STYLE: Weed Your Closet

STYLE

Weed Your Closet

Recently I've done some research for a writing project about how to create a great personal style. I'm realizing as I age, it takes a lot more work to look great. Okay, there are plenty of days I would settle for simply looking pulled together and not sloppy.

A great wardrobe starts with an organized closet. I used to think that I didn't have much to wear. But after reading enough advice articles I realized I had way too much. My best pieces were lost in the clothing clutter. I had no idea what items worked for each season--let alone finding them.

It was time to weed.

I started by creating three piles: give away, throw away and keep. I needed the throw away pile because I have a bad tendancy to think I'm going to fix torn clothing or replace buttons, although it rarely ever happens. So clothing remained in my closet that wasn't even suitable for a thrift store. Bad, very bad.

Other categories to weed a closet can be created: ugly, too big, too small, broken, left over from the Nixon administration, "like" versus "don't like," and "people laugh behind my back when I wear this." Be brutually honest with yourself or enlist the help of a compassionate, yet stylish, friend.

The point is to get rid of the items that don't enhance your figure or make you feel good about yourself. It's easy to hold on to the wrong things because they were a gift, inherited, cost too much or the item was recently purchased. Everything must go that doesn't work for your current lifestyle.

The second step I took was to divide my clothes into four seasons. Yes, a few pieces can cross over, but not many. Most clothes work the best at one particular time of the year.

I have a clothing bag set up in a spare closet for putting out of season clothing away that still needs to remain on a hanger. Everything else could be tucked away in a large garmet box under my bed. I've found that a plastic container with a lid that snaps shut works best, due to the abundance of dust bunnies that nest under my bed.

Seperating my wardrobe seemed like it would involve a lot of work, but actually turned out to be fun. It forced me to get focused on which articles of clothing are functional in each season. More importantly, it got rid of three seasons of clothing from my closet that were quite distracting when I went to get dressed in the morning.

The best part of a weeded closet comes when the seasons change. I get to go shopping in my own stockpile of clothes. There is something refreshing about getting to add "new" items to my wardrobe and getting rid of the old ones, even if it's only to put them away until next year.