Two Thousand Combinations: The Truth About My Closet

How many times have I stared into my closet or my dresser drawers feeling like I've got nothing to wear? How many times have I been late leaving the house because I've been agonizing over an outfit? How often do I scroll through Pinterest wishing I had the money to buy the clothes I see?

It's a never-ending cycle: wanting to look cute, feeling the "need" for more clothes.

And it's all based on a lie.

266

That's the number of clothing items in my possession. I counted. I counted everything. I have enough tops and pants to create nearly 2000 different outfits. That's about 5.5 years' worth of outfits.

Meanwhile there are kids in Ecuador with one set of clothing to their names.

This represents about 1/2 of my wardrobe.

How did I get to this point? By convincing myself I needed it.

"It fits. It's pretty cute. And it's on sale for $12. Why not?"

The sad thing is... whatever "it" is usually gets worn once and then never again.

So why all this sudden interest in my closet? I mean, I don't normally spend a Friday night counting every clothing item I own. The answer: Clothing Month of 7 (if you don't know what 7 is, check out last month's blog).

For this month's challenge, Jen chose 7 items of clothing and wore only those for the entire month. I opted to do the same. For four weeks, I had the following clothing options: dark skinny jeans, "comfy" pants, my End It t-shirt, 2 solid color shirts, my blue cardigan, and my TOMS shoes. While Jen opted not to wear accessories, I allowed myself a few options, mostly because I don't wear them and I wanted this month to be about learning how to use what I have.

Overall, this was an easy month. I work from home, so I pretty much wore the comfy pants & End It t-shirt every day (apologies to my roommates). If I was leaving the house, on went the skinny jeans and one of the other shirts. It made getting dressed super easy.

It especially made getting ready for church easy. At one point, Jen talks about speaking at a women's event in Atlanta during clothes month. She points out the general tendency for female Atlantans to look put together and cute when they're seen in public. I have found this to be true since moving here a year ago. And this has fueled my desire to look just as put together and cute whenever I go somewhere. Sunday mornings can be an ordeal as I struggle to make sure my outfit looks just right. Removing the pressure this month was wonderful.

And I realized that I need to stop spending so much time worrying about what other people think about what I'm wearing. Most likely, they aren't even noticing. And besides, shouldn't I be more worried about them noticing my heart and my character?

As a single woman I have a tendency to leave the house with this thought in the back of my mind: "I could meet my husband today." While that is true, it should never be the motivating factor in what I choose to wear. It's ok to want to look cute. But I should spend far more of my time, energy, and resources on developing my relationship with God. After all, I'd prefer my husband be more attracted to me as a person that what I'm wearing.

So the result of this month was an attitude adjustment when it comes to clothes. I cleaned out my closet and will be throwing away or donating more than half of the items I had. That huge number is mostly thanks to the fact that most of my clothes don't fit me anymore. [Word of advice: when you stop having 5-10 hours of dance rehearsal a week, your metabolism will slow down.] There are things I will need to replace, but I'm going to choose to be wise about my purchases: look for sales, shop at thrift stores, only buy things I'll need and will wear more than once.

The truth is, I have plenty of clothes (even now with half of my closet), and I need to be grateful for that blessing. Next time you hear me say, "I have nothing to wear," you have my permission to smack me... or gently remind me that this is a lie.