Organization and Getting Rid of Junk

With finals coming up I tend to be all over the place, especially with clothes. I'll be studying all night long and end up sleeping in. I'm already trying to not be late, but it's hard considering that my closet makes it impossible to find a nice outfit.

I've always loved fashion - my mom was a seamstress so I would see clothes and textiles and fashion books anytime I was with her. Even though I looked like a bum in elementary school (don't laugh, I'm actually being serious here), I would just draw and draw outfits that I dreamed of creating one day.

Now, at 16, I'm starting to focus on my sense of style. That's why I picked up I Don't Have a Thing to Wear, by Judie Taggart and Jackie Walker. I realized that if I want to be serious about the way I look, I probably need professional help.

My first step was to go in my closet and see everything I owned.

Yikes

There's a variety of different clothes, some from when I was in the 2nd grade (I had my growth spurt earlier than all the other kids. I didn't really grow since). Obviously my life is different from back when I was 7, so there are some items I don't really wear anymore.

When there's nothing to wear in your closet, it's probably because "your closet is not in harmony with your life" (Taggart and Walker 8). Because of this explanation, I decided to take a look as to how my closet was throwing my style out of balance.


Tuggart and Walker suggested to calculate the percentage of time for each activity and comparing it to the percentage of clothes I have for that activity. For example: 28% I'm gardening and only 14% of my clothes are for gardening. I didn't want to do this,though, considering my close are multi-purposeful and it would make this whole process a lot more complicated.

Instead, I counted up all the articles of clothing I had (around 125) and all the articles of clothing I actually enjoy wearing (around 55). Turns out I only wore about 44% of all the clothes I had. Wow.

This is why I decided to organize my closet into clothes I'll wear













and clothes I'm never wearing again

Sorry Clothes :(

I realized that I need to let go of everything I don't like, no matter what the reason. It is hard, though. A common symptom of growing up with limited resources is not wanting to throw away clothes because of how much they cost (Taggart and Walker 55).

I didn't expect working on my style would require so much organization (or math for that matter), but this was actually really insightful. I never would have thought that the reason why I can't find an outfit quick enough and easily in the morning was because I was looking through the useless clothes in my closet. It's now going to be easier making an outfit I actually enjoy wearing. It's also going to be easier avoiding all the "yeah no" clothes.

What in your closet do you need to get rid of?

(Also, for the guys, apparently you wear about 90% of all your clothes (Taggart and Walker 47). Does this seem true?)

Taggart, Judie, and Jackie Walker. I Don't Have a Thing to Wear: The Psychology of Your Closet. New York: Pocket Books, 2003. Print.