What's In Your Closet? My Own Wardrobe Makeover

How's your closet feeling these days? Mine is feeling a lot leaner and meaner, thanks to the work of Image Consultant Katie Karppala. If you remember back to last fall, Katie was a guest on my radio show.  During our hour together, we chatted about image and how your wardrobe is a reflection of your perception of your current self. We also talked about more important and pressing matters, like how to dress to make your thighs look smaller. Hey, I tackle the tough issues, people!

A few weeks ago, Katie came to my house and after swearing her to secrecy about the decidedly UN-designer decor in my bedroom, I let her into my master closet to work her magic...

Three hours later, I had these three bags of clothing (about 25 items - see pic below right) for my local Freecycle group and a closet organized not by color, as it had previously been, but by CLUSTER. Katie "clusters" clothing items that can be mixed-and-matched to wear together. Just as I teach my clients to store items together that they'll use together, you can do the same thing with your clothes.  It's just so dang logical and kind of like a 21st century grown-up Garanimals concept.

Here is a pic of my closet with its new cluster organization. (Yes, I keep my dress shoes above my head) You can see the clusters are separated by white plastic rings so I can see where one cluster stops and the next one begins. I was skeptical at first about keeping jackets, pants and shirts all mixed together, but I have to admit, clustering the items into outfits has made dressing much faster and simpler for me.

Here is a shot of Katie patiently slogging through my clothes and another of one of the clusters Katie put together with the mannequin, before the cluster went back into the closet.
 

 

During this process, Katie also pointed out that I didn't really have enough clothing to completely cluster my wardrobe. Not a big surprise, as I'm not really a clothes horse. When I fill in my wardrobe with a handful of key pieces, I'll have enough to cluster the rest. Here's what I'm missing:

A black summer weight jacket
A grey jacket
A patterned jacket
Casual black pants
Cream color pants
A great pair of blue jeans
A few stretchy v-neck tanks

Since Katie came over and clustered my clothes, I find dressing is a lot faster and easier, and I am more confident when putting outfits together. Thanks Katie for all your help! Now if I could just get Nordstrom to hook me up with those missing pieces I'd be good to go!