YOUR WARDROBE

Most of us hang on to clothes “in case” we might need them, grow back into them or our children might like them one day. It is far better to live for TODAY and create space for something new which we will enjoy wearing NOW.

Do you often find yourself not knowing what to wear, you pull out everything, make a big mess of your bedroom and then have to put it all back again. If you DE-CLUTTER your wardrobe, getting rid of everything that you don’t ONLY look FABULOUS in, you will be absolutely clear about what to wear, everything will look good on you, and almost everything will go together if mixed and matched.

You do not need so many clothes. Bring the amount down to a more managable figure that will be easier to keep neatly folded in your cupboard. For instance, you definately do not need more than seven pairs of socks! If they start to go grey, throw them out and buy some more. Look with a perfectionist’s eye at all the items in your wardrobe.

Do you have clothes that you no longer wear but you are keeping ‘just in case’? If you haven’t worn it in the last year, and especially in the last two or three years, fling it, sell it, exchange it, burn it or give it away. If you havn’t had the urge to wear it in all that time, then that particular article of clothing has had it’s time.

Most people have some items they have bought, wore once and have never worn again. You are out shopping one day and your eye catches an orange item with purple polka dots. You try it on and it looks fantastic to you so you buy it. It so happens that on that particular day you were a bit off-balanced EMOTIONALLY. But by the next day that particular emotional set has dissipated and is back to its usual state and the clothes don’t look so great to you anymore. The trick is to never go shopping when you feel emotionally out-of-sorts. COMFORT SHOPPING is one sure way to end up with a wardrobe of clothes you never wear.

I have a whole shelve full of clothes that are a size too small for me, which I still keep as I work on losing the extra few kilo’s. Some people though, hang on to clothes – some they worn when much younger, which are far too small for them, because they are planning to lose all that weight so that they can wear them again. It rarely happens this way. If this is you, do yourself a favor and take a tip from Denise Linn with tremendous results. Throw all these clothes away, and go out and buy yourself something which makes you look and feel really good exactly the way you are now. And quess what happens? You lose weight. Call it Sod’s law if you like, but it works, and the reason is that you have stopped resisting being fat. You have decided to love yourself exactly as you are instead of waiting until you lose weight. What you resist persists, and when you stop resisting, it stops persisting!

Some people swear by color coding their wardrobe. Find a neat system that work for you. Hang all your dresses together, all your shirts, jackets, skirts, pants, coats, suits, work-wear, fancy evening wear, etc. Group them all together. Pack all the t-shirts together, all pants, jerseys, underwear, nighties, accessories, gym clothes, tracksuits, swimstuff.. Go even further and color code your clothes. All the blues together, all the reds, and so on. I have an extra rack for out-of-season clothes, and as I mentioned, my ‘dream-size’ clothes.

 SHOES

Shoes form the foundation of what you wear and a good pair of shoes can literally make or ruin a good outfit. Piles of old shoes cluttering up a home are very unsightly. Keep the shoes you wear well polished and in good repair, and bin the rest. Those shoes that you have not worn for five years – throw them out.

Shoes should be hung behind your door, or packed neatly side by side in a cupboard. Boots could be filled with a piece of carton to keep them straight and keep their form.

HANDBAGS AND SCARVES

How can your life flow freely if you are carrying a handbag with you everywhere that is full of all kinds of receipts, used tissues, sweet wrappers and so on? If you would feel embarrased at the thought of somebody tipping the contents of your handbag out on to a table for public examination, tip it out yourself right now and clear the clutter.

Scarves can be hung through a ‘ring’ hanger or over hooks behind your door, on a hanger inside your cupboard or tie-rack inside the cupboard door.

But the most important about your wardrobe is:

* Caring for/handling of your clothes (a good topic to google and to read more about)

*OFTEN Getting rid of clothes in your cupboard you don’t wear – even if you’ve only worn it once! Pass it on to somebody that may get more use out of it.

JEWELRY

There are several ways you can store your jewelry – as long as it is tidy. It is a cute idea to hang necklaces on a small tie-rack closeby your dressing table or inside your cupboard door, or in a kist or basket on your dressing table. I store all my jewelry in perspex see-through drawers. Any container will do, as long as you display it nicely and that there’s not too many just lying around. Get rid of every piece of jewelery that doesn’t present YOU.