up, but there were darts in the front and back. after undoing a few darts, it lost some of its form, but at least it fit. I loved that dress. It might be one of my favorite dresses that I have ever had. It was indeed, a treasure. Have you ever stumbled upon treasures like this? CandieHart Candie is an enthusiast for all things fit and femme. All of her very creative captions carry the same positive, motivating ethos that I envisioned for Pink Femme when I started this site. Use this link to go to Candie’s blog on Tumblr and give her captions some much-needed love. If you would like to see more of Candie’s longer-form content with captions here on Pink Femme – here is the link to the list of posts that have been published. If you are new to Pink Femme, be sure to check out the unique 40 Steps To Femme program that will help you to feel more girly one delicate step at a time.