Closet Nightmares No Longer

Tonight, I declared war on my closet. 
I'm tired of being depressed every single time I pick out an outfit to wear in the mornings.  I'm tired of wishing I had different clothes that make me feel good about myself.  I'm tired of having to use brute force anytime I want to put laundry away because my hangers are jam packed full of clothes--probably over half of which I never even wear.  No, I'm not at my goal weight or size.  But does that mean I shouldn't get to wear clothes that I feel amazing in?  Why should every morning because a struggle between "That doesn't fit anymore" and "I still feel kind of pregnant in that."??  Too many times, I've fought my closet, and it won.  Tonight, I'd had enough.  I tossed and purged and weeded and threw.  And this was the result:

Helping Hand and/or Goodwill is going to be getting a visit from me tomorrow.  It was more than a little ridiculous how many clothes I had that were rarely worn.  Some probably never saw the light of day after I added them to my closet.  I'm a sucker for sales and clearance racks.  If I see a shirt that's even halfway presentable, I'll talk myself into buying it.  You know the dialog: "If I put this shirt with just the right pair of shoes, it'll look really cute." or "If I find a tan cardigan to wear with this dress, it'll hide the sleeves and it'll be adorable."  Problem was, I never had the right pair of shoes or found a tan cardigan.  So those pieces lived in my closet, never to come back out.  Ridiculous.

The second pile is clothes that make me feel terrible about myself right now.  The ones that I remember wearing in my skinner lifetime and want to be able to wear again and cannot bring myself to throw away.  The ones that were torturing me.  I may never be able to wear them again, and that's okay.  I'm just not ready to part with them just yet.

The third pile, I'm a little embarrassed about.  Okay, really embarrassed about.  I'm guilty of keeping (and still wearing) a lot of my maternity tops in my closet.  When I lost a lot of weight when I was still nursing Avery, I put a lot of my maternity clothes away for my next pregnancy.  For some reason or another, I still held onto a choice few of my shirts that I really liked or thought I could pull of as looking non-maternity.  Truth is, I couldn't.  Truth is, I was probably hanging onto them as a type of security blanket to slip back into in case I ever had a "fat day."  No more of that.  They're safe and sound in a tote with the rest of my maternity clothes.

There's nothing like a good-old closet purge.  I highly recommend one.  Now, I'm going to (very slowly) build it back up with clothes of quality that I feel really good about.  Great pieces that make me feel just as great.  Tonight, I fought the closet.....and I won.