Purging my closet....being creative, not consuming.....

Before we moved to a different city a year and a half ago, I had a busting at the seams closet!  And you know what?  I had NOTHING to wear!!  How can a woman have so many clothes and nothing to wear???

Well, probably because when I opened my closet, my eyes had nowhere to rest.  Just a riot of fabric and colors and clothes that don't fit, or that I'm iffy about, or I bought because I thrifted it cheap.  The last one is a huge lesson I've learned...thrift like you retail....if you don't love it, I don't care if they're GIVING it to you, DON'T take it!

Anyway, beyond shopping secondhand first, I also want to make the most of the space and the clothes I have.  Over the past year and a half, I've seriously purged.  And I continue to purge!

Whenever I open my closet and see something for which I've lost that loving feeling....it's GONE!  And I mean GONE!  I'm brutal about this.  I want to open my closet and see nothing but items I aboslutely love!!  If I love the item, I can create a look I love...pretty hard to do when I'm apathetic about my clothes.

I've even paired down my leather skirts!  I have given up a couple because they no longer fit.  I didn't think I had really lost weight, but the two I've purged just didn't hug my hips the way I think pencil skirts should.  Soooooo....those skirts went into a project in which I used them to cover my dining chairs! More on that in another post, but I have to tell you, I feel pretty uptown with my suede cushioned chairs!!!

If you can believe it, I've even pared down my shoes!  I truly LOVE my boots and so I've lined them up on the floor of my closet and rolled up magazines to put in them to help them remain aright.  And by the way, remember this post about lusting after the Nine West Harper boot that retailed for $250?  Well about a month ago, I checked out the site and it was on clearance for $60!!  They didn't have the reddish brown color in my size, so I hopped on the blond leather and actually find it more wearable than the darker!!

I counted up all of the items in my closet, including shoes, boots and coats and also counted in cotton tee shirts and I came up with 84 items.

I love the idea of being creative with my wardrobe - of creating multiple looks out of the same item.  Have you seen The LBD experiment?  It completely inspires me to use my creativity and not my credit card to put together fabulous looks.  Like I mentioned on Bella's blog, my aim is to be a creative woman, not a consuming one!  

Have you ever counted the number of items you have in your closet?  Are you cool with it?

Before I let you go....don't forget to check out Bella's shop for some fresh picked vintage goodies, Terri's offerings for some of the most unique items I've ever seen,  and my ebay store...I'm running a crazy sale right now!!  Oh!  And I almost forgot!  My aunt is selling some beautiful new Doncaster items in larger sizes....gorgeous career clothing!