As with most important things, fashion starts at home: in your closet.
A well-organized closet, filled with clothing that both fits and flatters, is the key to feeling and looking put together. However, an overstuffed closet filled with variously sized clothing from several decades is the fashion equivalent of a garage sale.
Sure, there may be some nice items, but you won’t find them unless you dig through all the junk first. Ironically, cleaning out your closet is the easiest and most economical way to increase your wardrobe.
In your closet, less really is more. An organized closet is the foundation for effortless fashion choices. However, judging by the volume of books written on the subject, closet organization may seem anything but effortless. Not true. Cleaning out your closet can be accomplished with the same formula used to approach most obstacles in life. Invite a girlfriend or two, break out the chocolate, turn up the music and have a closet-cleaning party.
Invite girlfriends whose judgment you trust, but also who can be brutally honest about your wardrobe and still be your friend. Under no circumstances should you include your husband/boyfriend/partner. Every relationship needs boundaries and going into the closet with your man is either relationship or fashion suicide. What man is going to tell you that, even if you could fit into that dress again, it’s too young for you and ugly anyway? That would be the insensitive jerk with whom you no longer speak.
Your girlfriends might even want some of your nicer pieces that no longer work for you. (Another reason to exclude your man; he shouldn’t want your old clothes.) Giving your old clothes to someone who will enjoy them can ease the pain of remembering how much you paid. However, unless it’s vintage couture, your investment should not be a consideration in keeping a garment. Everyone makes mistakes, and sometimes they are expensive. However, you do not need to compound your mistakes by keeping them hanging around in your closet. Remember, these are articles of clothing, not family members. You are not obligated to keep the old, ugly or weird clothes.
Start slowly by pulling out your garments one at a time. Have your girlfriends give you a yes, no or maybe. Either return them to the closet or put them in the donation or undecided pile. If you have a question about something, try it on. I promise, as the closet clears, you will find items that you forgot you even owned. Anything you have not worn in the past year should probably go straight to the donation pile.
Like all rules, there are a few exceptions to the one-year-rule. If you have not worn a favorite garment because your weight has been fluctuating, give it two years. But, realistically, after two years you are more likely to wear something new, anyway. If you have a classic piece that you love, keep it. If you have clothing with sentimental value, keep it, just not in your closet. If you have formal wear that you like, keep it. Get rid of anything with shoulder pads or pants with pleats or tapered legs; trust me on this one. Get rid of T-shirts that are more than two years old. Most cotton has shrunk in length and started to look ratty after a few seasons of washing.
Do not panic at the size of your pile on the floor. Better on the floor than taking up space in your closet, crowding out the clothes that you actually wear. The clothes that you do not wear can help someone else. Consider donating your retired professional clothes to a back-to-work clothing bank. Donate them to a charity shop. Give them to someone who could wear them or has friends or relatives who might need clothes. Sell your better pieces at a consignment shop. Be trendy and recycle; old T-shirts make great cleaning rags. You could even make a quilt, if you wanted to be dramatic about it.
Finding something to wear should not be a frustrating experience. Life is complicated enough without reliving your fluctuations in weight, lapses in taste and buyer’s remorse each time you open your closet. Going into your closet should be like stepping into your private department store: just your favorite styles, in your size.
Like the best fashion, getting dressed should seem effortless and result in you looking fabulous.
Linda Soloniuk owns The Shoe Goddess Boutique in Redding. Learn more about The Shoe Goddess Boutique by going to http://www.shoegoddess.com/blog/index.html.
