Saturday, September 4, 2010

Fashion Fasting

I've decided to continue to simplify/streamline my life in other ways. In my last post, I talked about Fiscal Fasting. Another term in the world of cutting back is Fashion Fasting. That means commiting to buying no new clothes for a set period of time (underwear doesn't count.)

I'm gearing up to move back to Palm Springs the day after tomorrow and am going through my clothes and shoes, packing and sorting. I'm not one to have a lot of clothes in the closet that don't fit or that I don't wear. I don't believe in keeping all different sizes, just in case. I have been steadily losing weight this summer so have had to take in a few pairs of pants and give away some of my bigger tops. I'm not sure I'll be able to commit to fashion fasting if the weight loss continues. Purchasing new pants may be in order at some point. But other than that, I'd like to try to not buy at least any tops until next summer.

I'm moving in with a friend who has a lovely condo in north Palm Springs. I'll get the second bedroom with a small closet. A wonderful invention is the Miracle Hanger. I've always used a similar type of hanger to hang several pairs of pants in a small space but with this invention I can hang tops. It's sobering to see at a glance how many work tops I have. Each hanger holds 5 tops and I have 9 hangers. Wow, 45 work shirts.

Not all of my tops are very nice, but they are intact, unstained and nice enough to wear to work. I work in the office of a middle school, so the dress code is pretty lax. You never know what will happen in any given day, you can end up on the floor crawling under your desk, being thrown up on in the nurse's office, spilling food on yourself in the lunch room, etc. We wear school shirts at least two days a week.

Also I live in the desert, so the temps are generally pretty balmy. Some people wear capris and sandals to work all year round. Being from the midwest, I insist on maintaining a winter wardrobe and a summer wardrobe. I usually only get to wear the warmer clothes from mid-November through mid-March though. Wearing socks signals the change of season to me.