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Feature article: Online $5 and under
Shopping Savvy
Save your clothes
Simplify your wardrobe
Makeover your clothes
What to do with a T-shirt #7
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Imagine walking into your closet and having only 2 possible outfits to wear. One is black, the other is khaki. Easy choice right? Imagine how much time you could save in the morning. Imagine how easy getting dressed would be. Imagine how...boring. If that's what you're thinking, you don't need to go to extremes to have a simple wardrobe. You can have clothes you really love to wear, a little variety, and still a simple enough choice in the morning.
Strip your wardrobe to its essentials
If you could only keep ten items of clothing (other than underwear - but you only get enough for 1 week) what would they be? Go through your stuff and decide. Make it twenty. Set all the other stuff aside.
What are you doing with all this other stuff? Do you really love it? Do you really wear it? Why is it hanging there? If you don't wear it, give it away. If you don't like it, give it away. If you have to have it, decide why. If it's a sentimental reason, make a separate suitcase or box for sentimental clothes. Make it a small box, and put it in storage.
If you really love some other other stuff, pick that stuff out. How many is it you REALLY love. That means it has to follow all these conditions:
- It fits - if it doesn't, you can't wear it anyway, so it's outta there.
- It's in decent shape - if it's torn with holes etc. either put it in the sentimental box or send it through the recycling machine.
- It's pretty comfortable - that wool thing that has you dancing in your pants is NOT comfortable. Toss.
- It looks GOOD - you had better love strutting in that. Otherwise, it's not true love. Move it on.
Now you have clothes you love to wear. Ta da!
Find real clothes you will wear forever
Sometimes we buy clothes and then hate them. Once you're shopping savvy (go here for more info), that should be less of a problem. But it happens. In that case, you need some clothes buying tips:
DO NOT buy stuff you will not wear. It's that simple. Follow it.
Pick things that are not trendy - try classic pants and skirts and shirts that you know your daughter will want to borrow someday.
But you have to keep up with trends, after all. Resolve the buy no more than 1 (repeat ONE) trendy item per season. You'll be up to date with that one.
You gotta love it to buy it. See the rules above for how to know if it's real love.
Shoes, accessories et cetera
Shoes and accessories can suffer the same fate. Think Imelda Marcos - how many of those gorgeous shoes do you think she wore? Don't let your poor shoes be neglected - give em to someone who'll use them or use them yourself.
Pick out a few shoes: two dress shoes, two for daily wear, sneakers, sandals (that's generous). Weep over the rest then bid them goodbye.
Scarves - if you really wear these, pick two or three. Turn the others into pillow covers or to wrap gifts in.
Watches - you really need only one watch if it's a good one. It should go both day and night. If you must, get one for special occasions.
Earrings - dressy or casual. Pick a few (please, no more than 10 should exist). Others can go in sentimental boxes or can be sterilized (rubbing alcohol) and given as gifts. When you see someone else's happy face wearing your earrings, you won't have the heart to take them back.
Simplify, simplify
Thoreau's words can echo in your wardrobe. Give yourself just a few items to look at each day. Another way to simplify is to put away half your wardrobe. Just deciding what to put away will help you pare down. You might not miss those old clothes. You'll know which you miss. But when you have so many you don't remember they exist, they don't need to be there. You can have just a simple few really amazing clothes you look forward to wearing each day.
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