Refreshing Your Closet May Make Your Whole Day Better - Lisa E Betz

Does anyone beside me suffer from closet paralysis? I’ve wasted countless hours staring at the clothes in my closet, trying to decide what to wear. Closet paralysis fills my morning with self-doubt and sometimes eats up so much time I end up running late. If that sounds familiar, I’ve discovered a book that explains how refreshing your closet can help overcome closet paralysis. It’s called Out the Door in 15 Minutes: How to Look Fabulous Fast by Jill Swanson.

The book’s basic premise is that how you begin your day sets the tone for the rest of your day. When you’re distracted, frustrated, unsure of your choices, or rushing to get out the door, your day isn’t off to a great start. To help women face the day with calm and confidence instead, the author shows you how to focus on the essentials and eliminate unnecessary effort and angst (such as closet paralysis).

The book provides an abundance of tried-and-true tips to help women get through hair care, face care and dressing quicker, so they can get out the door faster in the morning. In the process, her advice helps you take your entire style game up a notch. Pretty cool, especially for a fashion- and color-challenged person like me.

Overcoming closet paralysis

My goal in this post is to share her tips for refreshing your closet. This includes repurposing and reprioritizing what you have, so it’s easier to find and easier to combine into outfits that look and feel great. Refreshing your closet also involves getting rid of excess items so you don’t waste closet space storing them or mental space thinking about them. Fewer choices makes it easier to find outfits you love.

Here’s her process for refreshing your closet so you can get dressed faster and in better style.

Identify what you LOVE

Go through your closet and identify the items you love. This includes pieces that:

• You wear often
• Are flattering for your body type
• Suit your style
• Make sense with your season of life and career/home needs

These are your definite keepers. Bring them front and center. (Alas, you cannot put everything you own into this category.)

Rediscover what you’ve LOST

These are clothes or accessories you would wear, but you forget about them because they’re out of sight or too difficult to get to. It’s time to bring lost items into the light and consider whether you still love them. If you do, relocate them where you’ll see them, and consider some fabulous outfits you can make with them.

Find “dates” for LONELY items

There are items in your closet that are perfectly good. You like them. They fit fine. But you don’t wear them because you don’t have the right items to wear with them. Thus, they’re not doing you any good unless you fill in the missing pieces. Either set a deadline to find lonely pieces the coordinating items they need, or else set the piece in the “donate” pile.

Last but not least, eliminate the LOSERS

Set a goal to reduce your total wardrobe and accessories by 20 percent. Here are some guidelines to help you identify the Losers lurking in your closet. Eliminate anything that’s:

• Beyond fixing—torn, stained, scuffed, stretched out, or too far outside your size to alter.
• Stylish clothing that’s no longer in style, (but you hope they might come back in fashion). The author states, “They won’t. But if they do, they’ll be just enough different to look dated.”
• Any style your teen daughter or elderly grandmother is currently wearing.
• Clothing or accessories that makes you look drab or frumpy because they are not a good color, style, or fit for you.

“Clothes mirror what is going on in our lives. A low self-esteem closet often contains: Colors that are dark and neutral, sizes that are too large, and styles thar have no style. On the flip side, when things are good and we feel confident with who and where we are in life, the closet is alive. Lighter, brighter and more dramatic colors preside, styles are up to date, and clothes fit.”

Jill Swanson

5 clever tips to refresh your closet

• Replace buttons to give an old item new flair, or to bring an outfit together in a stronger way. For example, add buttons to an ordinary white blouse that coordinate with the color of the new blazer you love.
• When you find jeans that fit well, buy two pairs. Hem one for flats and another for heels.
• Get rid of hangers that are bulky, bent, or broken. Why complicate your life with hangers that are frustrating to use?
• For an instant closet facelift, consider purchasing matching hangers instead of making do with a hodgepodge of styles and colors.
• If you have items you never wear but can’t bear to part with for sentimental reasons, take them out of your closet, package them up and store them in an out-of-the-way place. (You can visit them when you want to, but they aren’t distracting you on busy mornings.)

Find more great advice on grooming, cosmetics, wardrobe, and style in the book. Out the Door in 15 Minutes: How to Look Fabulous Fast by Jill Swanson.