A Seasonal Wardrobe

Doing a little writing this morning as a welcome change to sitting by my computer waiting for shipping updates on my Selkie orders and softly rocking  myself when I see they'll be delayed another whole day, when I came across this post that I meant to put up two months ago and somehow it slipped by me.  However, since I keep referencing it in current posts, I thought I'd better go back and do some explaining so we're all on the same page.

I've lost count of the number of times I've seen something pretty, bought it, and then at the end of the season, went to store it and realized I had something almost identical already in storage that I'd forgotten about.  Talk about buyer's remorse.  While we often talk of shopping on this blog, we don't often talk about what to do with all our great finds.  The fact of the matter is that I, like so many online shoppers, have begun to feel like I am drowning in stuff, as though the things I own, own me.  

Over the past two years, I have been working at cleaning out my massive clothing collection/addiction while simultaneously only buying things that are tasteful and timeless instead of nickel and diming my money away on fast fashion.  The results?  Well, I still have a lot of clothes.  So many in fact that I lament the way each season slips by with so many pretty things that never made it off the hanger.  

Inspired by the sudden drop in temperatures and a recent burst of energy, I have set about a complete closet overhaul.  I took every single thing out of my closet and my storage bins and organized them all into four groups, one for each season.  I did have to make a trip out to buy a few more bins so that I could tuck away anything that didn't fit autumn, but it was worth it to finally have an organized and uncluttered closet.  The things that are now in my closet are Autumn Only.  I'm going to wear them exhaustively for three months and then, at the end of November, I will pack everything away for 9 months and bring out my winter things.  

The seasons here aren't really what I would call distinct.  Rather, they tend to blend into one another, often having false starts and ends which is why my closet has been such a catch all with everything from heavy sweaters on the shelf next to airy cotton sundresses.  No more.  Now I am wearing my clothes by season and layering if necessary with what I have available since cardigans and tights are pretty much year round for me anyway.  

In order to make the space for this transformation, I did have to part with many pieces.  If I had something listed on Poshmark and realized it hadn't sold in the past year or two, I donated it or sent it to ThredUp rather than let it sit and take up space anymore.  It wasn't easy but once they were dropped off, it felt so wonderful to be rid of the burden and have some room.  With the new tax regulations on the way, I doubt I'll be selling on Poshmark much longer anyway, so why not just donate them to others instead.  After that was done I organized everything into seasonal bins so this whole process of changing for the seasons should be much easier moving forward.

The whole process took me several days, and I mean full working-dawn-to-dusk kind of days to get all this accomplished.  The morning after completing my closet makeover, I opened my closet door and smiled to see all my options neatly laid out.  This is as opposed to my usual look of confusion as I try to decide what to wear from the endless choices available.  I'm hoping that in this way, I'll be able to buy less and enjoy more.  I'll keep you posted.

Shopping Info:  Trousers are from Unique-Vintage.