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Shop Your Closet: Over and Out

Laura

(website)

Veteran

I'm out

This week, I decided that I'd learned everything there was to learn from SYC and I am done! It felt great.

Here are my big take-aways from these 4 1/2 months:

1. Declutter and live with fewer items.
This was by far the biggest lesson, and it might have a lot to do with my age. As I get older, I need less noise, less commotion, less chaos, less STUFF. I hugely value simplicity now. In the past 5 months, I looked around and cringed at the clutter in my home and in my closet. SYC pushed me to declutter my entire life - books and clothing, mostly, since those are my two favorite items to buy - and ended with us deciding to sell our house and downsize. We've opened a space in our lives. Now we'll see what moves in

2. When you do buy, buy quality.
Completely linked to #1. Buy less, buy better. It feels a lot more rewarding to have a few items you love than a closet full of so-so items.

3. You can turn your life into an adventure by changing your habits.
I am by nature adventurous, and the past 9 years of raising children threw me for a loop. At first, having kids felt very adventurous for a career person like me, and rewarding. But in the past two years, I started feeling uncomfortable. We haven't travelled out of the country since 2002 - this is SO unusual for me. I have been in what you might call a "limit situation." Imagine my surprise when SYC turned my life back into an adventure. Now we are open to all sorts of possibilities, and that feels incredibly satisfying.

Thanks to everyone who participated! It was quite a ride and would have been nowhere near as fun without everyone who chimed in weekly! To wrap things up, I'd love to hear what everyone took away from this experience. What were your big "aha" moments? What will you do differently from now on?

General

38 replies

Latest reply was from Theresa

Misia

Veteran

Laura, these are great tips you have given! I'm starting to buy less and trying to get better quality stuff. This alone makes a better closet, I think!
And I can honestly say I hate clutter, so there is not much of that in my house, LOL

yublocka

(website)

Veteran

Fascinating Laura! I want to hear more about this house move! Or have you already posted about it elsewhere??

anne

Veteran

Laura,

I have just been catching up on many of your blog posts ( I had only read a few, those you had linked to) and really enjoyed your SYC journey.

I did not intend to join SYC but as it turns out, I didn't buy anything for 4 months anyway.
I also had a bit of a break from YLF, (briefly intentionally, partly because I was using all my online time on election news, and then for much longer unintentionally because I had little computer access)

During that time I enjoyed some TV series on DVD, read more and finished a 1000 piece jigsaw (an 8 week task).

My shopping habits were not long entrenched, and I didn't miss it much. Unlike you I don't enjoy shopping overly much anyway. However my spending had been creeping up, and I knew I had to stop.
I have evaluated many of the purchases I have made since joining YLF. Only a few I categorise as complete mistakes. Many were great; another category is "probably not the best thing I could have got but I will make use of it anyway
BTW I don't mean by that last sentence that I am making do with things that don't look good - more like I probably didn't need 3 sweaterdresses!

teri

Veteran

great tips

Anonymous

Laura, those are excellent take-aways. I'm with you on the clutter but have even more years of accumulation to deal with. It must be done. Clutter and stuff can rob us of time and opportunities.
I'm also feeling very picky about what I buy and trying not to settle for just ok. That will probably mean coming up empty-handed alot. I've learned that I need to look at my body and my lifestyle realistically when shopping to avoid mistakes and closet orphans.
I've found that I do get bored wearing the same outfits and need to play with new pieces and new trends for the fun of it. I want to go quality on the workhorses I intend to wear for several seasons but don't mind lesser quality when trying out a trend or in knits that will get heavy wear for a season, then get replaced. I don't have time for crafting and diets dictate cooking, so fashion is my creative outlet.

rute

Veteran

What a great accomplish! I could do it myself! I admire you!
Couldn't agree more with 2!
Buy less but better items, for me I would add, think a lot before buying, don't buy by impulse (i'm terrible at that).

Lisa

Veteran

These are some great tips. I did not SYC but followed along the way and learned a lot from the experience of others. At some point I plan to try this out myself, to put a stop to my impulse shopping. I do think if you are SYC for a while, you start to learn what you REALLY like style wise as well as what is in your closet. If you see the same items again and again and only grab the same few, you know those other items have to go. Plus you learn why you like certain items, material, cut, color, etc. In the end I think SYC creates great awareness about your closet, what is in it, what you need, something an impulsive person like myself never takes the time to do. Thanks to everyone for sharing your SYC journey, happy shopping!

