The true purpose of your closet is to serve you. As you work, play and prioritize your life.
Every client’s closet I enter is a new experience.
My ritual when the door opens is to take a breath and let it out slowly. Not because I’m afraid of what I will find, but rather to make sure I can take it all in, give the best advice, and be of service.
Of course, before I ever enter her closet we have done some intense prep work. By the time someone hires me, she is seeking a life free of regret, free of frustration and full of good choices.
So, we’ve done color analysis, style words, fit and more.
When Over-Abundance Doesn’t Serve
My clients typically have so much clothing, they can’t create an outfit in a short time. This results in the client feeling overwhelmed in her closet (the majority of the time) and defaulting to the all too familiar story of “I have to shop” or “I have nothing to wear.”
Neither is exactly true.
If you count what’s in your closet right now, I can bet you have more than 100 and probably more than 200 pieces!
When we decide to consciously create an image that reflects who we are, we automatically think of what to add to our closets.
Buying clothes and accessories seems the most logical step. If we have an event, or a special meeting, our first thought is to buy a new outfit. Or, we consider not going to the event or meeting because out of the abundance sitting in our closet we still have “nothing to wear.”
How do we stop this cycle of buying and storing and an over-abundance of wardrobe orphans?
One answer: purge with purpose. Instead of thinking about what you don’t want in your wardrobe, think about what you do want. What do you want from your wardrobe, and what is holding you back from having it?
What do you Actually Want in your Wardrobe?
Most every woman and man I know wants clothes that fit, clothes that work together, clothes that reflect who they are, and clothes that give the right non-verbal cues, especially for work.
Some bigger questions to ask:
- Is this essential for my life right now?
- What priorities are so important to me that I need to keep this piece?
- What do I need right now that will expand this wardrobe exponentially by correlating to several other pieces in my wardrobe?
While we may not ask these questions every day, it’s important to ask them a couple of times a month or more to keep a regular routine.
Paring down to the essentials may seem scary, but ultimately it’s a brave choice that makes our closets sing with possibility.
I’ll be writing more about essentializing and purging with a purpose in subsequent months, but for more help with your wardrobe now or to find an outfit for a special event, please email me at Kathleen@YourAuthenticImage.com.
