On My Way To The Next Set of Closets

Today it's off to the really big closets in Las Vegas.  Luckily we will only be home there for a couple of days so i will probably just scope it out.  I am sure that even one closet will overwhelm me but if there are things that should go with some of the San Francisco things .......

Yesterday I went to a tiny little store on Union Street in San Francisco.  I always find really interesting things there and I needed to find a gift for a friend in Vegas. There was a great little carved bracelet.  One of those stretchy ones that fit everyone.  The clerk said it was lucite.  Immediately I discounted it as being too "cheap" looking.  But as I looked around the store I kept returning to the carved red roses. 

I asked her where it was made and she was surprised that I had not heard of "Tarina Tarantino".  This, I figured was a good sign.  When I got home I headed for the internet and looked her up.  What a fascinating story!  This woman really started her business by just selling what she liked to do.  Of course, her boyfriend was instrumental in getting her items placed in stores.  Now she has quite a following!  Check out the web site for her.  Fascinating story.  Can I follow in her footsteps?  I have to get Sherry to be my agent.

Diana -- can you convince her?

A Stack of Cards

Not much progress today. But I did print out color coded labels for the 270 items I have already cataloged. I affixed them to index cards and I have a big stack of index cards that I don't know what to do with. And I know I have at least as many yet to come.

But it is actually shocking to see how much room just the cards take -- I guess I really did lose track of the multiple everythings and all the assorted sizes. So I am looking foward to studying the cards and starting to cull the wardrobe of useless or redundant items and to putting together new outfits from my closet.

Closet Shopping With My Mother

Some of the best times I spent with my mother were going "closet shopping". She had loads of clothing and accessories which she had lovingly found at mega sales throughout the years. Lots of the items even had their tags still on. And there were some treasures like dresses, hand knit by my father, that I would give my Platinum American Express card for right now. We always learn too late in life what we should have placed more value on. Together we'd spend endless hours going through scarves of every color and shape and trying to squeeze feet into the sweetest little shoes -- do the rest of you remember "springolators"? The closets seemed endless and now it seems that shopping, and overshopping, is an inherited trait.

So I have now spent more time inside my closet than I have spent sleeping in my bed this week. I have already logged in 186 items. To get some perspective on this, I have not even started listing coats, hats, scarves, shoes, jewelry, hair bows, purses, belts -- and then I will start listing what is in my 28 drawers (chock full of tee shirts and other tops, jeans that I hope to someday fit into again, shawls and who knows what else lurking in there).

Now I can see I have undertaken a major life project. Which is what it should be since I am counting on this to change my life in a lot of ways. Mostly, I hope to become more responsible. But I also wouldn't mind becoming more fashionable with less pressure on the budget.

I expect to finish the list on Wednesday, although that may be a bit optimistic. When my sister comes to visit for New Year's I hope we'll get a lot done. Maybe she can help me make a photographic record of the inventory and then we can start to shed the excess baggage. I am thinking of setting up a companion site on e-Bay so those of you who need some of my extra pieces to fill in your fashion gaps can get a good bargain and some super finds, too.

I'm off to attack some other area of the closet store now. And when I do I will be thinking of my mother and one of our favorite mother-daughter activities -- Closet Shopping.

New Year's Closet Resolution

I have to begin getting ready for the second ever resolution I am going to keep. (The first was ten years ago when I stopped smoking so I figure it is about time to have another successful and momentous promise that I actually hold myself to.)

The big res this time time is to learn to shop in my closet rather than in an actual store, bargain or not. I have promised myself to stop being lured by the great deal. I will no longer buy seven identical skirts just because I love them. And I will not be obsessed by the fact that there are 23 pieces of any one outfit at Macy's and that I am the only one entrusted to "keep the family together". I plan to somehow convince myself that unless everything is matching (including my underwear) in my entire outfit people are not actually pointing to me and laughing that there is some mismatch going on behind my seams.

I'll start working tomorrow on one of my ten closets in two different residences. If I can just whittle it down to eight closets (and maybe a storage area or two) within the next two months I will be pleased. No guarantees here but if I can set myself an "in and out" rule.... For example if I buy one item I have to get rid of ten. Very daring indeed.

But I know I will find amazing things in my closet that I had forgotten existed. Maybe you are interested in taking some of it off my hands? Well, we'll see. If I am successful with shopping for a whole new wardrobe just within my closets, perhaps it will give the rest of you obsessive fashionistas some hope!

The list of the San Francisco items begin tomorrow. Any guesses on how many black pencil skirts I have in the closets here?

There is no more room in the closet and the rules begin!

It took me a while, but life has conspired to let me know that I have got to stop shopping. First, there is no more room to hang or fold or even squish the tiniest garment -- anywhere. And embarassingly enough, I admit that we have two homes and many closets. Second, money is tight and it makes no sense to continually spend money on things I probably already have several of. And finally, I want to get over at least a couple of my obsessions before I add more to the list of personality disorders which I think I may have.

So today it stops. Which means the blog starts. My rules are to be written in stone, as soon as I learn how to use a chisel. But here is where I start:

1. I will stop buying multiples of things I absolutely love. One is enough of anything. And no doubt I will find something else I love some other time in my life.

2. It is not necessary for everything to match everything else in the closet. No one wants to see a woman wearing a yellow sweater with yellow shoes, purse, skirt, earrings, ring, necklace, scarf, shoes and stockings, and that doesn't count the yellow underwear which I probably spent too much time looking for. The yellow hair bow and hat were also not compulsory, although I admit to being compulsive -- not to mention certifiable.

Okay, that's enough rules for one day. I have to go shopping now. Closet shopping to see what outfits I'll be able to put together, that is. Check with me later to see if I found anything I can wear today without rushing out to buy a matching accessory.

3.