Beth

Veteran

Congratulations to you Laura, and to all the SYCers! Clearly, lessons were learned and new perspectives were made. Nicely done, ladies:)

Barbara

Veteran

Great post, Laura. Now I know what to expect if and when I decide to shop MY closet.

I downsize and declutter every six months, more often if necessary. Doing so seems to positively enhance other areas of your life, doesn't it?

Laura

(website)

Veteran

SYC started out as a challenge to use what I had, and to change my shopping habits, and it spread like a virus to every part of my life!!

Oh, and I would add that 3 months of this is plenty. No need to go for 5. That was overly ambitious.

Glad to hear that others took a lot from this too. It was a fun journey because we were on it together.

Laura

(website)

Veteran

Tam, thanks for your comment too. I think I will blog about our house move now that it's in motion. Nothing posted today but starting tomorrow you can follow the action at:

http://www.writing4dummies.blogspot.com.

Vix

Veteran

Woohooooooo! You (and other SYCers) made it so far.

What fascinating results came out of your experiment, as well. Sounds like you are getting back to the core of who you are and how you want to direct your life. Good luck as you move onto your next challenge(s)!

PalmFronds

Congratulations Laura! SYC was a fantastic experiment,and made even better by being a part of the group. Those 10 weeks that I lasted were very needed for m and I learned alot too. Your summary is right on! Thank for both your encouragement as well as sharing your own angst with us at times.Looking forward to reading your blog post finale!

Queen Mum

Veteran

Woo hoo! let the shopping begin!

here are my take aways (which are of course similar to yours)

#1 I've learned how much is enough. Each of my wardrobe categories is complete (with one or 2 two exceptions) and now I will follow a strict one-in/one-out rule.

#2 Shopping is time consuming, so I might as well make it worth my while and purchase things that have a longer shelf life than one season.

#3 Shopping is enjoyable and I shouldn't try to fast for long periods because it does leave me feeling restless.

#3 I can ALWAYS make do with what is in my closet if I have to.. and sometimes I need to suck it up and do just that. There is always "one more outfit" to be discovered in my closet.

So, I guess in summary, I've learned that (as with all things), moderation is key. I don't need a new outfit every week, but I also don't need to deny myself the pleasure of a couple new items each month. While I don't need to spend $$$ on each and every wardrobe item, I also don't need to focus on finding the least expensive way to fill a wardrobe hole.

Thanks for an incredible journey Laura. I hope that at the end of 2011, we can all look back at our year and know that this experience did make a difference in our shopping habits.

bella

(website)

Veteran

Congratulations on completing the challenge! I am finding all of your insights very interesting. Thanks for sharing them with us.

Mo

(website)

Veteran

I first realized that all these years I didn't shop with outfits in mind. I would then have to search for missing pieces to put outfits together after the fact, quite often. So when I went to make outfits I found that in many cases, I couldn't because I hadn't thought them through back at purchase time.
My SYC became more of a looser interpretation (following the one in one out rule, rather than not shopping at all) after the first few weeks. Since I am still evaluating and purging, that left some wiggle room
I also had to come to terms with the *idea* of an outfit vs. it's wearability in my life. Or, what someone recently mentioned as the Tuesday afternoon look instead of the Saturday night dream look. I counted more dresses than anything in my closet, when what I really needed was more tops that were the right length to wear with pants and shorts. So my impulse to grab things that tickled my fancy wasn't in line with what I truly wore day in and day out. That was a big learning step.
Some other sillier stuff was the revelation that I can wear things for a few hours and then hang them back up for another later day. I used to wear something, then hang it over the bannister and re wear it within that week so it could be laundered. So I was reworking the same tops and shorts, etc each week without meaning to. This in turn, led to limited pulling from my closet's choices.
Anyway, I think Laura already summed it up quite well. Thanks for the challenge! It was a very eye opening experience and super helpful to me as a beginner on this journey. I think you saved me from some very expensive learning mistakes!!

