I am in the midst of a nightmare move from a house (getting on for 4000 square feet of house in fact, of which a large proportion was housing my wardrobe (3 large bedroomsworth) and sewing room), and in addition I had two rooms, each about 20 feet by 20 feet, for exercise) to a tiny rented 2-bedroom flat that is so small that even crushed into moving boxes my clothes alone would take up the entire space. (And that is before we even get on to all the other stuff I have, like books and whatnot!) I'm claustrophobic and a minimalist neat freak in terms of how I like my home space. I like empty space and hate clutter. Can you feel my panic?! I think I'm having a panic attack just thinking about this move.

As an interim measure I am renting a huge storage unit in which to put everything except bed, treadmill, exercise bike and two suitcases of clothes and a box of shoes, but in the long term, I clearly need to radically change the way I live including, in particular, my policies WRT clothes and shoes. I can see why so many YLF readers seem to get rid of so much good stuff. Having taken weeks and weeks just to pack my stuff, I am beginning to be attracted to the idea of living out of a suitcase and getting rid of everything that won't fit in one suitcase (like one friend of mine does)... but I am finding this whole business very difficult. I have turned into a basket case! How do people do this? I am freaked out by becoming a tenant with all manner of exhausting rules to abide by (talk about suffocating!), and I feel positively grief-stricken by the idea of having to get rid of thousands of books and beautiful pieces of clothing and shoes. And whenever I read posts from people who admit that having got rid of half their wardrobe they then had to go out and buy similar items again, I fear making the same mistake.

I can understand that for those who enjoy wearing a 'uniform' my current panic must seem very silly (get a grip, Sarah!, I hear you say, it's only clothes, not terminal cancer) but I'd get bored wearing the same sort of thing every day -- I like to play, I love dressing up and having fun with fashion and style. I express myself through my attire, and in particular different aspects through different outfits. Having fun with my attire is a large part of my life. How on earth do I deal with this need to get rid of about 95% of my perfectly good wardrobe? (I also feel terribly guilty about having spent so much money on all this stuff only to now have to get rid of it all!)

How can I bring myself to part with a large proportion of my footwear collection? I have long had the policy of getting rid of any shoes that turn out not to be comfortable or that cease to delight to me, so those I have can't be whittled down in the obvious ways.

One idea I have come up with to help me part with stuff is to start taking a ceremonial photo of myself in each piece, which I am hoping might (1) draw to my attention any pieces that don't look good (to me) on me, and (2) give me a concrete system for gradually going through my entire archive (oh for goodness sake, girl, ARCHIVE?!) and facing getting rid of stuff.

Any other ideas? Sorry to sound so spoilt and pretentious!

Sarah