overhaul my wardrobe

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Well I did it. After I wrote my exam on Saturday morning, I took myself straight to Winners to spend my gift card on clothes. And spend I did! I bought four pairs of capris, two belts, and two tops. Then I took all of those items across the plaza parking lot to Reitman’s where I knew I would find retail staff to give me advice about what to wear and how to wear it.

The first lady to ask me if I needed any help was wonderful – she could see I am fashion-challenged so she took each one of my new capris out of the Winners bag one at a time, and took me around the store suggesting possible matches in style and colour. I could have hugged her!

Before long, I had three more tops, a snazzy pair of bejewelled Jesus sandals, three hair bands, a necklace, and a chunky wooden bracelet. Here’s what I plan to wear to the bursary award thing tomorrow:

Everything I bought is casual enough for me to feel comfortable in it (I usually get seriously squeamish if I feel ‘dressed up’), and I feel a bit more up to date with these clothes. But the best part is that they FIT, so I’m happy with my purchases.

M gave me a gift card many months back, and I am finally going to spend it. Tomorrow, after my exam. I need summer clothes in a big way – I’d like a couple of comfortable skorts for work, if I can find them, and tops to match.

I wish I could be excited about it. I’m happy to have the time and money, and I will be relieved when I have a couple of decent hot-weather outfits to wear, but I feel huge and ugly right now, so time in front of the mirror doesn’t thrill me. And I’m so tired of buying clothes I momentarily think look good, only to feel like a giant LOSER when I wear them for real. I wish shopping and dressing were more pleasurable activities. I don’t get how almost every single woman I know LOVES shopping, always looks smashing, and manages to keep up with the latest fashions. For me, it’s just another source of stress and self-doubt.

Ah well, better to look like a loser in new, weather-appropriate clothes than an overdressed, out of style loser :o)

I finally started. It only took me two years, haha. I didn’t even spend that much, but I bought a bunch of stuff in colors that I don’t normally choose, and I’m so excited. Now, if only the weather would get warmer.

Getting dressed for work this morning I pulled on the brand new chocolate brown casual slacks I bought, and I was SWIMMING in them! I only bought them a week ago yesterday, and they fit just right then – I even wore them to work last week!! This can’t be. HOW could it be??

Probably an eddy in the space-time continuum. I’ll try them on again later today…

::wanders away scratching head and muttering to self::

Marty & I met for a quick shopping excursion this aft because we both had gift certificates to spend at the same place. Neither of us really enjoy the shopping experience, so we didn’t dawdle, but I managed to come out with THREE pairs of pants, a pair of shorts, a blouse, and a light, spring 3/4-sleeve cotton knit sweater. I’m pretty happy… _{tee hee hee}

I think so!

It’s not quite as streamlined as what I had in mind when I started out, but I kept remembering why I love all my clothes. I still got rid of a bunch of stuff I like ~ to the tune of giving hundreds of dollars worth of clothing to charity thrift stores.

Everything fits where I need it to go now, and I even have room in my closet for the Christmas presents. I guess I need another shoe holder, though. The stupid one from IKEA won’t support its own weight. grrrrr.

A couple days ago, I finished sorting every item of clothing I own into three piles: ‘Keep’, ‘give away’, or ‘take to consignment store’. All three piles are pretty major, but the give away pile is about as big as the others combined.

Now I just have to put all my stuff away, but I want to rearrange the closet first so things will be easier to get to. No more step stool to get a tshirt off the top shelf!

I barely remember doing this, but when I quit working in the admistrative areas of the school, I gathered up all my pantyhose and stuffed them in a bag to be cleaned. In the time since then, on occasions when I needed pantyhose, I just bought some more. Well, I just found the bag. I went through the entire thing and discarded any that even had so much as a snag, and still ended up with over a dozen pair of perfectly good (albeit dusty) pantyhose. So now they have been washed and are in a drawer I emptied just for them.

Oh yeah! I emptied a drawer today, too! Yay!

T-shirts. Bunches and bunches. Some of them are vacation souvenirs. I can make a quilt with most of those. I do wear some of them regularly. A few are saved as “grubbies” and I guess I need to keep them for painting days, or mechanic days, etc. The ones I really like will need a new place. The top shelf of my closet is not accessible enough.

Pants. For now I am only getting rid of pants that are too short or ratty looking. Once I’m in a smaller size, the pants I have now won’t fit anyway, so it won’t be an issue to get rid of them then.

Gym clothes. If I had my gym clothes organized, I would probably go more often because I would know right where everything is. Plus, I just don’t need most of what I have.

Sleepwear. I really only need enough for when I am not sleeping at home, and then I usually sleep in lightweight sweats and whatever tshirt I wore that day. I do own several sets of pajamas and some lingerie that need a good going through.

Swimwear. Too many swimsuits. Too many sizes. I just bought 2 more this past summer. I’ll start there and get rid of most everything else.

Nostalgia for the quilt. I want to make a quilt out of my kids favorite character tshirts from when they were little. I saved them for just this purpose. Well, they’re big now so it’s time to get started. There’s a lot saved and I just need to lay it all out and put it together.

Shoes. Oh my GOSH! This is one of the hardest things to weed through. They are my SHOOO-OOO-OOO-OOOES. Whine.

Socks. Ugh. A million socks to sort through. I don’t know if it’s even worth the bother. Perhaps it would be better to bin the whole lot and start anew. Seems really wasteful, though.

I already did the underwear drawer about a month before I decided to make this a separate goal, so that’s done.

Extraneous items. I discovered somewhere along this process that one of the things stopping me from just DOING it was the fear that I might miss something and then it won’t be all done.

What?! Who the heck cares if a few things are left behind. Oh brother! Talk about dumb excuses. Anyway, I’m over it now. :)