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

Hallelujah and well done! Your lessons are inspiring, Laura

AJ

Veteran

4 1/2 months....that is a MAJOR achievement! Congrats!

Wow! Downsizing in homes because of SYC?! That's an awesome lifestyle change just from less shopping.

I look forward to reading your article about the whole SYC experience!

Jonesy

Veteran

Thanks for guiding us and being an inspiration through this, Laura! I appreciate your comments--the change in your home is a fascinating spin on this whole thing. I too have learned about moderation, and not settling for something just because it's about 85% right. Now I am much more selective, and willing to put in some time to find the exact thing I want.

Laura

(website)

Veteran

Well, it's not like the house thing happened overnight. It's been brewing for 2 years. SYC was a merely symptom of bigger things! But SYC was a good experience that definitely reinforced some of the ideas and changes we'd been mulling over.

BTW, my first post-SYC purchase arrived today. I ordered those MIA boots from Angie's recommendations. I also ordered three other pairs and they are all going back. But for four months I haven't had black boots to wear with my bootcut jeans - none of my boots had a heel of the right height and I was always walking on the hem! The MIAs are perfect. I also loved the Vince Camuto blue clogs and ordered those, but given how rarely I'd wear them, it's hard to justify. They'd be cute for going out, though!

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Queen Mum

Veteran

LOL Laura. Those boots arrived awfully quickly after declaring yourself done It reminds me of an I Love Lucy episode where Lucy made a bet with Ricky and right after winning the bet she called the store to "order" a new hat and it arrived 2 seconds later.

I'm just kidding you though.. I certainly haven't been the YLF saint the past few weeks. Those are great boots! Can"t wait to see you model them.

Mamapicklejuice

Veteran

Queen Mum - I thought so, too! LOL and I was thinking of the SAME episode! LoL ("It's teal...with little pearls scattered all over...")

Laura - Are you sure you can't justify the second pair - they are so you!

yublocka

(website)

Veteran

Look forward to reading about it Laura. I am always fascinated by how one area of life can result in changes to other, seemingly unrelated areas.

And can you please please please post pics of the Seargants??? I have been uhhming and ahhing over them for ages. Love the look but the gapeyness has me a bit wary!!!

Kristine

Veteran

Nice job Laura! Thanks for sharing your lessons! I didn't participate in SYC because I'm still getting my wardrobe in shape. But even so, those are lessons I'll take to heart as I build. Enjoy your new boots, you earned them!

celia

Veteran

Congratulations.This challenge/project was very inspiring to follow(if not actually fully participate in it) .
The most important thing that I learned has to do with your last point.Life is as adventurous as we make it.Somehow I had forgot about that during this year but thanks to you I found the will to live an adventurous life again and not to settle.
Thank you very much.

Patience

Veteran

I was wondering what your first purchase was, Laura.

I think SYC has really helped me recall my discipline. Since starting, I have been much clearer in my mind as to what things, pretty as they are, I really don't need. And I'm not even close to three months along.

Congrats!

stringy

Veteran

Wow, sounds like the challenge really opened up new ways of thinking. That's fantastic, it really looks like the effort has had a fantastic payoff for you!

I'm a reforming packrat - before YLF I had a tiny wardrobe but the rest of the house was full of stuff. Now I'm decluttering everything else but finding my wardrobe ballooning - I might have to do a SYC challenge myself, sometime next year.

MNsara

Veteran

Wow, Laura - it sounds like you got more of out than you ever thought, but all good Your next adventure will be a fun one to follow too! Those are great booties and I'm hoping we'll see some pics

I loved Mo's realization about wearability vs tickling her fancy - she described me to a "T" Also, QM's #3 speaks to me.

I did make headway into thinking more about every thing I buy. Progress . . . not perfection . . .

Lynne

Veteran

Laura, I am in AWE of all of you. And I love that so many people participated at their own level - from you with your total abstinence (I cannot wait to see your lovely green bag outed at last) to others who reduced or were more thoughtful about their purchases. I followed your threads here and you inspired me every time I tried something on - do I love it, do I need it, how would I feel if I left it and someone else got the last one (usually 'not too bad, actually' in which case I walked away). I'm sure the ripple effect of your challenge has reached much further than you imagine!

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