organizing vs de-cluttering and other revelations

 This is the current state of my closet...except it's much worst in real life because there are parts you can't see...boxes + boxes...and more piles of clothes. Oh my! Let me back up a bit to how I got here. Even up to a few months ago I thought I needed to organize my stuff...in other words...keep all of my junk but have it more organized. This translates into buying more containers to store more of my stuff = bad idea!! One morning I walked into my closet and realized that I had absolutely nothing to wear. How could that be when I had a closet full of clothing???  So I started reading up on minimalism, de-cluttering + simplifying and came across the concept of capsule wardrobes. Okay...I'm 45 years old and had never even heard of this brilliant concept before so I went from article to article...Pinterest board to board... pretty much obsessed + inspired all at once!!  Here's some of what I discovered about myself. I'm that person that has tons of clothing but nothing to wear because...I have never really given my wardrobe much thought...ever!!! Something's cute??? Okay...well then let me buy it then! Never mind that I will never ever wear it or the color makes me look like a seasick alligator. Oh!! Something's on sale??? Well then...of course I should get it! And what about those clothes that don't fit me right now...well of course I'm going to lose 10 lbs (um...one day) . So my closet is full of clothing I am never going to wear again, clothing I have never worn, stuff that doesn't fit me or my lifestyle...I have an entire section of my closet that would be very practical if I were...say Betsy Johnson but really doesn't work for mommy and me classes:) And of course...clothing I will wear if I should ever have tea with Oprah. I mean...you just never know, right???  I read a statistic somewhere that said  most people wear 20% of their clothing 80% of the time and I realized...hey!! that's me!! 

 So... for the past week I have been purging my closet. My goal is to get rid of 70% (or more) of my clothing...I'm not there yet but I am on a roll. I mean seriously...if I haven't worn it in the past 6 months...out it goes!! And it's not just clothes either...jewellery, scarves, accessories, shoes etc....Most of my stuff is getting donated with a few boxes heading to the consignment store. And it feels good. No...great!!! One of the deeper revelations I have had is that I am holding onto so much of my past and it's simply unnecessary. Once I acknowledged that I was holding onto certain pieces of clothing because they represented parts of my past, my youth, fantasies of what I wanted my life to be etc etc....it became so easy to say goodbye and get rid of them!!!It's absolutely freeing to get rid of junk that serve no purpose in my life right now.
So....getting back to the concept of a capsule wardrobe. It's the idea of being very intentional about creating your wardrobe based on a minimal amount of pieces (sometimes as few as 30-40!!). The trick is to pick out a color for your neutral base (mine is gray because I can go the full gamut from the lightest to charcoal black) and then to pick a couple of colors that are the accents. A few rules are...only buy stuff you absolutely love, choose quality over quantity, if you can't wear a piece of clothing 5-6 different ways don't buy it...and of course, stick with your color palette. So ideally...if you have a capsule wardrobe build on these principles...you should be able to go into your closet blindfolded and get dressed and look perfectly put together...because everything matches!!!! Brilliant!!!And then...I discovered Polyvore!! Who knew???

 Now all of this may seem a little shallow + superfluous at first glance...but when I looked at things a little deeper I realized absolutely not!!. When I am wearing clothing that make me feel like a million bucks (as opposed to looking like I stumbled out of bed + got dressed in the dark) I feel more happy and confident. When getting dressed takes up a minimal amount of mental energy and time...I have that much more time to spend on the truly important people and things in life...Tim, Tara, painting, photography, reading, playing, working out etc. And at the end of the day...that's what really matters isn't it??? Revelations all around.