1. Minimalism & Simplicity
These concept have many blogs dedicated to them, so instead of giving you a dictionary definition I will just give you my definition. Minimalism is about reducing the things you have to what is essential and simplicity is about defining what is essential. Each person has different essentials, however, when you spend time thinking about what these are then you have a better understanding of who you are and what you enjoy; this is simplicity. By thinking about the ways you use things and trying to determine ways to give up and change the things you thought were essential you have minimalism. I like both these ideas because I don't like a lot of clutter, and I like to keep my life streamlined. Both of these goals work together to create clutter-free and streamlined world. And when you have these things in place it is much easier to be organized. And I don't mean organized like with 10, 000 lists about various things. I mean automatically, head organized. Things are just coming naturally.
2. Habits
You see, as much as I write a lot of these blog posts and many of my goals involve lists, that actually isn't the point. If you really look at my goals you will see that they are carefully constructed to focus on changing my habits and making new things the norm. My overall philosophy is to live lightly in the world, and I often imagine myself just lying on the grass in the sun. So in order to make something like this happen I need to have time, be care-free, have the physical health to enjoy myself, and be used to having fun. I also believe in caring for the environment, and a large part of this for me is to simply not buy as much, use up and then reuse everything we have and then if it needs to be replaced look for the most environmentally-friendly option. So, by choosing to change my habits, I will eventually have made these changes and then incorporated them into my life, so that I no longer have to consciously think about them. Because the end goal here isn't to have good habits. It's to free myself up for what really matters.
3. Proactive vs. Reactive
This may seem like the opposite of habitual order, however by purposely designing my habit changes and organizationally strategies to focus on the things I care about, I will have eliminated the un-important and streamlined the non-essential so that I can happily focus on what is important in the moment. In nursing I have learned that if I am proactive, then I don't have to be as reactive. However, even in situations that are necessarily reactive (read: emergencies), I can respond to them with grace and confidence. I have made sure that everything else is taken care of, and the things that can wait or be eliminated will do so. This gives me the ability to care for my friends, serve at church, pick-up an extra shift at work, or simply spend the whole day snuggling with Prince Charming watching our latest tv series on continual loop.
So what does this have to do with clothes? Well as I mentioned last week, we are now at the point of making decisions. My decisions are based on the above ideas, and this is what works for me. However, I know people who love having tons of clothes, and actually enjoy shopping. Providing you have the budget to do this and aren't using debt to fund your closet, this may be your choice. You may also go the opposite way and decide to be a complete minimalist, only have 10 items in your whole wardrobe and wear only vegan and organic clothing. Making decisions at this point isn't about what colours you like, it's about how you want your closet to affect your life.
I have found that having a smaller wardrobe, with remixable pieces, and outfits that I have picked ahead of time, using my polyvore/pinterest wardrobe I have seriously streamlined my closet. I haven't had a melt-down about my outfit in a long time (this used to be a fairly regular occurrence). And I no longer have to go to the mall. I simply choose what I want and then when I am at stores for any reason I just keep my eye out. When I see the item that I want, I buy it. No more marathon shopping trips, that end up with me being some clothes just because they fit but have nothing to do with the rest of my closet. I have gained peace.
So what do you want your closet to be about? Please comment below!
Good for you! In my situation, (recently retired, sort of), I have decided to wait one full year before I reduce work clothes and reinvent my wardrobe. So I will be referring to your blog this summer.
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