Miss Flighty is back.
It just so happens that this week’s podcast episode was about Personal Style, and I decided to try my hand at another seasonal wardrobe changeover.
These are entirely unrelated activities, however. I did my very best in this week’s episode to explain that thinking about issues of personal style is not shallow, and yet here I am, feeling uncomfortably exposed on the question.
Let me explain how this came about:
My youngest scalawag has an irritating habit of going into my room and rifling through my stuff. This has resulted in a few “me trying to be cool that is decidedly not cool” moments with him. (Let’s just say that being sex-positive is all well and good until faced with a small child asking what “this” is for. I will let your imagination run wild as to what “this” is.)
He also likes to search through my dresser drawers in search of jewelry, intriguing little bits and bobs that I might have hidden in my closet…most recently he found my dog-clicker that I use while I record the podcast to help me mark places that I need to edit. FYI: it’s annoying and I’m really glad that I am not a dog.
I digress. This particular time, I returned to my beautifully organized closet to discover that he had pulled down half of the items hanging on the rod. Oh, they were all still on the hangers, it’s like he just put his arms around everything, lifted and then, probably accidentally, stepped back and didn’t know what to do when it all landed on the floor.
My closet is organized from red to purple. He had displaced orange to green.
Irritated as I was, I started hanging things back up, and in the process decided that a few of the things I wouldn’t be wearing for a while, since the weather has finally turned warmer. So I took it off the hanger and put it aside.
Suddenly, I was on a rampage. Some items I wanted to declutter (aspirational sizes, anyone? Anyone?) Some items I simply put aside for the Fall.
You know how much I enjoy a good decluttering. I love the freedom of having less stuff. I like how organized it all looks when there is more space between the remaining items.
The problem was, I did this when I had very little time to finish the process. So for a week now, there has been a pile of Winter clothes on the dresser in my closet. Not a pile. A mountain of heavy sweaters, wool skirts, Winter dresses. Oh, and a mountain of declutterables, piled on top of, randomly, a pair of old pillows that we bought replacements for a few weeks ago.
My indulgent husband and I tiptoed gingerly around this mess until yesterday, when some decluttering bug bit me and I finally stored away the winter clothes.
Why it feels so good
It’s been a long long long time since the last time I wrote an ode to decluttered spaces, but it might be time I do one. Until I do, here are a few thoughts:
- It is easier to find the things you are looking for in a decluttered closet, leading to less rummaging around/slamming dresser drawers in a panic.
- A smaller selection means fewer decisions need to be made. Fewer decisions=Less decision fatigue.
- “Living out of a suitcase“, a practice I have long advocated for, instigates creativity and contentment with the clothes to which we currently have access.
- Empty space is good for the soul.
Sing With Your Feet 