A Closet Of My Own

 When we bought our house 11 years ago, we were undaunted by the fact that it only has two-and-a-half closets. I figured that this would be our "starter" house, and we'd buy a larger one that had walk-in closets with room for my ever burgeoning shoe collection. Funny thing happened . . . we never moved. Turns out we kind of liked living "in town," close to my job and the highway for Dave's commute. Over the years, however, the closet became a sticky point for the Girls and me. We had to share, which kind of sucks for three women.

When they left for college, the closet situation didn’t get any better. There were shoes everywhere, blouses that didn’t fit my figure, pants that might have been fashionable seven years ago but never would be again, and clothes that were a hold-over from my college days in the early ‘90s.The blouses were the absolute worst. I’ve never been able to find the perfect white blouse to fit my figure. If I bought a blouse to fit my boobs, I looked about six months pregnant with all the excess fabric flowing around my stomach. If I got them to fit my waist, I looked like I was auditioning for an adult film. It might be attractive on some people, but I teach middle school. But yet, I still bought white blouse after white blouse expecting a different outcome. I would shove the blouses into my closet only to realize that I already had two versions of the same damn thing in there. What the hell was my problem?

A good friend of mine purged all the jeans in her closet and gave them to me. "I don't care what you do with them . . . I just can't give them to Good Will," she said. I went through the pile and found a duplicate of my absolute favorite jeans. The rest went off to Good Will. And I promptly went through my closet and loaded up her bag with all my blouses because there was a shred of a possibility that they would fit her. Same speech, most likely the same outcome . . . but it got me thinking.

What did I really need in this closet? Turns out just the items I selected for the first phase of Project 333. I've run into a couple of bumps, but I guess that is normal. Part of this process is using what I have; a bigger process, however, is figuring out who I am. I don't need to wear the trendy clothing, so why even bother buying it. I only wear clothing that makes me comfortable and looks good on me. I wear a lot of neutrals . . . but always with pops of color.

- Jill, wearing comfy blue jeans, a white t-shirt, gray swing cardigan, and a hand-knit red silk scarf