Let’s Talk About Clothes and Closets

 

That is not my closet. Nope. This is mine:

 

 

Everything I own, in the way of clothes and shoes and jewelry, all seasons, resides in this 1950s “double” closet. My husband has one of these plus a single closet for his clothes. And I, the wife, the one who is supposed to have lots of clothes, have this. Sadly, improving the closet isn’t an option at the moment, nor is it in the near future. Both time and money are factors here. I can’t even use anything like these reach in closet systems on Amazon. The closet space extends about a foot past the door opening on each side. 

 

I’m ashamed to admit that my thought was “I hate these clothes! I hate all my shoes! I hate my closet!” Hate, hate, hate. That sounds so ungrateful. I asked forgiveness and quickly adjusted my thinking. I’m truly thankful I have clothes and shoes and a place to keep them. In the grand scheme of things, a ton of current and stylish clothes and a huge closet are quite low on the totem pole. But I still want better for myself, as I’m sure you do too, or you wouldn’t be here reading this. 

 

In a little over a year I’ve lost 60 lbs. Before you ask…. low carb. I never would have believed it, but it worked! I’m only 4′ 10″, so 60 lbs. was a heck of a lot of weight. Now, I’m having trouble finding clothes small enough!! Unbelievable! I still can’t wrap my brain around it. I don’t feel any smaller. When someone comments on me being “skinny”, I think they’re just being nice. I see myself in the mirror and do a double take. Can that possibly be me?? 

 

Why didn’t my nose lose weight?! And I think I like bangs on me better, but my hair is thinning so badly, bangs don’t really work any more. And now that I think about it, the before picture was definitely 2012 or earlier.

 

My life consists of hanging out at home, going to yard sales, tending the booth and going out to eat at very casual restaurants. The clothes I tend to buy, 1.) Fit and 2.) “This would be good to wear to yard sales.” I have nothing to wear to funeral visitations or anything that would be considered business casual and only a couple of church dresses/clothes. I really don’t even have any fun, cute, casual clothes. My clothes are boring. I’d like to remedy that. 

 

This $95.00, draped, gingham tank from Anthropologie looks like it would fit my lifestyle quite well. Wait…. Ninety-five dollars$$$$$$?? Ack! Can’t I make something similar? Sure I could! And I have a collection of patterns spanning from the 1940’s through now. Surely I could find a couple I could put together to come up with this. Maybe… 

 

So, I’m working hard to get my life back to what it used to be with time for sewing. If I’m successful, I’ll try to have a new blog category of sewing and clothing upcycling. We’re slowly getting things under control here. I took the step to get down to one booth. Check. I can already feel some pressure lifted. We had a ginormous yard sale this past weekend. Sold everything. (More on that in another post.) More pressure gone, but there are still yard sale things we didn’t have time to pull out. I’ve been working on the sewing room, organizing and arranging furniture. Another post in the works. Getting the house organized and junk destashed is top priority. 

But back to that closet. Perhaps someday I’ll get that walk-in closet.

 

 

Until that time, I intend to make the clothes in my tiny closet count. I’ll always need “work clothes” that I can get paint on, but I really want to go be able to go to my closet and have to decide which cute outfit I’ll wear today. Who’s with me? Do I dare issue a challenge? Revamp that closet! Can I even meet the challenge?