Fresh Fashion: Stop Stress Shopping! Create a Wardrobe Inventory
If you’re on this journey with me to “cut out the clutter” from your closet and make room in your brain for living life- you should be down to less clothing by now.
So today, I want to talk about,
“Does this item of clothing make sense for my life?”.
Before blogging, I was a hairstylist. I did hair for almost ten years, but left after God slammed the door in my face! Yup. He told me to quit and I didn’t. You can read the whole story in my upcoming book, “No One Brings You a Casserole When Your Husband Goes to Rehab”.
It’s pretty funny.
It’s not out yet.
But, soon.
Anyway, God got me fired. Let go. Dismissed from my job and I felt like I shouldn’t return to hair. Part of the reason was because my life was too stressful and I didn’t need the extra burden of working on top of it, but also because I felt like He wanted me to pursue writing. I always wanted to be a writer, I would dare say I always was, but my musing never left the pages of my journal until I started LeahGrey.com, now Grey Ministries.
Even though I haven’t worked in a salon since 2016, I still have hanging in my wardrobe about fifteen black dresses that I wore for work. FIFTEEN! And you know? I actually, really like, maybe two.
I hung onto the dresses in case I ever wanted to wear one. I do like black. But they are work dresses and my lifestyle doesn’t suit those items anymore. I stay home with a four-year-old and a baby and I work from a laptop. I could put on a structured, black dress to run to the grocery store and play with play dough, but it hardly makes sense.
The dresses had to go.
Another one was the purple sequined J Crew t-shirt that I liked to wear on New Year’s Eve once a year, every single year. And I keep it because I wear it every year and yet, when New Year’s Eve comes around, I put it on and I think, “Hmmm, it’s a pretty nice shirt, but I don’t really want to wear it”.
So why do I keep it?!
Just in case I ever will want to wear it, that’s why. I like it. I’ve had it for six or seven years. Yet, I don’t think I’ve worn it for its annual New Year’s Eve outing for the past three. I could wear a purple sequined top to the park to play with my son, he would never lose me, but it also doesn’t suit my lifestyle or my current style.
Think about your lifestyle while you go through your closet- do the clothes you own make sense for your life?
A survey of my wardrobe:
As you can see, the majority of my wardrobe is dressy and work clothing. We’re going to go back to this point because we will be creating a “uniform” and helping you to find your style but first, we are going to simply clean out the clutter so don’t worry about that, just yet.
I have way more than 100 pieces of clothing, which is actually so disgusting, materialistic and wasteful, I can hardly stand it.
For simplicity sake (math is not my forte) I used 100 pieces as a general idea for the chart.
Looking at the pink pie up there, 44% of my wardrobe was dress clothes. That doesn’t include dresses I wear to weddings and special events, so I would even estimate 50% of my wardrobe was for “special occasion” or workwear from when I was working in a salon.
50% unusable!
Then, 25% of it was for cold weather. Living in Canada, I used sweaters for three of four seasons. Summers weren’t really all that long so I could get away with owning only a couple pairs of shorts and a bathing suit.
Even though I’m only nine hours South of where I grew up, New Jersey is a lot warmer. It’s just far enough that I now need (nope, not need, want to have) two separate wardrobes: summer and winter.
Also, 20% graphic T-shirts?! What?! I love to buy funny t-shirts or vintage tees, but I don’t need to wear them everyday. I like to wear oversized tees to bed with lounge pants, or with a pair of super ripped shorts in the summer but on a daily basis, I can’t live in novelty t-shirts.
After doing my inventory, it was very obviously why I always felt I had nothing to wear!
Your turn!
Do your clothes feel “blah”?
Do they match your personal style now? Style evolution is a thing!
Do they fit your lifestyle?
Do they fit your current body shape and size? Click here to read that post if you missed it.
If you blindly took out something from your closet, how likely is it it’ll be something you love and want to wear?
Did you buy the item on a whim or intentionally?
Outfits for special occasions are not a part of this challenge, nor are shoes. But take an inventory of your clothing and see what you find. You may end up feeling like I do, that I was wasteful and should have been more intentional about where, and what, I purchased!
Let me know in the comments below if this was as mind-blowing for you as it was for me, or if it was something you were already doing.
You can follow along on Instagram and YouTube as I clean out my closet, my home and my habits for a FRESH 2019 @helloleahgrey. Don’t forget to also follow the ministry Instagram account @greyministries. Use our hashtag #freshminimalism to join us and get featured!
Want to see me take on my closet? Watch this video! Which probably should have been with the last post, but that’s alright. It’s here now, so here it will stay.
I’ll be sure to share my actual, final inventory when I’m all done but I’m still currently cleaning out the clutter! Oh, mama. I am ashamed. Convicted.
Sorry, Jesus.
