I feel like my style isn’t really me. When I was younger it was always about fitting in with me and wanting the “coolest”, but now looking at it all the money I spent&other’s spent on the clothes makes me mad and frustrated I’m trying to focus on the non-material things in life. I want to accomplish this by DEC. 17th,2012 before the new year starts and then I can truely focus on the real me (: 7 months ago

The amount of clothes and accessories I have is ridiculous! I have taken over the entire master bedroom fitted wardrobes (boyfriend is relegated to wardrobe in the guestroom!), all the shoe racks in the house, have an extra chest of drawers full of tops etc, boxes for extras (eg gloves, hats, swimming costumes), a large wicker laundry basket filled with scarves (yes, just scarves!!), and a large hamper the width of our double bed filled with handbags. Writing all this down now, it seems really, REALLY ridiculous.

The thing is, with that amount of space taken with clothing, you’d think I love clothes – but I don’t, not really. I don’t enjoy clothes because pretty much 90% of what I own I don’t feel good in, and I only have because it was cheap/on sales/kind of fitted/used to fit me some years ago etcetc. I only wear about 10% of it most of the time, because I paid more for it and it fits far better.

I have had sales and charity drops offs, but still I have WAY too much stuff. I have a habit of picking up an item I haven’t worn in 3 years and keeping just incase I might wear it one day. I don’t really have a sentimental attachment to any of it, but somewhere inside it upsets me to think of how much money I have wasted on all this stuff (even though a lot was cheap, it really adds up) and feel that if I keep it, I might somehow claw some value back.

So, this time I need to be ruthless! Having had a look around some sites on de-cluttering clothes, my plan is this:

Separate my clothes/accessories into four piles:
A. Clothes/accessories that haven’t been worn in over a year (no making excuses!)
B. Clothes/accessories with the price tag still on (obvious really!)
C. Clothes that have never fitted right / no longer fit (and no matter how much I wish, doubt they ever will again!)
D. Clothes/accessories that are tatty/ripped etc
E. Clothes/accessories that I occassionally wear
F. Clothes/accessories that I wear at least once every two weeks

Piles A, B, and C I will immediately get rid of, and will try to stop myself making excuses for them!
Pile D – if they are an item I love, then take it be repaired. If not, the same fate as the first 3 piles.
Pile E – If they make me feel good, then keep. If I only wear occassionally because there’s nothing else, get rid!
Pile F – Keep.

I’m hoping to rebuild back up my wardrobe, but on a much smaller scale with more quality pieces. I’m hoping this will help how I feel looking in the mirror too – rather than trying on loads of unflattering outfits that make me feel unhappy about myself, I will have only items I truly feel comfortable in. I’m hoping to bear this in mind when shopping in the future, not just trying to ‘make do’ with something.

If anyone else has a similar goal or have any advice, would love to hear your comments :) 2 years ago