A New Attitude

I just moved. Like half of the rest of the world did last week.

Before I packed, I had a powerful desire to purge my closet. Moving! A big change to a new state and job! What a great excuse!

I got rid of about 1/3 of my closet actually, between a trip to consignment (2 bags of clothes, 1 of accessories) and two trips to Goodwill (1 bag of clothes, 1 bag of accessories, and some nicer things not in season so consignment wouldn't take them, phooey). And damn, it feels good. Nice and light. Sure, I look at my startlingly small concentration of certain objects I used to have more of, such as tanks, and worry. But for the most part I haven't missed anything yet, and yes, it really does make it easier to get dressed every day. I couldn't recomment it more highly.

By the way, did I mention that I went from having an entire wall of closet space to having 1.5 closets in the whole apartment? Because I did. And when I signed for the apartment, it scared me. But everything fits! So I don't regret the purge.

Meanwhile, a tight budget and the thrill of feeling unburdened combine to keep me from shopping as much as I did in the past year. So why not take this opportunity to finally ACTUALLY follow the mantra of shopping less but shopping quality? I've been to the mall about 4 times in the past week for various reasons, and I haven't bought anything. I haven't even been tempted. I don't feel like my wardrobe is necessarily missing anything right now, and when it is missing something, I want to be able to reward myself with a quality and costly article of clothing to begin building my quality and sophisticated closet. It doesn't have to be December to start forming resolutions, right?

Besides, the local mall has kind of crappy stores. No offense, mall. We're on the same team. But if I actually shop smart from now on, I might want to reward myself with a drive to the farther, more upscale mall, and get some nice things.

Not only that, but I actually returned the last belted Alfani shirt that bought at Macy's. I got it home and it was fine, but it didn't thrill me and I wasn't excited to wear it immediately, so I thought I might as well return it. Let's save those 50 bucks for the $150 top I can't live without. And I should (hopefully!) be getting some money back from consignment to go into that pot as well.

And yes, this also goes for shoes. I'm enjoying the gold flats I got for $20 at TJ Maxx but I'm thinking -- how does this ownership make me happy compared to how some new flat riding-style boots I could be saving for would make me happy? No comparison, really. I do spend a good portion of my time each week scouring deals on affordable shoes. Not that there's anything wrong with affordable basic shoes if you like them and they aren't too cheaply made! Especially if you can afford to buy whatever you want, (yes that goes for buying low-cost items as well as high-cost!), and grab shoes on a whim because you can. But those aren't the special shoes I really want, and if I need to choose between 6 pairs of cheap flats just to have new shoes, or a really amazing pair of boots, I'll take the boots, please! ... I can kick this habit. I think I can, I think I can.

I see the light.