I have a dear friend, who finally two days ago, let me clean out her closet with her. She is going through a divorce, so I'm thinking that this might have spear-headed her need for some feng shui clearing of clutter and "crap", specifically in her closet. Wow, what an experience. There is nothing like letting someone into your closet to really make a girl vulnerable. I thought I was going to have to tranquilize her (or at least sedate her with several glasses of wine). We had a field day, approx. three big trash bags full later (one for donation, one for goodwill and one for her mom) we were done. I made her swear to stay away from Liz Claiborne, Chadwicks, and Karen Kane. Part of her problem was that most of what was hanging in her closet was bought on her personal self-conception as a top heavy, very big busted woman--she went with boxy tops that draped her bustline rather than hugged it and her motto was "hide". She then proceeded to loose a bunch of weight and dropped two cups sizes. She has a totally different body than she did 6 months ago, but she still sees herself in the same way and can't really conceive of the fact that those same things no longer look good (to be honest I'm not sure they ever did though--way to matronly). I made her try on a huge stack of things that while they might have been o.k. from a style perspective, needed the boot if they didn't fit. It was hard for her to part with certain pieces despite the fact that they were bought way too big (probably too big for her even when she was bigger). She wrestled a St. John knit jacket back from my clutches and I'm pretty sure she snuck a couple out of the bags to be donated when I wasn't looking. But overall she did o.k. and felt great after the purge.
It is so important to regularly go through your closet with a brutal and objective eye (a good time to pull in a best friend for some "truth" time). Make a pile of things that don't fit, don't look good, or were fashion "oops I can't believe I bought that" pieces. After you finish, ask yourself if you have worn ANY of those pieces in the last year....if the answer is yes to anything, take a closer look. If the answer is no, dump it. I'm so excited to go replenish her wardrobe with her (our first stop will be Melange of course)!! There is nothing better than being able to replace things you don't like with things you DO like....I know she'll feel like a brand new woman and that is just the boost she needs!! Signed, ME {lv}
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