I recently had yet another clear out of clothes i never wore, and thought i have to either stop shopping or start actually wearing the clothes i buy.. like most of the female population i had a wardrobe bulging full of clothes but never had anything to wear on a saturday night! I asked around some stylish friends before sorting my clothes and some things i found useful:

Going through my clothes and sorting them into outfits: i.e, matching skirts with tops, finding tights to go with them, which boots go with those jeans etc, does it need a necklace, etc. If i didn’t have a co-ordinating item, i would decide whether to get rid of it or to make a project to find the bits needed to complete the look.
Magazines and websites helped enormously for inspiration.

Once i had an outfit i hung it in my wardrobe and made a mental note of where i would realistically wear it next. This way, i was left with a rack of ready to wear outfits that i knew went together and looked good. I don’t have a camera but found taking pictures of the outfits on mac photo-booth helped for to see , objectively and without emotions, the clothes, how they went together, and how they hang on my body. It also showed me how i look from behind and picked up postural quirks; i.e, slouching and fidgeting with hands.

So far this system has worked really well, there are still days when i just grab a pair of leggings and a fleece and go out with wet hair, but on the days it matters, I am a lot calmer and feel more confident about the way i look. The only draw back is that i only have so many combinations so often wear the same outfit more than once, but who cares!? Nobody actually noticed anyway. I would rather be seen wearing the same thing over and over again, if i liked it and looked good, than wear something new every time but look and feel rubbish!

I liked the points you touched upon, asking; why do we feel compelled to buy these clothes that we don’t need, and don’t always suit us? I have recently moved to london and am definitely feeling the pressure of having to look “trendy”: I even have have friends who won’t wear the same outfits more than once! Madness.

Why do we do this to ourselves!?! I can definitely relate to the posters who feel that they lack confidence to express their true style or creative side through their clothes. I believe there are a few reasons for this:

Personally, I absolutely have to fight against the mentality of saving things “for best” I.E, that one special party / date / interview etc. Of course that special time either never comes, or when it does, the clothes are dated or i don’t feel comfortable wearing it, because it feels so far removed from what i am used to wearing, and don’t want it to be a big “ta-da! she’s had a make-over!” center of attention thing.

I think another aspect is, if we have clothes in wardrobe, make up in our bag etc that we never wear (in public) that we do not have the courage to fulfil our own personal potential.

Also, If our personal style reflects our true selves, and people don’t like our style, does that mean they don’t like our personality?! After all, rightly or wrongly, we all judge people by appearances. I know because of my self-consciousness, i would be mortified for people to think or say “what are you wearing”?

I would love to hear other’s views on this topic, it sounds like a universal issue, particularly with girls. Come on sisters! Lets encourage and take inspiration from each others expression of style!

M

AWESOME! you are so welcome!

i am so glad to hear that something i wrote helped someone!

and anouk, great tip! thanks for suggesting it.

The experience was great fun!! I tried to follow your rules as good as I could. Though I could have come up with some of the tips myself, it was good to have someone telling me I need cheery music and a glass of water. It made things feel more like a nice afternoon on my own (quality me-time) than like cleaning up.

And a nice afternoon it was. I tried on EVERYTHING in my wardrobe, except for my wintery winterstuff (Ill surely dive into that later, though). I learned quite a bit about myself, my bodytype and the colors that suit me! For example, I took a very critical look at what skirt length suits me best, what neckline goes best with my body type, what proportions look best on me. It was good to see a lot of things in my closet really work. It was even better to throw those things out that didnt. What a relief!

I ended up with some very nice colorcoordinated piles of shirts that are a delight to look at compared to the mess my stuff looked like before. I also used your tips about hangers. I have made quite a few bags to donate and have put some other items up on the internet for sale.

Its now time to read your third installment thouroughly and to make a list of things I want to buy in the near future. As I was composing outfits, it occurred to me I need to buy more high quality basics to put the special things in my wardrobe together.

Some extra tips Id like to share for future decluttering:
- It was very useful to prepare myself beforehand by putting on makeup and doing my hair. I would include wearing some underwear you like to see yourself in, too. Besides, it helped me to keep some good basics aside to combine tops or pants I wasn’t too sure about with as to help make my silhouette look right.

That’s all for now. Thanks for your tips: you can see that someone´s been using them!

http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y16/o0StellaBella0o/?action=view&current=CIMG0231.jpg

^there’s the link if you want to see

I love your idea of only keeping a certain number of hangers in the closet! I loved all 3 of your posts on cleaning out your closet Thanks for everything!

THANKS! (and thanks for letting us post so much about this) I am really interested in reading your upcoming post about this…