This is a follow-up to last Friday’s post in which I lamented the fact that I was feeling uninspired by my winter wardrobe and decided to do something about that by dealing with items in my closet that hadn’t been worn all season. 

First of all, I should explain that because the closet in our master bedroom is not large, I have clothing stored in more than once place. My half of the bedroom closet is what I would call my everyday closet. That’s where I pull clothes from most mornings when I get dressed. What was actually meant to be a coat closet at our front entrance, an entrance that we rarely use, is where I hang dresses, skirts, dress pants, and a couple of dressy tops that I would only wear for special occasions. The clothes in that closet stay there year round. It was the everyday closet that I had in mind when I decided to do this midseason cull, but now that I’ve started, I think I’ll push on and delve into the other one as well. Today’s post will deal only with the everyday closet though. 

My first step was to pull out the 14 items that had not been worn since I did my seasonal closet switch at the end of September. Fourteen items that had simply been taking up space. Two were pieces that probably should have gone into storage when I put my spring/summer clothes away, so since I’m pretty sure that I’ll wear them both again when the weather warms up, I moved them into storage. I hung the remaining 12 items in the empty guest room closet where I could look at them more easily and decide what to do with them. I knew right away that I wouldn’t wear 3 of them again, so those were set aside to be donated. After careful consideration, 5 were returned to my everyday closet and I’ve already worn 4 of those in the past week! That left 4 pieces. After trying them on, 2 have been set aside for some simple upcycling. Perhaps I’ll share those projects with you in a later post. That leaves me with just 2 pieces that I’m still undecided about. 

While I continue to ponder those two pieces, let me share three of the items that I decided to keep and how I styled them this week. 

This cozy grey cardigan that had been hanging near the back of my closet all winter felt just right on a cold morning. I wore it over a column of navy made up of a basic t-shirt from Uniqlo and a pair of Old Navy jeans. I tucked the t-shirt in and added a belt. That bit of belt showing under an open cardigan or jacket creates the illusion of a more feminine waist for someone with a boyish figure like mine. Finally, I added a pop of colour with my red ankle boots. I wore this outfit while providing childcare at our church during a young Mom’s Bible study and then for a casual lunch date with hubby.

The black t-shirt, also from Uniqlo, and the animal print shirt are two of the other items that I hadn’t worn all winter. I don’t usually wear black close to my face because it makes me look washed out, but it can work well as a base layer under a colour that complements my complexion. For church on Sunday, I wore the t-shirt and my dark brown button front cords with a dressier jacket. Afterward, for a relaxing afternoon at home, I changed out of the jacket and into the shirt which has been in my wardrobe for many years. Later, when hubby suggested that we go out for dinner, I thought about putting the jacket back on, but decided not to. 

Now… back to deciding what to do with those last two items!