119/ The Ins-and-Outs of Closet Editing: Strategies When You've Run Out Of Space + What To Set Aside For The Future
+ WWYD: crowdsourcing your ideas!
Dear readers,
With September on our doorstep, I started a thread last week asking what you’re eyeing for fall. Please share your wants and needs! I’ve enjoyed your answers so far and will keep them in mind for future newsletters.
Meanwhile, in this newsletter, I’ll be drilling down on a question I posed in an earlier post:
I want to talk about the pieces you’ve owned for a long time that you wear in phases, e.g. these denim bermudas. I bought them in 2017(?), wore them a lot until 2020, and didn’t touch them again until recently. After four years, they feel fresh to me, especially when I pair them with my newer pieces.
And on the topic of closets, I thought it would make sense for two questions from our most recent AMA thread to get their own newsletter and work through them in the context of my Closet Editing series:
Tips to streamline an overstuffed closet when you still love all of it? Looks like we’ll be moving house again soon and I have so many clothes, shoes and accessories but I love them and they were chosen with care. Pretty much everything gets worn on rotation, but there’s just too much! How do you know what to let go?
Yes second this one!! I love nearly all my items (and the ones I don’t love are very useful so I put up with them hahah), but it’s just too much clothing to WEAR regularly! Harder to say goodbye when I do like things and enjoy when I end up wearing them!!
What To Do When You Love Everything!
I have to say, this is kind of an enviable position to be in, no? To have built an entire wardrobe over time that you love and wear, and be in a position to part with some of it and still be in a good place?
My usual point of view is that it’s absolutely okay to own, treasure and care for things if they bring you pleasure and joy, you love and need them, and/or because they are imbued with special meaning — even if you don’t wear them.
It becomes an issue when you don’t have space for it, or the sheer amount is a source of stress for you. It could be because looking at that much clothes is overwhelming for you, or it subconsciously brings up feelings of guilt. “That much” is subjective, and varies from person-to-person.
I’m assuming you love and/or need the pieces you own, and that they meet the characteristics I laid out in my foundational wardrobe series, i.e. you’re happy with the fit, feel, comfort, colour, etc…? If not, those are some of the first pieces you can consider parting with.
I also want to reframe some of the points I made in my previous closet editing newsletters. If you haven’t already, please read Part 1 and especially Part 2.
To summarize, honestly ask yourself (“Be Honest!”) if these emotions are influencing your decision to hold on to your clothes: