closet downsizing

ok. this is really embarrassing for me to make this post.  as i have a real obsession with shopping and a desire to own all the clothes.  but i have finally come to the conclusion that i have too much and i need to help myself downsize.

my problem is that i haven't really changed sizes since high school (hello, class of 2005) and so i keep everything that still fits and is still in style.  buuuuuuuut i don't stop shopping.  i keep adding.  and my real true problem is that if i find something i like, say a crew neck tshirt, i get it in every color.  it's awful.  i have a problem.  i admit it.

i'm also in the belief that i wear most of what i own.  however, my darling husband would say otherwise.  so, to tackle my excessive shopping and to test my theory of how much of it i wear, i'm trying some downsizing tricks.

the first thing i did was to decide my time frame.  i live in ohio where the weather is finicky and so i obviously have winter clothes and summer clothes.  my closet is large enough (an entire bedroom, whatever) that i don't put away clothes due to seasons.  it all stays out year round and some pieces i do end up wearing year round.  originally i thought i would do jan 2016-jan 2017 but then i'd have to wait all year to go through my clothes since jan-mar is more snow weather, apr-sept is summer weather and oct-dec is fall weather.  and i'm impatient.  so, i finally decided on sept 2016-sept 2017.  that way i can start the process now and hit all the different weather experiences without having to break up in the middle for the warmer months.

after sorting all that out, i actually got started.  i ran to target and bought some dot stickers - the kind you normally use for rummage sales, grabbed a pen and paper and stood in the middle of my closet.  overwhelmed.

i decided i wanted to know what i spend my money on - heels?  sweats?  work clothes?  sneakers???  so, in the process, i created categories and counted as i labeled.  your categories can be as broad or specific as you want if you do this step.  i just wanted to get a better handle on what i tend to buy so i know to stop buying it.  my categories were mostly broad - pants, tshirts, long sleeve, shorts, dresses/skirts, sweats/leggings/gym shorts, spaghetti tanks, casual tanks, work tops, flannels, sweaters.. and i did the same for shoes - heels, sneakers, flats, sandals, boots..

i began with taking my hangers and hanging them backwards on the rod.  i counted each jacket, cardigan, tank top, dress and work shirt i have and recorded that number.  the idea behind this trick is once you wear the piece and you go to hang it back up, then you flip the hanger back the correct way.  then at the end of the season or year you'll know exactly what you did or didn't wear based on the hanger position.  easy enough.

but i was dumbfounded on what to do with my folding clothes.  most of my clothes are folded.  so, i came up with the stickers.  i went through each cubby and pulled out each item and stickered and counted it.  my advice for this is to put the sticker in the fold so that way when you pull out a shirt the sticker doesn't come off or fall off in the process giving you a false report at the end of the season or year.

sticker is on the inside of the fold

stickers are on the inside of the fold

i used the stickers on my shoes as well.  mostly putting the stickers on the bottom of the shoes or inside on the soles.  stickered and counted.

as i wear the folded clothes or shoes, i'll remove the stickers.  somethings i didn't sticker like my pj bottoms, sweats and leggings.  i have so many and most of them are tossed in a basket and so there was no easy way to sticker them.  and if i needed to downsize them i could just force myself to stick with a certain number like 5 pairs of sweatpants and get rid of the rest..

this is really customizable based on your needs.

once i was done counting everything, i really realized my buying habits.  (please do not judge me - harshly.  may i remind you i've been collecting for well over 10 years..) i have over 60 pairs of sweatpants/leggings/pj shorts/gym shorts.  SIXTY.  i have enough shirts that i wouldn't have to do a single load of laundry in 9 months because i can wear a new shirt everyday for NINE MONTHS.  pants/dress wise, i could not do laundry for THREE MONTHS.  who am i??  i'm not famous or special that i can't repeat clothes.  i know collecting and not getting rid of things for over 10 years would make my closet huge.  but that huge???  put down the shopping cards and lets reevaluate your priorities, girl.

my plan is to maybe go through my winter clothes at the beginning of summer next year and then go through absolutely all of it next september.  anything that i didn't wear this year will either be donated or i may end up keeping it.  items that i do keep i plan to write down and do this process all over again next september.  then if i don't wear it by sept 2018, it has to be donated.  no ifs, ands or buts.  some pieces, like my sequin dress, i may keep even if i don't wear it for a few years for the off chance that we do something for nye.  and obviously if it doesn't fit or it's out of style or it's been 5 years and i need to let the dream go, i'll donate it.

in doing this, i have a few expectations or goals in mind.  (1) i want to find out where i spend my money.  is it so much on casual clothes when i need to invest in work clothes? (2) what do i wear? do i think i wear 80% of my closet but i'm really wearing the same five things? (3) again, what do i wear? do i wear mostly black and white but i have 85 things of hot pink i don't wear? (4) because i will buy the same item in every color or sometimes even in the same color, am i wearing them? do i really need 5 white tshirts?  or should i just keep 2 on hand in rotation?

i'm really excited to see how it turns out and to see if i can prove my husband wrong on what percentage i do actually wear..

guestroom: star wars room

when i asked matt to move in, he said that he would only move in if he could hang his yoda picture some place.  now, i would be lying if i said i loved star wars.  if i even knew who yoda was.  and if i didn't think, perhaps you should hang that picture in the garage.  however, marriage isn't about just me.  it's about compromise and making the other person happy even if it doesn't make you happy.  so, i said he could make the guestroom a star wars room.  BUT i will decorate it so it doesn't become some nerdy kids wet dream.  it had to look grown up and classy.  and a little nerdy.  i guess.

so, we started off with a blank slate.

my niece exploring the new house

and so of course, we painted 3 walls light grey and one navy blue.  it kind of mimics the guest bath. and i put in the bed i inherited when my grandfather passed away.  which is just a full size bed with a wooden frame.  apparently, this was my grandparents bed when they first got married many moons ago.  and i like to keep old things that have been passed down.  but anyways, we started with that bed.  and to keep it looking 'adult' i went with just all white bedding throwing in a few accent pillows in grey or navy.

i also used my old dressers from my room when i was a baby.  originally they were white with 'wood' accents and little yellow flowers painted on the drawers.  matt painted the white parts navy.  however, we did no sanding or priming so we're finding that the navy paint keeps chipping.  however, we eventually may buy new dressers down the road and were just using these for the time being.

i got a small side table from my mamaw that i used as a side table for the bed.  it currently is storing a lot of my scrap-booking material.  but on top, we stacked some books and put matt's old touch lamp on them.  (it was perfect that it was navy!) and i printed off some prints with our wifi password and a small sign saying "be our guest"

on the other side of the bed, i found a small shelving unit at a discount store.  on this, we have a star wars lamp that matt and i made.  we purchased a small lamp at the dollar store.  and we went to a local flea market and bought some old star wars toys.  matt glued them around the base, stacking the characters as he went.  and i just spray painted the entire thing silver.  i think it turned out pretty well.  we also have some more star wars pictures i found on pinterest that i just printed off and framed.  i painted some tiles with star wars characters to be used as coasters.  on the next shelf, i bought a large glass container and filled it with sample size toiletries in case our guests ever forget anything.  and we stacked some of matt's star wars books next to that.  on the bottom shelf, i just placed some towels and wash cloths for our guests.

above these side tables, i printed off more pictures i found on pinterest of star wars characters and framed them.  i chose pictures that were more pop culture than a basic star wars poster.  i feel like that helps make it look more 'adult' than child like.  i also loved that i found the picture of han solo and princess leia that mimic the old drawing by norman rockwell.  my parents have had this picture hanging in our house for all my life.  and i like that i could bring that to our home.

we also included the mirror matt and i made over the summer in the corner.  i always hate going and staying someplace and they don't have a full body mirror for you to use.  i like to know if my outfit looks OK before i leave the house.  and i hate when i don't have that option.  so, i wanted to make sure i included one in our guestroom.

right now, this room is taken over with boxes of wedding stuff.  but i think it turned out nicely.  i'm not sure how often it'll actually get used.  but it was a good compromise for matt and i.  and i believe it really made my house his home.

the picture that started it all

christmas traditions

this is so belated.  this holiday season was a little bananas for us.  it was our first christmas in our new home.  and our first christmas as a little family outside of our parents home.  so we started some new traditions and we tried to blend both our family traditions as well.

matt's family usually does a more cocktail appetizer dinner and open presents on christmas eve.  he has a smaller family than mine.  mostly contains him, myself, his parents, brother, sister in law and an aunt and uncle.  so, we went there christmas eve to eat and exchange gifts with his family.

on christmas day, we started at our house opening gifts we bought each other and bought for the pets.  after that, we went to my parents to exchange gifts with my parents, three brothers and their families.  it's always chaos, mounds of paper and gifts galore.  after that, we went to his parents for lunch and played some board games with his brother and wife.  theeeeeeeeeeeeeen, back to my family for dinner with the extended family (usually equaling to about 30 people).  insanity.  when do i go back to work? ha.  but seriously.

this year we were quite poor since we just renovated the house, planning a wedding, matt's part time and i'm working as much as i can.  i decided to make wreaths for the couples of the family.  i kept it to one toy for the kids and we purchased a few extra items for our parents.  i tried really hard to keep from spending too much money this holiday season.

here's some photos from this holiday.  i hope you got to enjoy your christmas as much as we got to enjoy our first christmas in our new home :)

 my intentions are to get an ornament every year and put our picture from that year in the ornament.  this is from 2014, our first christmas together.  the photo was taken last year at his parents christmas eve party.  i got one for this year but instead of putting a christmas photo in it, i put in an engagement photo.  i plan to put a wedding photo in next year's ornament so we can keep those memories and relive them every holiday.  eventually i'd like to have a whole tree of these ornaments..

 this was gifted to me last year.  we bought the house last november and this ornament says 2014 and is in the shape of a key.  i thought that was so thoughtful and will help me remember when we bought the house.  his brother and wife just bought a house this november so i gifted them a key ornament this year.

 

 

what i wore:

 

christmas eve: dress (comparable), green scarf, boot socks (comparable), boots (comparable)

 christmas morning: naughty & nice shirt, plaid pants (comparable)

 christmas day/dinner: plaid shirt (comparable), jeans, santa hat

santa pictures: jeans, sweater, plaid scarf (comparable), boots (comparable)

our happy animals christmas morning :)

laundry room redo

the bonus room that was created out of the garage included the bonus room, full bath and a laundry room.  the laundry room is on the back of the house which would have been the back wall of the garage.  it was a basic room with yellow walls and my water heater.  nothing special.

before:

my mom and dad painted it just like every other room.  and matt had a washer and dryer in storage from when he moved out to st louis for chiropractic school. (SCORE!) they're old machines he purchased at a yard sale but they work.  eventually i'd like to get new appliances but we may wait until we move in to our forever home or until these break.  we also had some wood shelves that we removed from various closets that matt hung above the appliances for us to store detergents and cleaning supplies.  the white baskets used to organize our cleaning supplies were purchased at home goods.

on the back of the door between our bedroom and the laundry room, i hung a rack that we use to store our wet jet supplies and sewing kits.  by the door to the garage, i purchased a rack to hang our brooms on and in the bags are rags we use for cleaning.

finally, in the small space between the washing machine and the side wall, we installed the old cabinet from the mauve master bathroom.  the counter top is what was leftover from what i purchased for the kitchen.  apparently when you buy counter tops you have to buy a certain length and whatever is not utilized is extra that you just get to keep for whatever??  who knew??  so it fit perfectly in this small space to store our laundry baskets.  there is about a foot or so between the counter top and the back wall that we just store our swiffers and floor steamer.  overall, i think the small space became a cute little laundry room.

also on a side note, our whole house is hardwood and tile.  i found that just sweeping up the dust and dirt wasn't cutting it.  and it appeared that every day more dust and dirt would appear around the house.  i wanted a better option to keeping my floors clean.  matt had brought a long with him a large sweeper that is great for our rugs but wasn't so great for our wood floors.  it did have the option to run on the hardwood but i noticed it was scuffing them up while i was running it.  and not to mention how bulky and heavy it was for lil ol' me.  so i wasn't keeping up with sweeping with that thing.  i wanted something lightweight, something that worked and wouldn't break the bank.  i did some research online and found this Bissell Hard Floor Expert Vacuum.  the price was very reasonable.  it's so lightweight that i can carry it around the house with one hand!  (i have zero upper body strength) and it sucks up everything!  if you have hardwood floors, i would highly recommend this vacuum!