Lots of clothes and nothing to wear? The problem is in your closet.
I'm Sheila and this is Chic and Confident, a channel for women over 50 who want to dress
well with ease. For the best style tips, hit the subscribe button and ring the bell
and you'll be notified every Tuesday when i upload a new video. So let's get back to that problem
you have in your closet and the reason you have nothing to wear. It's all about shopping habits,
and don't worry, in this video I'm going to show you how to solve that problem.
The habits that are coming between you and dressing with ease can be narrowed down to
three - buying on impulse - buying too many clothes and buying for the wrong reasons.
I'll talk more about these a little further on but first I'm going to show you how to declutter
your closet. There are seven steps to declutter your closet and you can do them all in one day
or you can do them one day at a time for a couple of hours. It all depends on how many
clothes you have and how much work is involved. As you do this keep in mind how you feel how
you feel when you toss an item and how you feel when you look at a certain item. Just keep that
in the back of your mind .For the most efficient closet you should have just one season's clothes.
It's a good habit every season to take all of your winter clothes, all of your fall clothes
-whatever season it's not. Take that out and just deal with one season.What
you're going to need is a bag or a box.One for items that you want to toss and get rid of,
another one for items that need repair - or you could also use a rolling rack.
You might want to use that rolling rack for items you need to reconsider.
Step number one take everything out of your closet that you haven't worn for a year
when you take it out kind of decide why it is you haven't worn it. Is it because it's
too big too small? What reason? There are many reasons, so think about why you haven't worn it.
Step number two, take out everything that is in need of repair. Maybe it needs new buttons,
maybe it needs to be hemmed, maybe there are stains - it needs to be washed or dry cleaned.
Anything that you won't wear because there's damage - take that out. Also consider your
shoes and your handbags. For example if you have shoes that have heels that are worn
take them out and get them repaired, or if you have handbags that have seen their lifespan
get them out as well. Now as you're going through this you may notice that some things even though
you haven't worn them in a long time you're thinking - I don't really want to get rid of this
--you have some kind of an emotional attachment to it. Just pay attention to what that attachment is.
Is it because you paid a lot of money for it? Is it because somebody gave it to you? Does
it remind you of something or some event? Just think about why you're attached and
if that is a good reason to keep it. For example, if you paid a lot of money for something but it's
no longer useful and you're hoping that someday you'll be able to wear it with something else or
something miraculous is going to happen and you'll be able to wear it, the best thing to do is to
take it out of your closet, maybe put it somewhere else in a different closet or put it in a box
and you won't feel as bad. After another six months or so and you haven't even thought about it
then you can get rid of it. That makes it a little bit easier. Step number three is to
take out anything and everything that doesn't fit - maybe it's a skirt that's too tight,
maybe it's a blouse that's too tight, or maybe too big, make sure that your clothes fit around
the shoulders that they fit around the hips that there's no pulling or tugging and that
they feel comfortable. Sometimes things feel comfortable because they're big and baggy
but really an outfit that looks great or a piece that looks great on you is one that fits well so
take a good look in the mirror. This is why you're going to need some time for this.Take
a good look in the mirror to make sure that this piece that you're going to keep actually fits.
Also if you're planning to keep it because you're going to lose weight, if you're not planning that
weight loss in the next few months it's best to take it out of your closet. That piece says
hanging there just remind you of a goal you haven't reached - this too can be taken out
and put somewhere where you can get it later on if you do indeed lose weight. Step number four.
If your lifestyle has changed in the recent past or maybe even two years ago and you still have
clothing in your closet that you don't wear anymore because now - for example you were
working and you had a professional wardrobe but now you're retired and your wardrobe is changed
it's a good idea to get that out of your closet because it's just taking up space. Go through
those items and find the ones that you might be able to incorporate into the wardrobe you're
wearing now. Anything you haven't worn because of a lifestyle change is time to get it out of
your closet. If you were a professional and you were in a working environment,
a professional environment but now you've retired you might have a lot of clothes in your wardrobe
or in your closet that you aren't wearing anymore but you don't really want to get rid of them.
Look at those pieces and anything that you can incorporate into your lifestyle right now take
those, anything that just won't transition you'll need to get them out of your closet. Again this is
something you could take out for a little while and see what happens and if you don't wear it
you can always get rid of it. This is especially true if you've been retired for two or more years
it's time to get those things out of your closet. So how's it going so far?
Is this something that you like to do on your own or would you like some help? If you would like
help I can help you do this. We can do this virtually, it doesn't matter where you live
we can get together on zoom and I can see what you have in your closet and I can help you.
If this is something you would want to do I have a link in the description box below.
Okay step number five, what do you have in your closet that doesn't belong? I know when
I work with my clients I find all kinds of things in closets that shouldn't be there
and those things can really clutter your closet. Anything that isn't
your clothes or related to your wardrobe should not be in your closet -it's just creating clutter.
Now you should have everything out of your closet that you aren't wearing that doesn't fit, that
doesn't feel right - all of those things should be out of your closet. I hope you remembered
to think about how you felt with all of those things you took out of your closet.How you feel
can be the key sometimes to why you shop and why you have too many things in your closet.
This brings me back to three habits I mentioned at the beginning of this video. For example, if
you buy on impulse you might have noticed that as you went through your closet and you found items
that you bought that didn't match anything else or maybe didn't fit into your wardrobe, you
didn't really like them you bought them because somebody else wanted you to buy them or suggested
you buy them. So if you've noticed you buy on impulse that's a habit you want to break now.
Did you notice as you went through your closet any items that you bought because they were on sale
but you didn't wear them? Maybe you bought this great looking dress but you never wear dresses,
maybe you bought these lovely shoes but they're too high and you never wear high heels,
or maybe you bought something that's the wrong colour all because it was on sale,
and the third habit that can cause your closet to be cluttered is buying too many things.
Did you notice as you went through your closet that you had a lot of one item like a lot of
black t-shirts, or a lot of black pants, or a lot of black anything- a lot of one type of item?
That's an indication that you're buying too much and if you buy without a strategy and you buy a
lot you'll end up with a closet that is cluttered which makes it much more difficult to dress with
ease. Step number six is to organize your closet. When your closet is organized it's easier to find
things, so first take all of your jackets line them up next to each other, all of your blouses
next to each other, all of your skirts next to each other, all your dresses - then take
all of the colours so all of your blue jackets together, all of your blue blouses together,
organized by colour - then organized by print.This makes getting dressed so much easier when
everything is organized. I have something called the Keep it or Toss it checklist and I will put a
link for that down below in the description box. I have it right here and one of the things on it is
does the coloUr look great on you? Another one is, does it fit you now and is it in good condition,
does it fit into your current lifestyle and there are some more. When you're going through
your closet use this checklist to help you decide whether you should keep it or toss it. Step seven,
the last step. So now your closet is organized you'll need to start filling in the gaps, so
let's start making some outfits, Go through your closet find a bottom, maybe a pant or a skirt,
find a top and then find a jacket or a sweater, find some accessories to go with it -then you'll
have an outfit. To extend on this outfit you can buy accessories to make it different or you can
change some part of it . What if you have a pants a sweater, or a jacket but you don't have a top?
Then you need to shop for that top what I would do is take inventory so I know what I need and then
when I see it, or when I decide I can always buy that item. So there are the seven steps,
I hope you have fun doing this and I want to tell you that this is the number one thing to being
well dressed. If you're not organized and you can't find anything it just causes frustration.
If you want a little bit more help with this I also have the seven day declutter
guide that you can download to get a little bit more information. Thanks for watching
and if you've enjoyed this video give it a thumbs up and Keep on Styling