My Style is Golden: Closet full of clothes, Nothing to wear

After-Christmas sales, Clearance sales, Forever 21, Target, even Nordstrom Rack... I like them too... sometimes you get find a great gem (or two) at these places... but you can also run the risk of FALLING IN LOVE WITH THE PRICE, RATHER THAN FALLING IN LOVE WITH THE ITEM.

Do you ever stand in front of your closet - jam-packed with clothes- and say to yourself (or your spouse) "I have NOTHING to wear!"?

You're not alone. I've heard this statistic over and over that something like 80% of women wear 20% of their clothing 80% of the time. That sounds about right.

I'm guilty of it. I will walk by an item, pick it up, think "meh, it's pretty cute," check out the price, $19.99!!??, and buy it right then and there!

Did I love it? No. I loved the price. How many pieces in your closet do you have just because you loved the price?

When I take clients shopping, I don't even let them look at the prices before they try things on because cost can be such a great persuader. Once you get an item home and it's ready to be worn, you won't care what it cost anymore. So when it comes time to pick out an outfit for the day/date/important event... you will put that item on and every time, you will take it off and out of frustration, exclaim "I have NOTHING to wear!"

So, how do you avoid this dilemma?

First of all, you have GOT to purge your closet of all of those "bargain" pieces. I know that may mean getting rid of HUNDREDS of $$ worth of clothes (sometimes it DOESN'T pay to bargain shop).

But, psychologically, it is hard on us when we see a large number of garments hanging in our closet, yet we constantly wear only a set few.

So, let's get rid of the bad, the too-small, the too-big, the unflattering, and the just plain ugly. Donate it, turn it into cleaning rags, whatever... just GET IT OUT OF YOUR CLOSET!

Second, we need to make a list of what's missing from your closet. Sure you had a closet full of clothes (but you said so yourself, you had "nothing to wear"). What's missing? Are you missing jeans? Layering pieces? Jackets? Color? Shoes?

Make a list.

Now with the clothes that you do have in your closet - ORGANIZE, ORGANIZE, ORGANIZE! It's a new year, it's a great time to get that closet in shape!

Here's how I like to do it:

Start with the sleeveless, then the short-sleeve, then long-sleeve, then jackets, then dresses, then pants.
Now, color code each section starting from light to dark. I know - it sounds neurotic, but it helps, trust me, and it really doesn't take that much extra time!

The point is to make all of your clothing as visible as possible. Fold your exercise clothes, your random tee-shirts, your jeans if you have to - but try and leave as much hanging as you can.

Now you are ready to shop. You have your list, you know what's missing from your wardrobe... ready, set, go!

Just remember - if you don't LOVE IT, don't buy it! You don't want to have to do this all over again in a year do you? Trust me when I tell you that it will SAVE YOU $$ to SLOWLY rebuild you closet buying things you love, rather than buying things you "kind of" love just because they are on sale.

When you purchase a new piece, add it to your newly organize closet. Play around with how it will fit in with your other clothes. Make outfits with the pieces you have.

See how many outfits you can make with the pieces you have. Be creative. I bet you can make more outfits than you think!

It can be a tiring process - but it's worth it. Seeing clothes every morning JUST HANGING THERE that you can't/won't wear is frustrating (especially when you're not quite sure WHY you don't like them)... so cleansing your closet is a great start to cleansing all of the old from the past and being open to all of the good to come in this new year!

Check out these pictures of a recent wardrobe edit I did with a client. We had purchased a few pieces - a couple of sweaters, some patterned tops, some scarves, and some layering pieces. See the difference for yourself.