Well, I'm taking the challenge. All this talk about a ten item wardrobe got me motivated! So this week I did something crazy -- I emptied my whole closet. I took everything out and piled it on my bed, and then I wiped out the inside. There are no built-in closets in the master bedroom of our home, the result of a former owner adding on to the house and, I'm guessing, taking out the previously existing closet in the process. So I have, instead, a free-standing wardrobe with shelves and a small rod for hanging clothes. It's just the right size for a ten item wardrobe!
As I looked at the heap on my bed, I realized that there were clothes in my wardrobe that I had forgotten I even owned! Some still had tags on them. Others had shrunk in the wash and hadn't been worn in years. There was even a cardigan sweater that I bought over 40 years ago! The hangers were mismatched and included cheap skirt hangers that had come with the clothes when they were purchased. They even had colored tags with numbers on them, announcing the size of the garments they wore. Millions of belts and handbags cluttered the shelves. And shoes were stacked in their boxes, taking up half the shelf space. Yes, it's time to do something about this mess.
The first thing I did was to determine whether or not I could make some sense of the things I had. Could I put together a capsule of clothing that would be coordinated in some manner? The way I had everything in the closet before made it look like a hodge podge of unrelated pieces. But a closer look revealed a pleasant surprise! I have quite a few skirts and tops that work well together. In fact, it looks like I can do the same thing for each season. So I will keep just the clothing for fall in my closet now and change it out when winter comes. That way, I won't get tired of wearing the same clothes year round. The extra clothes that aren't part of the basic wardrobe will be moved out of my closet to storage.
Now that I have my strategy, I can take action. I already started a give-away bag for those items I no longer wear. I will need to get some decent skirt hangers, and maybe some sort of baskets or boxes to use on the shelves. I will not be going to an upscale store to get lots of fancy organizing paraphernalia; I am doing this on a budget. I was so pleased to see that I don't really need any new clothes for this season. I may replace a top that is getting slightly worn with a new one, and I think I might purchase a piece of fabric to make a scarf to wear with a certain skirt. But other than that, I'm good to go! Check back next week to see if I make any progress. What about you? Would you like to join me in the ten item wardrobe challenge?
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