Part 1
It was probably
about 10 years ago that I picked up a magazine one evening, and instead of
flipping through it, my eyes were held… well mesmerized, by what I saw on the
back cover. It was an ad for a company that organized closets. A picture of a
closet showing racks holding a few skirts, a few pairs of slacks and a few
tops, along with some shelves holding a few knit shirts and sweaters continued
to hold my longing gaze.
Every
article of clothing was clearly visible, so I counted them. Hanging from the
racks were 12 skirts, 12 pairs of slacks, 12 tops and 6 jackets. On the shelves
were 12 knit shirts and 6 sweaters. With
empty spaces on the racks and shelves, these numbers were surprising. I would
have guessed about half that number. The closet looked mostly bare, and I loved
it.
As I thought
about these numbers, I realized this closet provided work clothes for two
weeks, without wearing the same outfit more than twice in a month. Wow! Not
only did I see order in this closet, but I also saw freedom. This closet
contained a well planned wardrobe. Not hunting for missing pieces or stressing
over endless choices. Even the cleaning and care of this wardrobe looked easily manageable.
Trying to
achieve this for myself at that time was very difficult. But I had a plan.
Instead of trimming down my closet, I would just remove all but two weeks of
wardrobe and store the rest. About once a month I would trade some items from
the closet for those in the boxes.
So that’s
what I did. I liked the results so well, that for several days I kept my closet
doors open so I could see all the neatness and order. This worked for a few
months.
But then,
the seasons changed and I kept transeasonal pieces, while adding other seasonal
and new clothing. It wasn’t long until my closet had returned to a packed and
messy site.
I still
longed for a slightly bare closet, filled only with what I needed and loved.
But the problem was that I just couldn’t part with anything in it.
~To be continued~
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