A Wardrobe Meltdown

Going off topic here, beware! Every year during this changing of the season, I go through my closet and dump the summer clothes {into a tote} to make room for the fall and winter stuff. Ahh... my favorite time of year 'cuz I get to dress in layers again. Except life as a middle aged woman makes everything different. Nothing fits or hangs like it used to and I just hate it.

About a third to a half of this never, ever gets worn....

Clothing creeps up over my jellyrolls and scrunches under my arms. The three layers that I gleefully wore for so many years make me feel constricted and so very hot. I don't like my bosoms being on display {all the cute stuff seems to be very low cut these days} and I'm short so I walk a thin line with the tunic styles too. Agghhh!! It almost makes me want to burn everything in my closet. Almost.

Too many jean skirts....

Instead I did some deep thinking. And then, well yeah! there was some shopping required. Not having a lot of money to work with, I started out with a novel approach and went to the Goodwills. It's a mad scramble to find the good brands, but if you're tenacious they are definitely available. It's no wonder woman get traumatized by shopping these days though. In skirts I can wear anything from a 10 to a size 16. If it's a med, large, or x-large I just have to hold it up and guess. And it's really quite exhausting because I'm usually a bit too optimistic and can't even squeeze the thing up past my hips. Which used to make me want to cry. But now I just toss the thing in the corner and sneer at the people who create this sort of chaos in the first place. There's really no choice but to endure, 'cuz I haven't been able to find a dress I like in over ten years. {And I'm obviously not losing weight anytime soon....}

The sizes are just too depressing....

Let's not even talk about the secondhand prices these days. In one store they were over-inflated to the point when they asked me to add a dollar onto my receipt at the time of purchase, I almost snapped their head off 'Don't you think I'm donating enough?'. Like I could seriously find one sale 'red' tag item for half off there. Thankfully I had better luck at the second Goodwill because I really needed my money to stretch for a very long way.

And on with my day it went, always trying to think about things that were NEEDED. Things that would make my closet a happier place. That minimal thing is starting to sound pretty fascinating to me, but I'm not quite ready to purge down to a basic 15 to 30 items. Baby steps people....

Another oatmeal colored sweater to hang in my closet...

Eventually the second hand stores had delivered up their finest goods and so I made my way to the mall. A light bulb went off in my head when I splurged at Marshalls and bought the oatmeal colored sweater than practically made my head spin. I do love the neutrals. See, the fact is, I'm not precisely bored with my wardrobe. I just can't get all the pieces to fit together so that I feel truly comfortable. Out of all the t-shirts pictured below, I probably only wear about 5 on a day by day rotation. Because they are too short or too tight. They scrunch across my chest or dip too low in the front. The cami's don't get worn nearly as often as they used to because I just can't handle that many layers anymore and a lacy cami with a sweater usually feels too dressy for everyday or sometimes, even for a casual Sunday. How sad is that? My closet is a disaster!

Too many uncomfortable t-shirts

So then I was off on a hunt for the perfect underlayer sort of t-shirt. It had to be thin, slightly silky and plenty roomy under my arms without drowning me or pulling across my chest in that weird little dip t-shirts like to do. It needed to be nice enough to wear with sweaters but not so snazzy as to look weird under my button-downs I live in during the week. I finally hit pay dirt at Maurices of all places.

Blue, black and actually a lovely sort of lt. lavender for the new....

You might think I'm a boring sort of person in the way that I dress, but I just don't like to stand out in a crowd. When people approach me and compliment me on my outfit, it makes me happy, but mostly it makes me feel awkward. So I'm working on that and made a very conscious effort to buy a couple things with some nice details or pattern. It helped that the beige, vintage looking tank was on on a tag sale for $2! Oh yeah, much easier to be brave when the price is right. And I do wear brighter colors in the summer. Not sure why that is, but facts are facts.

A couple nicer pieces...

All in all, it was a good day except for the fact that I left the house at 9 am and didn't return until 8:30 pm. I have a good start on figuring out where to go with my wardrobe issues and what to do. It's hard to rethink the wardrobe when really, I'd love to dress like I was 30 and still wore a size 4! Honestly, the first step is getting out a black bag and dumping the nonsense pieces, the things I don't or won't ever wear. So very glad I didn't have to shop for bras, new jeans or shoes too! I've got that mostly figured out and the money {and time} just wasn't there for that anyway.

So how about you? How's your wardrobe feeling these days? hehe I'll get back to quilting soon, promise. There's a Quilt Festival still to check out and a Improv. linky part I was hoping to join up with....

*My new closet has been 'in the works' for two years now. Still no discernible progress there as my husband finds our current closet quite adequate!