According to Leah: I finally accomplished a small wardrobe!

First, I can't believe I'm blogging. It's been 19 months to be exact. WHAT?

Second, I spent a good 6 hours of my day off to embrace an intriguing idea that I've been mulling over since my friend Joann posted this about seven months ago:

http://www.awhimsiclelife.com/2015/04/how-to-create-a-small-wardrobe.html

She got the idea from a woman in Dallas who originally posted about getting rid of her wardrobe. The idea comes from the concept that most people tend towards the same items of clothing that they feel best in, look best in, and enjoy to wear the most. The rest of our closet is made up of:

I wore it once to that one event and I loved the event
I spent a lot of money on it so I can't get rid of it
I have had it forever!!! (even with its holes and fading colors)
I used to fit into or I know I can fit into it again

I could not get myself to really do this so I just slowly started parting with pieces one by one. It helped but still wasn't achieving my goal..,until Wednesday.

Based on Joann's blog, I followed (loosely) the following guidelines:

15 tops

9 bottoms (skirts, pants, jeans)

9 shoes

2 dresses

2 jackets

I realized quickly that some of these guidelines had to be adjusted because:

1. I was never going to narrow down my footwear to nine pairs. I have easily three times that many and wear them all!!! So I figured I might be able to redistribute those 9 items into other categories (breaking the rules??)

2. I am an administrator and have to dress up for work everyday. Having only two jackets and two dresses wasn't going to work because I actually rotate through more than that. So again, I allowed a couple more in each category from the shoes.

STEP 1: Empty your entire closet

STEP 2:Create piles

LOVE IT- I wear it all the time because it looks great and makes me feel great.

HMMMM- it's okay, maybe a little damaged, faded, I wear it sometimes, or I just can't decide.

NO!- Why do I even have this? It doesn't fit (too big, way too small), it's ripped, it's ugly, frump-city!

SEASONAL- I didn't need this right now because I wear sleeveless blouses in the winter.

Left: NO! Middle: Hmmm, Right: yes!

STEP 3: Lay out categories from the LOVE IT pile (I wanted to see how many items went in each)

So far: 8 pants/skirts; 3 dresses (2 at the dry cleaner); 13 shirts; 5 jackets (2 at the dry cleaner)

STEP 4: Go through the maybe HMMM pile. I'll admit that this pile took me forever. It was so much more difficult than I thought. I knew I still had 2 shirts and 1 bottom. Plus, I had the nine shoes that I permitted myself to distribute to other categories.

left: shirts, middle: bottoms, right: one last dress

Although I just recently bought the dress, it's actually quite difficult to wear; it rides up, it requires leggings, and it reminds me of Minnie Mouse now that I wore it for Halloween so buh-bye. The three bottoms were the hardest because I only had room for one item. I ended up choosing the khaki pants.

STEP 5: bag it up!!! We were fortunate that a friend of ours took the bags to a homeless shelter.

Reflections:
1. I finally said goodbye to my four, floor length strapless ball gowns. I will never shorten and wear them again. EVER!
2. I had some sad, difficult moments with a few items that I attach serious emotional importance to.

My NJHS adviser shirt- goodbye

I wore this to all the court cases for Kenzie and had it on the day we got her back so it represents something very special. BUT it requires too many under garments to look good- goodbye