The William Morris Project

I read somewhere that the average person only wears 20-30% of the clothes they have in their closet, and although now I can’t be bothered to look for that statistic or wonder for more than a minute how it was figured out, I totally believe it.  I have so much stuff in my closet that never sees the light of day, items that I paid money to a store for once upon a time and have had for years and years and years, have lovingly packed and carted from apartment to apartment, from city to city, and that I almost never actually put on. Sometimes, once in a great while when I get really motivated, I’ll pull out one of these items and D will inevitably say something along the lines of “Is that new?”  Case in point:  the blazer I’m wearing today, which I bought back when I lived in Austin (a city I left in 2008), that I haven’t worn in at least 3 years.  It’s a cute blazer and now that I’m wearing it I like it just fine, it’s just the effort to pull it out, find acceptable pants or a skirt to pair it with, and walk out the door that I can almost never seem to manage.

Granted, I’m not talking about the fancy dresses and one-time-use items I still hold on to (I maintain that the formal dress from college and the bright red full-body unitard from high school still WILL both come in handy one day-maybe for Halloween? Worn one over another at the same time?), but the day-to-day stuff I should, but don’t, wear.  This past weekend I pulled out all my winter stuff and packed away the summer clothes, so now I have a closet full of items I haven’t seen in six months.  I’m positively giddy with the possibilities, but instead of just *hoping* that I’ll actually wear everything, I’ve devised a very complicated and sophisticated system.  It goes something like this:  After I wear something, I will put it back on the hanger and then turn the hanger the other direction in order to keep track of what I’ve worn and what I haven’t.  I know, it’s practically rocket science.  For the folded stuff, I’ll put it away at the bottom of the drawer, underneath everything else I haven’t worn yet, and eventually work my way through everything in the stack.  I expect my Nobel nomination to be arriving any day now. 

In the last few years I’ve done some serious closet re-organizing and purging, and as a result I love almost everything I still own, but sometimes I look in, see all that empty space, and feel like I have nothinggggg to wearrrrrrr.  As Susan from The Working Closet says, your wardrobe doesn’t have to be huge (in fact it really shouldn’t be), but you do want everything to be well-made and go with many other things in your closet.  Having a well-edited wardrobe should make getting dressed easier, not harder.  In the words of William Morris, “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”  I think this is a great attitude to take with my closet too.

I'm participating in this little undertaking along with Jules from Pancakes and French Fries.  She's doing an entire month in which she purges, organizes, and makes over her house with William Morris' quote in mind.  Holy motivation, batman.  If you, like me, love to look into people's well-organized cabinets and drawers, check out what she's got going on in October.  If you're feeling really motivated, pick a drawer or closet of your own and play along at home!