Clean Your Closet

I love this shirt. I’ve had it forever. I used to wear it a lot. It looked great on me. Most importantly I FELT good in this shirt. You know when some clothes just make you feel good? You don’t feel self-conscious, you aren’t tugging on it, or pulling it down or adjusting it. It was just a great fit.

I look at these old pictures, probably 13 years old now? It was before Michael and I were married. Anyway, I look at these pictures and think, Man I loved that shirt so much. And then I think, Geez I was so skinny.

Then my mind starts to spiral a bit. I start comparing my 44 year old body that is battered and worn from an autoimmune disorder that is not under control yet and two pregnancies…to my 30 year old body that was super fit and skinny.

And then I remind myself, you can’t compare the two. They are basically two different people. The first: someone who had all the time in the world for meal planning and working out, for self-care and long punishing workouts. The second: a mom of two with so many doctor appointments she struggles to keep track. We aren’t the same people we were 20 years ago, so why are we holding on to that?

14 years ago (!!!!) I wrote a post (it was so badly written, how embarrassing) about losing weight and clothes shopping. My tip for not spending a fortune on clothes when losing weight was to buy clothes at a thrift shop. It’s still good advice–especially these days with how much everything is costing. But as I read more about Fast Fashion and as I try to be better about consumerism and buying “junk” that will end up in a landfill, I am much more wary about clothes buying in general.

That being said, I think it’s important to feel good and be comfortable in the clothes you are wearing, no matter what your size. If you are LOSING weight, if you GAINED weight, if you recently had a baby and that “baby weight” isn’t coming off like you wish it would, PLEASE get some new clothes that make your body and your self-esteem feel good.

It’s simple things. Having a bra that fits properly. Wearing jeans that aren’t too tight around the waist. Accentuate the positive features of your body. There are definitely tricks to wearing flattering styles for body types, too.

I don’t know enough about fashion (ahem, *anything*) but for me I know that I don’t look good in light colored pants. My legs are extra short. I have a longer torso. I have a large chest and broad swimmer’s shoulders.

Dark pants looks better. Button up blouses almost never look good on me. Shirts that accentuate my shoulders aren’t good but a V-neck usually looks nice. I look good in jewel-tones, especially red and purple. I do not look great in pastels. I wear a lot of black and gray–neutral seems to work well for me.

So are you still wearing your nursing bra but no longer nursing? Time for a bra fitting. Are your clothes uncomfortable? Time to CLEAN OUT THAT CLOSET.

I recently did just that. I went through my closet and tried everything on and put everything that didn’t fit perfectly, or even if it fit but didn’t make me feel good, into a bag and posted it on my local Buy Nothing Group. Then I grabbed a bag someone else was giving away in the sizes I was looking for and tried some stuff on, found a few things that worked well and passed the rest on as well. *FREE* clothes. Even better.

The important thing to note: I finally passed on that shirt. That shirt that I loved. Among a few others that I’ve been holding on to for years hoping and wishing that they would one day fit again. That shirt that I loved so much? It was a size small. I haven’t been a size small in 10 years. So why was I still holding on to it? Did I really think I was somehow going to fit into a small again? It was time to feel comfortable, not small.