Purging

I've been purging and it feels soooooo good. I think it really started when I was sick in December and watched a bunch of tiny house type shows during my long confinement on the couch. I couldn't actually envision myself living in 180 square feet, but the thought of getting rid of that which wasn't essential was appealing.

I don't consider myself a pack rat, but compared to my minimalist husband I guess I am a little (we might need one of those 200 + screws stored in the basement or that extra wood in the garage). I often compare myself instead to my depression era born dad who is a bit of a pack rat and feel like I have the appropriate amount of stuff compared to him (he's been purging too, but that's another story). And for the most part, I still feel that way, but think that from time to time one has to purge. Things get unused, out of fashion, and as new things come in sometimes old things just need to go out.

So a few months ago I started with a purge of trinkets and such. Old candle holders, vases, etc - stuff that I essentially stored in a closet and never used. I even started reading about capsule wardrobes and was determined to pare everything down. But the draw of dark, winter evenings caused me to fall back into unproductivity and nothing else was disposed of.

But then there seems to be something in the air when spring rolls around that causes productivity and cleaning and purging - at least for me. It started innocently enough with cleaning out the freezer and apologizing to all those freezer burnt strawberries (and other items) that we didn't eat. Such a waste. Poor little strawberries that never got to live up to their full potential in some sort of sweet desert.

Anyway, I think my husband fell in love with me even more when he saw the emptiness of the freezer.

Next, in an attempt to find my cousin's email, I ended up cleaning up my email inbox. It got waaaaaay out of hand. I don't know what I started with, but I'm pretty sure it was close to 1000 emails just in the inbox. Now I have 8 emails. It is exhilarating (except that I have another email address that has 863 emails that are pretty much just emails between Jesse and I - that one is next on the list to tackle!). Oh, and I never did find my cousin's email (but I did get it from a different cousin so I'm all good).

And finally, I am one step closer to that capsule wardrobe. My closet has taken a serious dent, but isn't down to the 'capsule' yet. I clean it out from time to time, but now that I work from home it seems that I repeatedly wear the same items and many items just haven't been worn in at least a year so it was time for a major cleaning.

When sorting this time, I put clothes into several piles:

• items I'm pretty sure I want to keep
• items that I maybe want to keep
• my comfy shirts that are comfortable to work in but not necessarily fashionable
• and then I put all items that were to be given away right into a bag

I didn't want to leave the 'no' clothes out to tempt me as there could have been a chance I'd move them to the yes pile so in the bag they went. Once I had my piles I started trying on clothes in the yes and maybe piles and this helped me decide that a number of them no longer fit (or maybe never did) so they became goners. In the past I'd get maybe a paper bag or two, but this time I cleared out 5 overflowing bags. Yeah, I had a lot of clothes... and really still do, but it feels much more manageable.

Some of the clothes were faded and a little worn. In the past, I wondered if I should end up donating these items or if the staff at Good Will was cursing the bags I brought in as they were more suited to the trash. My nephew now works at Good Will and said that pretty much everything gets sold at the store, reused, or donated elsewhere so in the bag everything went (except those old stinky slippers - why did I have those? I rarely wear slippers anymore. Into the garbage with them).

Another thing I noticed is that I got rid of a lot of brown stuff. I've always wanted to successfully have a stylish, earthy fall outfit, but I can never quite put one together. Brown frustrates me since brown isn't just brown. Turns out there are a ton of different shades of brown... but only one black. I can trust that if I buy black I have black and it will match with my other blacks. I kept a couple brown items, but I'm not sure they will survive the next round. I should say, Jesse, on the other hand owns nothing black. I was astonished when I realized this. Not a belt or a shoe - nothing. How is this possible?

I almost pulled one (brown) sweater out of the donate pile when Jesse commented on how much I used to wear it when we were dating. His comment was dripping with nostalgia and it made me think I might wear that sweater again, but I held strong since 1. I haven't worn it in at least a year, 2. it was brown (with a weird green tint - what's up with you brown?)

(Imagine me in the brown outfit I was going to post here, but Blogger refuses to do. Blogger doesn't even want the world - or the 5 people who read this - to see me in brown. Wait, you can see me in brown in this 'style' post.)

At any rate, I now have a better grasp on what I have and if it works together or not. I will certainly be purchasing some new items, but it will be with the intent to be a part of a select number of clothes. I'm sure much of what I have now will transition out as I get items that are more fitting to my lifestyle and comfort level and of course go well with other items. Even though yoga pants and tank tops are my main uniform it would be nice to have some other items that are just as comfy, but a little more stylish and don't make me look like I am headed to the gym.

I also, probably, won't have a true capsule wardrobe. Let's face it, this is Minnesota and it's cold and I run cold so I layer. It's possible that I could wear a traditional capsule wardrobe all at once in an attempt to stay warm. I will certainly have a loose interpretation of the capsule wardrobe, but it will be a vast improvement over the mass of clothes I had before.

I've heard that successful people wear the same thing all the time (or give themselves limited options) so that they don't have to expend energy on making decisions about clothes. I can certainly appreciate this since I already sort of wear the same thing over and over, but one of the greatest wins out of this is I can already say that I have less clothes than my husband. Whose the pack rat now, honey?

Fashion help

I'm constantly complaining about my wardrobe. I don't like most of my clothes -  either because they don't fit right, aren't as fashionable as I'd like, are old and worn out, or aren't magically ironed by themselves. I joke that I need to be turned into What Not to Wear (do I have to start wearing renaissance attire, or what, for this to happen?), but I'm not really joking. 

