Do you ever stand in front of your closet, which, if like mine, is full of clothes, and bemoan the fact that you have “nothing to wear”?
How can that be?
Well, it may mean some of our clothes are all wrong for us, no longer work for us. Like me, perhaps you have accumulated clothing you thought you needed, or because it was on sale, or because it was the latest fashion trend, or because it looked great on someone else. We keep outfits that are no longer our size (because we think we can be that size again), are not in a color that compliments our skin tone, are of a style that doesn’t suit our body type, or have been in the closet for many, many years, because we think we may “need” them someday.
Do you LOVE all your clothes? If you do, never having anything to wear is not your problem, because you feel good in every single piece of clothing in your wardrobe. Hooray for you.
If you don’t, it’s time to make a change.
In Minnesota where we have distinct seasons (usually 4 of them, but sometimes we get robbed of a nice fall or spring), changing out our wardrobe is a logical thing to do as we move into the next season. Right now, it is time to trade our heavy sweaters, boots, and winter garb for brighter, lighter spring and summer clothes and shoes.
So, too, now is a great time to rid our closets and dresser drawers of those clothing items we hate, no longer wear, or no longer fit into. Think how great it would be if everything in our closets made us feel comfortable and, dare I say it, beautiful? Never again would we have to say “I have nothing to wear!”
This is not a time to feel guilty about getting rid of the outfit we paid good money for and have only worn once. If we don’t LOVE it, we need to get rid of it. Donate it, consign it, so that someone else for whom it may be better suited, can love it. Make room for shirts, pants, dresses, skirts that we really like, that fit well, and suit our lifestyle.
There are a couple of ways to go about scrutinizing our wardrobes and making changes.
- Peruse the entire closet or dresser drawers all at once, tossing:
- anything not worn for a long time
- anything that no longer fits
- anything that is “out of style” (how about the dress pants I’ve had since 1990?)
- anything that we don’t LOVE
- Using that same criteria for discarding, consider items in categories one at a time – pull out all the sweaters and go through them; then pull out all the tee-shirts and go through them; then consider all the pants, etc. You get the idea. This is an approach touted by Marie Kondo in her book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. I actually have done this exercise and was amazed at all the tee-shirts, for example, that I owned and didn’t wear. I now have only tee-shirts in the drawer that I actually like and wear.
As we do this purging process, it’s helpful to have a couple of boxes or bags handy for sorting the cast offs – one for donate or consign-worthy items; one for items that should only end up in the garbage can. (Or, if you are really ambitious, gather things to add to a garage sale and make some money that way. The garage sale being more work than I am willing to do!)
By the way, we can also attack our fashion accessories in this way – jewelry, scarves, handbags, etc. If we don’t love an item – we need to get rid of it! Make room for pieces that make us feel good.
A bonus to this process – after getting rid of all the unsuitable, unlovable clutter, we have room to purchase a couple of new pieces that we can enjoy wearing or using.
You can see this post is aimed at women. Men, however, could benefit from this purging process also. I’m thinking about RC’s many ties and how he never wears a tie anymore. We could donate several and keep just one or two in case he needs to wear one to a funeral or wedding or somesuch…removing some of the clutter in his closet!
Happy purging – let me know how it goes for you. When you are done, I hope you never have another day that you don’t feel wonderful in what you are wearing.
