What's goin' on?

Well, the beginning of November came and went and I didn't do my usual posts on what I bought or my outfits of the month. I actually completely forgot, as I was so busy with my new job (yay!) that it slipped my mind. I've also been thinking a lot about it and I'm not sure that I'm going to continue with the blog the way it is going right now. I feel like there is something different I can do to make it truly worthwhile for me, where now it just feels like going through the motions.

I've still been culling my wardrobe regularly and plan to do a count sometime before years end, hopefully.

I've been thinking about what I want this blog to be in the next year, and there are a few things I want to focus on:

1. Doing less online shopping and taking a few 'shopping field trips' throughout the year where I focus on fabric & quality garments
2. Developing my sense of style
3. Continuing to minimize my wardrobe

I'm looking forward to what the future will bring!

Decluttering & Minimizing

One of the best things I did in July was take a large chunk of cardigans, dresses and tops out of my wardrobe, and stick them into the back of my front hall closet where I couldn't see them. It has been weeks and aside from grabbing one top back out, I haven't thought about the stuff at all.

I think later this year some of the cardigans may come back into play, but honestly I'm not very happy with them and even through the past few winters I haven't worn them, but have kept finding excuses to be able to keep them hanging in my closet. Maybe the best course of action is to get rid of them and find one cardigan/sweater to replace them all.

I also went through my basic t-shirts and separated the 'fashion' shirts; any t-shirt that I will wear on a day to day basis and enjoy wearing, from 'work' shirts; any shirt that only gets worn if I may be getting dirty that day, or if I just need something to throw on without worrying how I look (I have a lot of work gigs where I need shirts like this). Now, my main shirts drawer has been cut in half, and my 'work' shirts are on a back shelf in my closet where I can specifically go when I need one. I'm loving the less 'cluttered' feel, and not having to search through a bunch of 'meh' shirts I would never wear on my day off to find my cute t's.

A few months ago in April I did my first closet inventory and came up at a whopping 354 items (that's not including accessories)! Since then I've bought some new things, and I've tossed a few things; and I'm not totally sure if my count was completely accurate the first time since I have clothing items floating around the house in different places. I've set my mind to it that I need to downsize. I figured removing 20% of my wardrobe would be a good start; but I did the math and that's 71 items! What I would need to do first is a completely new closet inventory and count every last thing before I begin purging. Here's hoping for success!

Halfway Point

It has been 6 months since I began my journey of moving away from fast fashion, curating my closet and enjoying the clothing that I have, so I thought it would be a good time to post a bit of a reflection on how it's gone so far.

I feel like I've finally hit on a bit of a turning point; the past few months I have been saying NO to clothes and I haven't been impulse shopping like I used to. When I've gone into H&M I've picked things up and put them away after really considering them- I think about how I'm going to feel adding them into my already full closet, and it doesn't make me feel good. I have been passing over garments that were almost what I wanted, but not quite. Old me would have bought them anyway and then bought the actual perfect item later on, had it come up. I feel that I must have a fear of missing out in terms of clothing- I'm afraid of letting that just okay item get away in case I never find the really amazing piece that I want. And I'm becoming okay with that- if it isn't perfect, why add it to my wardrobe?

When I look at my clothes I'm slowly seeing a cohesive LOOK emerge; I'm itching to go through and get rid of pieces that don't fit the image I want to project. In keeping with this I plan to go through my wardrobe and pull out the things that don't fit with 'THAT GIRL' I want to be- I'm considering doing the 333 challenge, but for now I just want to really focus on those pieces of clothing that scream "ME", and see where that takes me. Basically I will be re-doing Step 2 of A Pair and a Spare's post "Wardrobe Rehab"; 'Define Your Style' which I did in an earlier post about, using photos from Pinterest as examples.

I also plan on going through all of my purchases for the first half of the year (as a few other bloggers have done) and rating them based on how many wears they have gotten and if they were a good purchase. I haven't kept track of specific wears, but I have a general idea about how much I've worn something and how into it I've been.

I am excited to see how the rest of the year goes!

Summer, summer, summertime

Summer is fast approaching and I have been thinking about what I have, and what holes need to be filled in my summer wardrobe.

TOPS

What I Have: Lots of graphic tees. A bunch of tank tops, both fitted and flowy. I've got a few good cardigans.

What I Want: I would like a few more casual blouses; one of these will be the giant Hawaiian shirt I plan on DIY-ing into a cute summer top. I would also like a loose/casual button down shirt in linen or cotton, and anything with stripes! I've also been looking for a nice light open-knit sweater or cardigan over the past few years and haven't found anything I've liked. I'll keep searching.

BOTTOMS

What I Have: I have plenty of skirts that I really need to make a priority of wearing this summer. I have one great pair of pink shorts that I love that I bought at Joe Fresh last year, and I have a pair of capri's from yeeeaaars ago.

What I Want: I mentioned in a previous post that I wanted to hem my black & white leopard print shorts, that is a project I need to get going on. I would also like to get another pair of capri's as I only have one right now. I would also like to find a pair of black & white printed shorts to add a bit of visual interest to a simple tanktop/shorts outfit combo. After talking about my love of mixing up tough/chic looks in a prior blog post, I would love to find a cute eyelet or lace skirt to mix into my wardrobe. I will probably search thrift stores and the mall for this one.

DRESSES

What I Have: I have a handful for Forever 21 dresses which are okay, but they are really too short for me- I plan on phasing most of them out of my wardrobe in the future.

