The Wardrobe Edit

I find it very hard to concentrate on anything when I know my clothes have just been thrown into my wardrobe. It is as though instead on focusing on a task my mind has set about reorganising and mentally refolding my clothes. Even now as I type my peripheral vision is targeting in on the bundle of knitwear sitting on the top shelve of my wardrobe. If the eyes are the window to the soul then my wardrobe must be its brain. It seems that seven or so years of retail experience have left a huge need to have every item ‘shop hung’ or ‘shop folded’ away in a manner akin to how a brain sorts and compartmentalises each thought and memory.

Having been a fashion blogger for three years people often remark that I must have a lot of clothes. I don’t. I own a modest sized wooden wardrobe with matching four-drawer dressed and firmly believe that if I can’t fit something into this space than I don’t need it. I hate to hoard and twice yearly scour my collection of those pieces I will never wear again and donate to charity, making a little more room for new pieces. That said as I’m getting older and, dare I admit, broodier I’ve come to think about storing away items to pass on to any future daughter I may have.

So it’s time for one of my biannual clear outs. This is what I usually do approaching the transitional period between main seasons such as Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter. I’m currently moodboading my AW12/13 inspiration and slowly moving the summer pieces towards to back of my wardrobe. This is when I start to get brutal and get out the charity bin bag, a sheet of paper and a pencil. Bin those items that were ‘maybes’ from the last edit and still haven’t worn and with the paper and pencil I draw two circles. In one circle I list the new season pieces I lust and in the second I list those missing staples from my collection; the basics that need replacing or investing in. Then I hope to reach a sort of Venn diagram of compromise between what I want and what I need.

Then I go shopping with the list. Bad things happen when I forget the list. Credit cards get hurt. Bank balances die. I must stick to the list.