I definitely don't love 80% of what I have, but I think I love 80% of what I've bought in the past 9 months (since joining YLF). And I'm at the point where I feel good about my wardrobe - there aren't any holes that I'm desperately scrambling to fill. I don't have any orphans. Everything goes with something, and I'm only keeping the items I actually wear. It's taken a lot of work, but I'm definitely feeling good about the progress I've made.
In case anyone wants the advice I have on how to get there:
- Commit to one or two color schemes. Not everything has to match, but it really helps when your closet isn't a complete mix of colors, shades, and intensities. I stick to an autumn palette, and then have allowed some pieces that "go" but don't match to stay because I can make them work. Happiness is not a wardrobe with each and every color in a 120 pack of crayons.
- Track what you actually wear. Since August I've been (somewhat obsessively) keeping track of every item I own, and making sure that I wear everything twice. And three months in I'm STILL finding more items to purge. Some I couldn't even bring myself to actually wear once. Other I wore once and remembered why I never wore them. Some I wore once, and then just didn't want to wear again. And some I even wore twice, and then decided they just weren't worth the space to keep, even though they technically passed the test.
- Take note of what piece(s) you keep wishing you had to complete an outfit. I was opposed to denim pencil skirts until I realized I have a lot of outfits that I wanted to wear with skinny jeans, but it's too hot in AZ 8 months of the year for skinny jeans, and a denim pencil skirt was close enough to work with most of those outfits I wanted to make. Now it's a workhorse.
It gets better, but it takes work. Luckily, work can be fun!
