My Latest Fashion, Part Two

Home sick today, so tell my boss I'm sleeping (because I was and am about to be again), but I also wanted to share how my wardrobe is now more manageable. As I'm tired and my head is getting fuzzy again, I'll keep this brief.

So, sometime before moving last summer, I heard about the Dressing Your Truth online class. I'd long been frustrated with the full-closet-and-I have-nothing-to-wear syndrome, so I signed up. With the class I learned about movement energy, and which energy I tend to express most, and what to look for in clothes that will compliment my natural energy.

Sooo many hangers. Bye bye!

I tried to follow through, but I had timed it badly with moving, and moving had a higher priority than reworking my fashion, especially as that was a deadline that wouldn't budge. So, I tried paring down my wardrobe, keeping only the pieces that suited my type (or that I really loved anyway), and I made some notable progress, but when push came to shove, I ended up packing just about every single thing in the closet.

Fast forward several months, and I'd grown quite tired of shifting hangers around, trying to find the clothes I liked, wanted, and needed. So I'd began reading up on how to do a minimal wardrobe, or capsule wardrobe, something I'd thought would be a good idea for me for a long, long time. So when my last three day weekend came around, I decided it was time. (Right after I got my hair cut. And on that note, it's amazing how clothes can look and feel different with a new 'do. Taking care of both on the same weekend was a good choice.)

I did a fair bit of looking around online. Pinterest was actually one of my first stops in addition to a Google search. There's quite a bit out there on the topic. The blogs I found to be most helpful can be found here, here, and here. Most sites and links I found focus on a goal of 30-40 items (some had a goal of fewer, but the most important point in all of them was to work with yourself and what you want), and some mention having different capsule wardrobes for different seasons.

I looked for lists of must-haves and instructions on how to pare things down, then I just went for it. The "rules" were my guidelines but not requirements. I just started with finding what I truly loved the best, and got rid of what I knew I didn't but had until now felt obligated to keep. I divided things into type (shirt, dress, skirt, jacket, pants), and tried most everything on unless I knew I'd want to keep it. My mantra as I tried on piece after piece, determining if I liked the look and feel and if it would go with anything else, or as I pulled something I knew I didn't want off a hanger was, "I don't owe _____." I didn't owe any person who may have gifted me the garment. I didn't owe any sentimentality of what once was. And I certainly didn't owe the clothing itself (though I often felt as if I did!). What I did owe, what I did want, was my own peace and not to be owned by my closet. That kept me going.

Ta da!
...I'm getting a sense of naturally preferred color scheme/tone here.

I didn't take any before pictures, because I was focused and in the moment, and hadn't thought I'd be blogging about it and oh a comparison for effect would be good. Ah well. Just ooo and ahh and trust me when I say this is impressive.

I'm not quite done as there are some garments not pictured that I haven't decided what to do with yet, I'm pretty sure I ought to thin down how many jackets I have, and I haven't looked at most of what's in my chest of drawers, but the current count of hangers in my closet for shirts, skirts, dresses, and pants? 37. (And 5 sweaters, which I did go through, but they go in the drawers.)

The in-progress end result is several bags stuffed full of perfectly good clothes that other people can enjoy, and I can see what I own at a glance, and quickly figure out ways that most pieces will go with others, for an easier to enjoy wardrobe than I remember ever having before.

I'll keep working on it. There are still some things I think I want to pare down more or replace. But I got the bulk of it done, and getting dressed in the morning has been a whole lot easier not having to play the clothing version of Tetris every day.

Have you ever attempted a capsule wardrobe? Did you succeed?


Now I'm back to bed. The Teddy Grahams are calling and my eyelids are falling.

Needin' Some Beauty Sleep

That awkward moment when you're ready to join Inomniacs Anonymous.

This insomnia thing is getting weird. For the last...however long...I haven't slept enough. At first it was a bad habit during school, mismanaged homework and balancing life, but back then I still called midnight late; certainly 1am was late. Yet after graduation it seems 2am quickly became a regular thing. (And this is with knowing from experience that my body favors 9 hours of straight sleep--I feel great after that much sleep!)

I knew this wasn't intelligent, though it's a really hard habit to break, so I've been trying to get to bed earlier, and mostly failing at that, but even when I do manage a midnight or earlier lights-out, I'm still usually awake until 1 or 2am. Taking a long time to get to sleep isn't a new thing to me; I remember waiting for sleep to come for what seemed like forever over a decade ago. Of course, when I was ten and younger "forever" may have been less time then than it is now.

I thought I would be able to readjust my sleeping/waking clock after I was awake the entire night once last week. Of course, it would have helped if I'd been in bed before midnight the next night, but was I? Well, I tried to be. Alas.

I'm not sure this is exactly insomnia, though. I sleep pretty well in the morning, after the sun is up.

I keep joking that I just need to go to Hawai`i and I'll already be on the appropriate sleeping/waking schedule. (If only....)

My dad said I don't get enough exercise. I knew that, but could it be that simple to solve? Looks like I'll be hitting the indoor running track in the near future.

After I cried out to my brother "I'm an insomniac" on Facebook around 1am (after I had dimmed my lights early and got to bed early), he offered some suggestions. His basic idea was I don't have to sleep but I can rest. Huh. I tried what he said and it was surprising how the simple thought "I don't have to sleep" was actually freeing, mentally. It still took a while to get to sleep that night, but it became less frustrating that I wasn't asleep already. It wasn't an attainable goal, so I reached for one I could manage. And it helped, noticeably, for a couple or few nights even. Sadly though the benefits seem short lived (but not entirely, and I'm gonna keep tryin'!) One idea was focused muscle relaxation. I'm still not exactly sure what that means, but I tried it by tensing my entire body then relaxing it. I've tried it again, but I've been fairly stiff at night lately, so I haven't been successful. I wonder if some stretching before bed would be a good idea.

Now, if only I could get a massage every night before bed, ahhhhhh, that would be wonderful. I had my first ever massage by a professional last week, and even though it was brief, afterwards I was ready for some long-term relaxin'. (No, it didn't happen.)

A friend has suggested that I take melatonin before bed. I won't deny that I'd thought about it, but I'm also not sure I want to do that. I thought if I could lessen the stress I face in life (a good idea in general, don't you think?), sleep wouldn't be so elusive (at the right time of the day), and that would be better. But after another nearly sleepless night on Friday (for no apparent reason; the previous one had a reason), I'll be thinking about it again you can be sure. Now I just have to keep tyring to convince my body that bedtime is sometime before midnight but after seven in the evening (baaaaad time for me to take a nap! don't ask me how I know). I'm guessing it's a process.

I wonder if it would help if I got a dog or cat to cuddle with at night? Oh yes, the reasoning for a furry pet is building in my mind now. muahahaha....

Do you have the insomnia blues? What do you do to counter them?