I know my outfits aren't that bad and it's probably mostly the fit and ironing that get to me. Because of my pain issues, I am also super sensitive to touch which includes the type of fabric I'm wearing and the fit of clothes. Oh, the darn fit of clothes!!! Between my super long torso and my odd hip to waist ratio I feel like I can never find clothes that fit right. Oh, and regular pants are too long, but short/petite ones are just short enough to look odd. Apparently, I need to start making my own clothes. 

And the ironing, yeah... that's probably not going to change. I may be doomed to a life in polyester.

I've been following Liberating Working Moms for some time and they have a series on Working with Style so I was inspired to track what I wear in a normal work week. I ended up taking a Friday off to burn some PTO I had (this was before the end of the year), but ended up wearing something that I probably would have worn to work that day anyway. 

In the end I wasn't sure what documenting my attire would bring me, but I now know that my current go-to colors (besides black and brown) are blue and dark pink, that I still don't like my clothes, that I thought I looked better than these pictures attest to, that I am doomed to ever finding a brown work appropriate shoe, and that it's hard to get a full body self portrait.

Monday

~ Sweater from Target.

~ Shirt from Ragstock. After purchasing it I discovered why this new shirt was only 5 bucks - arms too long, tight in the bicep area, but so loose in the forearm area. So cheaply made. Sometimes you really do get what you pay for.

~ Pants are used from Second Debut . They are comfy, but stretch throughout the day and are slightly too short like most of my pants (see above comment about regular vs short/petite pants). I often go for the slightly too short as I'm too lazy to take my clothes to get tailored.

~ Shoes from DSW which I returned because they didn't fit right. I just can't seem to find a pair of brown shoes that would be work/casual appropriate that I like.

Tuesday

~ Long sleeved black shirt from Kohl's

~Sweater from J.C. Penny's - the one that's closed down in Brookdale mall. What was that - 10 years ago?

~ Scarf from Land's End at Sears. Love that it's super soft and not itchy - it feels like cashmere at first touch without the scratchiness  (yes, cashmere scratches me), but I did end up with blue specs all over my black shirt.

~Pants from Target and are very much over 10 years old. They are comfortable and fit fairly well, but are quite grayed from the years of used. I liked these pants so much that I used to have multiple pairs of them. These are the last to survive. When you have a difficult time finding things that fit you sometimes buy many of them. 

~Shoes from DSW. These are new and super comfy. Initially, I felt like I was back in the '90's wearing big clunky clown shoes, but they look so much better than the beat up shoes I was wearing.

Wednesday

~Shirt - probably from Target. Super thin and always wrinkly looking.

~Sweater was a gift, but I think it's from Charming Charlies along with the necklace. The sweater has a touch of wool (or something that bothers my skin) in it so I have to wear something under it so it doesn't touch my skin. I typically am not a pink and purple combo kind of girl and wouldn't have bought this necklace on my own, but I actually quite like it. I'm not really good at accessorizing and usually stick with the same few pieces of jewelry.

~Pants from Goodwill. As far as pants go I generally like these although, like most of my pants, I wish these were a tad longer, the hips wider, and the waist smaller. 

~Shoes from DSW.

Thursday

~Sweater is from New York and Company, but I actually got it at Goodwill. I love Goodwill for scores like this. This is also one of my favorite outfits as it is comfortable. That is probably my most important request in clothing.

~Scarf from Kohls. This scarf pretty much gets worn every single day. It's usually cold in my office so I try to keep warm by adding this scarf or a fleece sweater. There are some days it's pointless to pick out an outfit as I wear a zipped-up fleece all day long.

~Leggings from Target. I had a decent pair of leggings that I ruined by wearing them through my pregnancy. I then tried to find a new pair, but found it to be an incredible challenge. I bought these when I shouldn't have as they did not fit right at all in the waist. They were fine everywhere else, but I ended up using a book clip to keep the waist tight. I know, right? Either they've shrunk or my waist has gotten bigger, because the gap doesn't bother me nearly as much anymore.

~Boots from DSW. I love these boots, but I almost returned them because they made our house smell like there was an oil spill for quite some time after I bought them. I even kept them out in the garage for while to help with the smell. Glad I kept them because the smell is gone and I get a fair amount of compliments on them. 

Friday

~Shirt from Kohls. I ended up changing shortly after this because of how wrinkly this shirt is. No it's not supposed to look like crushed velvet. The shirt I changed into was also red which is another color that I tend to wear a lot of.

~Sweater is same from above from a closed down J.C. Penny's.

~Jeans from Old Navy. I like the length of these jeans and they are super soft, but the waist is HUGE. I have two Old Navy jeans like this so I am guessing they think all women's waists are larger than their hips. Thank God for belts (and thanks to Erin who suggested the Dapper Snapper for my kid. I got one for her and myself - I love it! No more bulging belt buckle.)

So there you have it - my lame work look. I didn't include my weekend, because, let's face it, I wear yoga pants or my jammies as much as I can. If I could just professionalize those looks I would be set!

One of my issues is shopping. I rarely have time to do it on my own with out dragging around a toddler and I haven't had much luck with online shopping. I was even thinking about hiring a personal shopper, but didn't want to spend the cash on that (let alone spend it on clothes). Although, I read that some thrift stores are providing this service for free since middle aged women in my income bracket have become their biggest shoppers. It's still on my mind, but I haven't taken any action on it yet...

And style? I mean, if you look at my Pinterest boards you might say that I can identify stylish clothing - it's just the trying things on and having them fit correctly and comfortably that get me. And in the end I give up. I may or may not come home with some new item to wear, but I haven't bought anything I really loved in a long, long time.

Does anyone else struggle with finding clothes that they like/are comfortable? Has anyone used a personal shopper? If so, what was your experience? And most importantly, how can I get away with wearing yoga pants everyday?