What I Want: I don't feel like I have any amazing workhorse dresses in my wardrobe- I mainly feel kind of meh about them. I would like a couple more summery dresses in a fit n' flare style that show my shape- I find that dresses like these are typically very flattering on me, which is frustrating since I am constantly drawn to oversize tent/smock dresses! Related to my wanting to find a cute skirt, I would love to find a pretty lace/eyelet/crochet summer dress to wear with a moto jacket.

OUTERWEAR

What I have: I have plenty of denim jackets, a rain jacket, and moto jackets so I really don't need anything else!

ACCESSORIES

What I Have: I have at least four or five pairs of ballet flats so I won't need to buy any more this year.

What I Want: I really need another pair of casual flat sandals- the one pair I have right now actually broke last summer. I managed to superglue them back together, but I'm not totally certain they will stay that way for long!

 My Priorities are:

• a pair of sandals
• a sweet/chic skirt or dress
• a few thrifted summer dresses
• my summer DIY projects

Progress

Tossed!

I had a bit of extra time over the past few days and decided to go through some of my skirts and belts- it really only took 15 or 20 minutes to blast through them all and decide whether to KEEP or TOSS.

Starting # of Pencil Skirts: 8

Keep: 4

Toss: 4

Starting # of Full/Circle Skirts: 4

Keep: 3

Toss: 1

I had 4 black pencil skirts and got rid of three, because I really didn't need 4 almost identical looking skirts. During this I also found one pencil skirt and one full skirt in need of hemming/mending!

Starting # of Belts: 34

Keep: 22

Toss: 13

13 isn't a huge amount to toss but I'm really happy about it! The belts I chose to toss ranged from too big/too small, to ones that I just don't like anymore. I also matched one of the TOSS belts to some old shorts and realized they are now 2 sizes to big for me... so those are getting TOSSED too!

I have to mention that before I did my wardrobe inventory a few weeks ago I actually had an even larger wardrobe, judging from the (very) big pile of clothes in my dining room that are going to be sent to the thrift store. I actually am very good about going through my stuff and getting rid of things, as I have done many times over the past few years- but evidently I am very bad at bringing new things in. It is pretty sad to see a pile of wasted money and fabric. But I am getting better at dialing down my impulses and really thinking about my style and what works for me. I'm looking forward to some more KEEP & TOSS times in the future!

Closet Inventory part 1

Let me preface this by saying; I have a lot of stuff. More than I originally thought- as I was counting and the numbers started adding up I was pretty shocked, but not really surprised. I decided to focus on my clothing and leave the accessories for later. So lets get down to it.

I created categories based on what I had in my closet to make it easier to divide things up.

OUTERWEAR	#
Leather/PU Jackets	4
Suede/Faux Suede Jackets	2
Winter Jackets	2
Blazers	4
Denim Jackets	5
Other	4
TOTAL #:	21
TOPS
Graphic & Print T-Shirts (Short Sleeve)	48
Graphic & Print T-Shirts (Long or 3/4 Sleeve)	2
Plain Shirts (Short Sleeve)	27
Plain Shirts (Long or 3/4 Sleeve)	14
Button-Down Shirts	16
Blouses	22
Cardigans	25
Ponchos	3
Graphic & Print Sweaters	7
Plain Sweaters	13
Sweatshirts & Hoodies	7
Vests	6
Tank Tops	13
Tank Tops (layering)	24
Crop Tops & Bralets	4
TOTAL #:	231
BOTTOMS
Jeans	13
Pants	4
Capris	2
Cotton/Tube Skirts	9
Denim Skirts	2
Circle/Swing Skirts	7
Pencil Skirts	8
Other Skirts	8
Shorts	3
TOTAL #:	56
DRESSES
Spring/Summer Dresses	11
Fall/Winter Dresses	15
Retro Look Dresses	3
Going Out/Fancy Dress	12
Formal/Special Occasion Dresses	5
TOTAL #:	46

I think the overall problem is that I have been hanging onto things that I've owned for YEARS- some from back in high school. I'm also one of those people who hangs onto things 'just in case' I need them- the thing is, quite often a random event will come up (like a steampunk show I went to recently) and I was able to create an outfit out of stuff in my closet that I typically don't wear. If I had gotten rid of that stuff, I wouldn't be able to do that. So maybe some stuff needs to be transferred to my costume bin for fun times like that.

I have a TON of graphic t-shirts. And I really don't wear them often enough. Over the past few years I have told myself many times not to buy anymore because I already had too many, and generally I have stuck to that except for buying a few concert t-shirts as mementos. In this case I need to purge some shirts, maybe transfer some over to my sleep shirt drawer, as well as just commit to wearing them on a more regular basis.

 

I really only wear a couple of my jackets on a regular basis, so as the whether warms up I'm going to need to make a really big effort to wear all of my spring coats & jackets so I can decided what is going to stay and what is going to go. In terms of skirts, I really want to wear them on a more regular basis but there are so many I really never wear that I just need to get rid of. I might keep one plain black circle skirt and a couple basic pencil skirts but the rest can go.

I think my upcoming strategy might be to box up a large amount of my clothing that I rarely wear, put it away and see what happens. Most likely I will forget about all the clothing I put in there and it will make it easier to get rid of. After looking at this inventory it would be hard to believe that I really need anything more at all, but I seem to always feel that way. I think it just goes to show that I'm not utilizing my wardrobe 100%- I have a lot of items that should be donated and really shouldn't make the cut in my wardrobe. So that is something I'm going to have to work on in the coming weeks and months, to really pare down what I have.