Organize a Wardrobe – It’s About More than Clothing

“Oh, I would never want anyone to see my closet.”  “Cleaning out my closet overwhelms me!”  These are things I hear often from women.  Those are such valid feelings and I wanted to focus a bit on the power of them.

In my experience, a woman’s reticence about tackling the big job of cleaning the closet to organize a wardrobe, often times has little to do with the clothing and much to do about the memories and emotions related to the garments.  Think about it… each and every item of clothing has stories and reminiscence connected to it.

Susan pulled out a little black dress she had worn to her cousin’s wedding in the 80‘s.  Susan had met her husband Stan that day, a glorious one!  The day had been great, but the dress now had moth holes in it and the shoulder pads were the size of the Europe!  What is a wardrobe stylist to do?  Let’s take a moment to explore why clothing is hard to part with.  In Susan’s case, she was still madly in love with her husband, Stan.  After some careful probing, she realized that the memory the dress had provoked brought back a time of newness in her relationship with him.  We chatted a bit more about some of the things she and Stan did when they first met and, VOILA’, they used to go clothes shopping together!  Susan and Stan had not shopped together for years.  The solution was clear… take a shopping trip with Stan and find a new black dress TOGETHER.  Just knowing that was on the horizon gave Susan the courage to toss the dress! YOU GO SUSAN.

Then there was sweet Carol.  After attending one of my Discover Your Style Workshops, Carol approached me with tears in her eyes and proceeded to tell me that she had held onto her maternity clothing well past what might be a normal time period.  Her daughter, an only child, was now 24 years old!  Carol had always wanted to have more children and had not been able to.  Such a deep hurt for her.  After a few moments of listening to Carol’s pain, I asked her if there was one very special item she had worn while pregnant with her daughter.  She described a pink tunic with white trim and pearl buttons she had worn to the baby shower.  I asked her how she would feel about having it cleaned professionally, wrapping it very carefully as a gift and tucking it in her daughter’s hope chest.  Her eyes lit up and at that point she was emotionally able to give up all of the other maternity clothing that had been cluttering up her closet!  Now her daughter had something to look forward to- a well loved maternity top!

I love the challenge of coming up with safe ways for women to “move on” within their wardrobes.  When women begin to accept and embrace life AS IT IS TODAY.. that is a golden key to their Empowered Style!

Do you have a “little black dress” or “maternity top” in your closet?  It’s time to celebrate what it meant to you and embody what is YOUR Empowered Style NOW!!