Decluttering clothes

A couple of weeks ago I started decluttering my clothes...  to one of my friend's daugther delight!!!
I was trying to get to this Project 333 stuff...  however I realized that I am not there yet.... But it's good.... I come from far....

To describe my wardrobe 3 years ago (I do not have a picture), try and imagine this...  I had a double closet full of stuff...  plus an armoire just as full... and a 6 drawers chest jus as full as you may have guess... And some stored away underneath my bed!!!  Basically I could have dress myself and a couple of friends for a few months without wearing the same stuff twice!!! I had TONS of clothes... Totally did not make sense!!! (why have more then what you can make use off?)

Then we moved into a smaller place and I had to basically fit all my clothes into double closet and my 6 drawers chest....  remove the armoire and the equivalent of it's content (no room to put in into that smaller room)!
Then we moved yet into a smaller place...  I mean as we were decluttering everything else, there really was no point in living in such a big expensive place...  downsizing was allowing us to save money and on cleaning time!!! So I had to let go of more of my clothes yet...  this was a ''forced'' process...  I did not have enough space..  but I was still ''Attached'' to clothes... so what I would do while decluttering those past years was getting rid of stuff to make room to buy more current fashionable stuff...  Not exactly the point!

I had to stop and question why I was doing that?  Why was I able to declutter everything but my closet? And come to realize the my clothing are what people ''see'' of me...  and I was afraid of being judge...  and not looking good enough! (However, when I look at it now, most would probalby think that I was an air head wasting all her money on clothes!)
So about a year ago, at the time where I started this blog I came up with an idea... to not buy anything for a whole year unless it was absolutely essential!  Quite a huge goal for me (coming from a place where I would spend hundreds of dollars every month on clothes only!)!!!  And I managed to do it for 6 months ( and pay off some debt with the money saved!)!!!  I was proud of myself but realize the forbidding myself to buy would not work...  I eventually give into my old habit!!!

Beginnning of this year, I made another resolution (but kep it to myself)... that by the end of this year I would have found a ''cure'' for my problem... my clothes addiction! I started looking into books (by Anna Johnson and Melissa Tosseti) and then this go into me looking at blogs (by Melissa Tosseti and Courtney Carver).. and I think THAT worked...  I finally managed to come to the conclusion that buying so much clothes was a way for me to hide from who I really was....  I use to have clothes that would no suit me because they were not my style, not fit my body properly, no the right color or pattern... and most of them were orphans!!!  And many were NEVER or hardly ever worn!!!  That did not make sense to me!!!

I then started looking at who I was, what I wanted people to see from my clothing, what I wanted to reflect...  and who I was inside so that I could reflect it on the outside!!!  And that worked!!!

I now have clothes that fit me well, go togheter (no more orphans), that are versatile, of better quality (I only kept and am allowed to buy good quality now - no more cheap stuff so that I can get more), can be worn in more then one season and most importantly reflect the REAL me!!!  Who cares what other people think?  And it I am truly comfortable with what I own and wear, they will only think good things of me cause I am not trying to be someone I am not!  Nor am I trying to impress people for what I am not!

So for the last couple of weeks, I can say that I really managed to get rid of loads of clothes... I now only take a single wardrobe and a 5 drawers chest... and my clothes can still breathe (there is still romm - but not to add more!)!!! Winter stuff is paked away! I may not have only 33 items to wear over the next 3 months... but if I look at my work wardrobe I have about 25 items!  And if I look at my not at work wardrobe I may have 30 items.. but some of those fit into both category so in total I may have 45 items!!! No to bad for now!!!

I will continue working on this...  I still have a few more months before end of year anyway.. we are only end of May!!!
Some items still need to by tried and tested to see if they past the test...  so I may end up giving away a few more items!!!

I am happy I managed tho deal with this issue.. it was a big deal for me.. I felt like I was not on control of that part of my life and it was not good for me.. all that money and time wasted!

A VERY good side to having less clothes is the ease of getting dress in the morning!!!  It use to take me a long time just to decide what I would wear.... now in five minutes if not less I am settle down on my choice!!  So I still wake up at the same time I use to, but now I can manage to do my 45 minnutes yoga practice, take my shower, enjoy my breakfast and still be ready on time!!! No more rushing!!!  What an amazing increase in quality of my time!!!

Have you looked into decluttering your wardrobe?  How are you handling it?