"I just want to be an adult!": The Closet.
For the past year, I’ve been in a real job; mostly I've been adjusting to living on my own and attempting to save. I’m lucky- scratch that, really lucky- to be in a position that allows me to save or put money towards long term investments; most recently, I had LASIK done, which I probably wouldn’t have been able to afford if paying a high rent and utilities and I just finished fully saving for my 12 year-long dream trip to New Zealand, enough that I can have lots of bells and whistles.
I’m trying mighty hard to cut down on the size of my closet because 1> I’m a product of Forever 21 (bastards) and 2> I have a problem where I can’t turn down a good deal if I see myself wearing something once or twice (thanks Mom, who taught me the phrase, “They’re practically giving it away!”). This year alone, I’ve had three closet purges (including this recent one), all about the size below.
I KNOW. IT’S HORRIFYING. THREE OF THOSE. The first two were definitely more wild in color- I've been trying to stick to neutral colors, but five off white shirts still isn't practical, is it? I have more clothes at my parents' house. I don’t know why. I don't live there anymore.
I’m working on making my closet more practical and less trendy- less numbers, more use. My job as a resident director at a small university allows me to dress anywhere from really comfortable to really professionally- I like to be somewhere in the middle and sometimes it really depends on the weather (I prefer not to wear jeans, but winter chills call for them). I only finished my master's (straight out of undergrad) about a year and a half ago, so my residents can range from two to six years younger than me. Most of the time they are surprised to see my degrees on my wall and they think I am a college student with them, so I really count on clothing to make sure they know to take me seriously when they walk into my office or if I inspect their rooms.
A few days ago, I came across this article at XOJane, which tested this idea of a capsule closet: 33 items of clothing, split into year-round clothing and seasonal clothing that can be swapped out for spring/summer and fall/winter. (Specifically, the writer said that she used to shop for short, sparkly things that she might wear "one day"- this is me! I had to do it!) I found it intriguing for its financial ideas: limit your closet, accentuate what you have, and wear the heck out of "good" items you've been saving for a nice day at work. (Why am I not wearing that great work dress I have? Because tomorrow might be a better day for it. Or next week. I'll wear this crappy one.) Only buy clothing if you plan on replacing something you have. You can read more of it through the links.
What made sense to me in the articles was how they stressed the word love. Only keep items you love. It gave me the mentality to seriously assess my closet and think about the items I wore often.
Well, I like challenges so I started the purge the day after I read the article. In the past few weeks, I've done some serious damage control and have about 40 pieces of clothing (not including shoes and accessories as Project333 does). I'm going to try and cut down to 35 by July. Stay tuned for the journey!