Want to see something slightly ridiculous?
THIS. Is ridiculous.
Yes. That’s our closet. Or non-closet, really. When we moved into our house a year ago (it’s been a year!!!), we ripped out the tiny closet along the opposite wall of our bedroom, exposing a cool architectural detail (circular window). We had grand plans of constructing a new, bigger, better custom closet or closet-type system along the wall you see here (potentially blocking one window, for better or for worse) but . . . yeah.
That’s our closet right now.
It actually fairly accurately portrays the status of my wardrobe AND the status of my body over the past year or so: IN TRANSITION. Basically, what you see is:
* Hanging stuff. This is 80% Josh’s clothes. On the left (the 20%) are things that fit me, most of which are “interim clothes” (inexpensive things that I bought post-Cameron) that I wear reluctantly but don’t really like. I do have 2 Boden dresses in there that I really do like.
* Drawer stuff. This is a hodgepodge of T-shirts, cardigans, and other (mostly very inexpensive/interim) staples, also most of which fit me currently. I have a few things left over from 2011 when I gained ~7 lbs or so to get pregnant — I wear those things now.
* Plastic tubs of stuff. These are filled with mostly nicer clothes that do not currently fit/flatter me. This is a combo of a few more recent pieces (from that fleeting window between the 2 pregnancies when I was back to ‘normal’) and also a lot of older stuff (we’re talking Anthro dresses dating back to, say, 2005). It also includes some nicer sweaters (J. Crew, Madewell) that I really like but are wearable for about 5 days out of the year in Miami — and even those days are a stretch.
SO. I have been thinking about my “closet” lately because I feel like I am ready to move out of the transitional phase. I’m finally (really) at peace with partially weaning, and am starting to get more sleep — C has been down to one middle-of-the-night wakeup (SOOOO much better than 2!) over the past several nights. I’m enjoying running more and starting 5K training, though I haven’t picked a race. I am doing barre at-home sometimes and am determined to start strength training regularly. AND I am eating better, with less paranoia about milk supply. I won’t try to force anything, but I am hoping that over the next few months with these shifts I will be back to my ‘regular’ size, or if not then I’ll be okay with that too as the new normal.
I may order a bit more from Boden as I was really happy with the last haul (2 cute dresses, 2 well-made casual tops — I did return a pair of ill-fitting capris). But I’m thinking that by this fall (October or November?) it will be time to really clean out these drawers/racks/tubs and go shopping. Maybe I’ll even take half a day off to do it one day! I can’t wait.
4 Comments
I did a huge wardrobe edit before we moved and it felt so cleansing. There was a great resale store in Madison, and I make about $150 selling a bunch of stuff that I bought in the mid-2000’s that hadn’t fit since before I got pregnant with Scott. Now I just have maternity stuff hanging up, some transitional pieces that I wore after S was born and some winter things (probably way too many) that I really really loved in boxes. Do you think you will continue to hang on to your old Anthro dress collection? Or will your realistically want to get new things as your body changes over the course of the year?
It sucks being stuck in transition. My favorite mantra from "What Not To Wear" was that you should buy great clothes for the body you had. In particular, I loved when Stacy shouted at some woman keeping something old in her closet "Why lose weight just to wear ugly clothes?" 🙂
Which is to say, the world is large. I’m pretty sure there are items out there that are meant to look more drape-y or relaxed that would look great on you now and look great on you at a slightly different weight too. I’m kind of loving two new dresses in my closet right now that are more fitted on top and more relaxed elsewhere and hence have a bit of range…
I just found golden tote :). Anthropologie like grab bag – you pick two out of 6 pieces. You can request no yellows, no shorts, no maxis, etc. it’s been flattering for me so far. 4 porridge/esley/sis sis/collective concepts and 1 puella/1 thml dress. For $149- They have xs too
Greetings! I have been reading your website for some time now and finally got the bravery to go ahead and give you a shout out from Lubbock Thanks! Just wanted to tell you keep up the fantastic job! Thank you so much and i want more.