Where Is Your Treasure?

I am a numbers girl. It borders on obsessive, a fact about which I am equal parts embarrassed and proud. My inner geek gets very excited about Key Performance Indicators and Return on Investment.

I love progress. I am motivated by seeing things move forward.

This love of progress and forward movement is not well served by being a parent. It seems that there is zero progress most days and any forward movement is undone after five minutes. I mean, why bother vacuuming if an indulgent father is going to give a bowl of chips to a scalawag who will then be pushed by his brother, consequently spilling his chips, grinding them into the rug so I have to vacuum again?

I have yet to find the KPI that will help me see the needle move on this kind of thing.

That said, I remain motivated by numbers in my own little obsessive way. For example, I know exactly, to the penny, how much money I spent on clothes over the last two years. I know how many times I wore each piece of clothing that entered the Pantheon (oh, you don’t know what the Pantheon is? It is what I call my wardrobe. Pantheon of Legends. Please don’t judge me for getting my kicks where I can.)

I can consequently tell you what the CPW (cost per wear) is for those items. I can tell you that it is worth it to buy the expensive socks, but that a thrift store dress is definitely more satisfying than a full-price one. Satisfying being measured in having a lower CPW. (Did I not tell you that I’m a geek?)

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Matthew 6:21

The Pantheon is not the only place in which I have a sunken treasure, but it is the one for which I have the most careful records.

Somewhere around February of 2020 I had made it my goal to get my CPW below 1€ for each of the items in the Pantheon. For many items this was easy (especially the thrift store finds). For others, not so much. Even if a snazzy dress only costs 10€, wearing said snazzy dress ten times can be challenging!

Finally, I had to shift my focus to having the global average CPW below 1€. (As of December 31, I still have found only 2 occasions to wear that snazzy dress.)

The truth remains: There is a genuine treasure trove in my closet. That’s where my treasure is. It’s therefore, according to that famous Bible verse (Matthew 6:21, in case you care to look it up) where my heart is too.

So here is the question I am faced with today: Is my closet really where I want my heart to be?