Crazy Wardrobe Idea

So, in my last blog post you voted on what my next post should be about.  Many of you were interested in #4: a crazy wardrobe idea that I'm not sure I have the guts to do.

All your votes = me having the guts

It's an idea that I've vocalized more than once.

"If money were not an issue, it would be so fun to get rid of everything in my wardrobe and buy anything that I wanted."

Now, before you start thinking I won the lottery or am somehow independently wealthy (neither of which are true) let me say I am not getting rid of all my clothes and going on a major shopping spree.

Sigh.

But what if I ruthlessly went thru my closet and discarded everything that didn't fit right or I don't like for some reason?  And what if I documented it?  And what if I learn something surprising?

Well, I did.  All of the above.  Join me in my closet and thought process.

Welcome to my closet.  This is the "before" shot.

After I took this photo I just stood there for a minute, thinking. 

Am I really going to do this?!

What if I have nothing left?

Should I set an amount I am willing to spend to rebuild my wardrobe?

Then, without really answering the questions, I dove in.

After the first pass, my reject pile wasn't all that big.  So I figured I wasn't being totally honest with myself.  My fear of having nothing to wear was trumping my desire to have only clothes that I feel good in.

Wow, does that sound shallow?  

I didn't think cleaning out my closet would produce soul-searching thoughts.

Please don't misunderstand me.  I don't think there is anything wrong with wanting to look nice.  I believe God created us with a bent toward beautiful.  But how much stock do we put in it?  Do I spend as much time in the morning with Jesus as I spend on getting ready to go out?  What makes me more beautiful, the clothes and jewelry I am wearing or my heart that is changing to be more like God?

Oh. my.

Hold that thought, back to the closet.  The second and third passes thru were more cut-throat.  And just for fun, I made three piles.

There's the "oh my goodness, what was I thinking when I bought that?!" pile:

sorry about the sideways.

The "I don't have anything to wear with this" pile:

And lastly, the "I don't like the way this fits and/or I don't like the way I look in it" pile:

My friends would use the word "confident" to describe me.  And I would mostly agree.  But the height of that last pile tells this truth: I am not always the confident person I appear to be.  Remember that the next time you look at someone and think "I wish I could have it all together like her."  Everyone has their pile.  Mine just looks different than yours.

The "after" picture:

I thought I would take stock at the end and make a list of the things I needed to buy to complete my now de-pleted wardrobe.  I noticed I had quite a few of these things:  cardigans, dresses, and boots.  Enough dresses in fact that I could go out every day of the week and not wear the same one twice.  How many girls in the world are that blessed?

It dawned on me that maybe, just maybe, there is nothing else I needed.

Yeah, but...

NO "yeah, but"s.

So what started out as one crazy wardrobe idea has now evolved into a different crazy wardrobe idea.  What if I choose to be content with what's in my closet right now?

Care to join me?