Five Tips for Loving Everything You Wear

I've been thinking a lot lately about the clothes in my closet. I shared on here that since August I've gotten rid of probably 100 things, many of which were blogging gifts, but things I didn't really love. I've been working to make sure I love everything I wear, and thought I'd share some tips with you today. 

1. It all begins with a closet clean out.  I am well aware how overwhelming this sounds, but you've got to start there. I personally think it works best to pull everything out and organize things on your bed by category- a pile for tanks, a pile for short sleeves, then long-sleeves, etc. Now that you are overwhelmed and your room looks disastrous, it's time to get to work. You'll follow these steps with each category of clothing:

• Start by separating your piles into smaller one. For example, get all your tanks and go back to your closet hanging up the ones you know fit, you feel good wearing, feel good wearing, AND have worn in the last three months.
• Make a garbage pile for clothes that have holes or are worn out.
• Make another pile for pieces you can't remember when you wore last or you know are ill fitting to donate or sell.
• You'll probably have a few piece remaining, these you need to try on and then make a determination on if they are worth keeping on not. If it fits well and you WANT to wear it again, keep it, otherwise put it in your donate/sell pile.
• Repeat these steps with all of your categories of clothing, making sure to put each category in it's own place in the closet. It will be much easier to find clothes to wear if you have each category together.

2. After you've cleaned out your closet it's time to conquer your shoes, accessories, belt, and dresser drawers. This won't take as much time or probably a need to try on, but follow the same steps as above. Make a pile to keep, throw, and donate or sell. 

I would also suggest thinking about how things are organized. Do you have a shoe rack, a stand for your necklaces?  If not, Target has them affordably? I like this shoe rack option, although 30 is quite a few. I have a couple of the 10 shoe hanging ones, but they aren't as sturdy as this one.  As for jewelry, I have this one and love it.

3. Make a wish list. Look through your piles of toss and donate/sell. Are there any closet staples in there that will need to be replaced? For basic pieces, which tend to need to be replaced more frequently as they are worn more I've been pretty happy with Merona tees in long and short sleeve. They also seem to go on sale frequently. As for replacing or filling other closet holes, it obviously won't happen over night, and that's ok. I've gone away from disposable fashion for the most part. I've found that spending a bit more is worth it as it wears and washes better, therefore it will last longer.

I'm a big fan of Loft and they have 40% and 50% off sales pretty much constantly, so sign up for their emails and wait for the sales to shop.

As for replacing the most expensive things, like shoes or boots, I suggest waiting until the end of the season where they get worn and take advantage of the sales. Another option is waiting until Black Friday, my two favorite pairs of boots were both purchased at amazing prices on this day.

4. Revisit what's worth keeping at the end of each season. After your initial clean out, you shouldn't have to do a mass one again, but at the end of each season, go through your closet and take out pieces to donate or sell that you didn't wear at all. If you didn't wear it all fall/winter this year the chance that you'll actually wear it again next year is slim to none. Just let them go.

5. Don't force yourself to wear something. You are bound to have somethings in your closet you want to love, keep, etc. either because you spent good money on it or it was a gift. Let these pieces go too. You'll never love everything you wear if you don't feel good wearing it.

I hope these tips help you out, I know they're helping me.