Scarves – The Ultimate Accessory?

Continuing my journey to streamline my wardrobe and look…

Scarves are a definite part of my signature style and look.

Every women probably has at least one scarf in their wardrobe. If you have only one scarf, maybe you´re not so keen on them and were given it as a gift or don´t know how to wear it? Maybe its not your colour or it´s outdated.

Scarf lovers like me couldn´t begin to catalogue them….well, that is an exaggeration, however I have always worn them, from the 90s when when I worked in the corporate world and knotted silk squares round the neck with suits to now when I always carry a long wrap with me to guard against sudden cold, jazz up an outfit or use (currently) as a breastfeeding cover!

My scarves are animal prints, caramels, blues, pinks, greens and purples. I haven´t quite got all the colours of the rainbow as my tastes change frequently. Additionally because scarves are worn so close to the face usually (unless you tie one to a handbag or wear it as a belt), you have to make sure that the colour suits you and doesn´t make you look ill or tired.

I photographed the two I am wearing all the time at present. The purple cashmere/silk ombre scarf I bought at a market in Turkey last year and the pinkish one is a linen mix from Italy. Depending on the weather I will throw either the lighter or heavier one around my neck.

Once I create the wardrobe of my dreams, it is my intention to hang them all up properly so I can see what I have. Though it can be fun finding ones I had forgotten about (trying to be positive about my mess)!

I googled “how to wear a scarf” and there were more sites than I had time to visit, however here is one and another that had some real life inspiration. The way to look modern wearing them seems to be not to try too hard tying them (unlike my 90s days) and drape them casually around your neck and shoulders.

Not forgetting you can also wear them on your head à la Edie Beale or Grace Kelly.

Please post your favourite scarf inspirations or stories!

Filed under: Clothes, Signature Style Friday

First Foray into Clothing Clutter

Right, this is scary, I am actually going to open my wardrobes and take some photos AND get rid of some things straight into the charity bag.

I am planning to discard anything that my instinct says NO! to too, that has seen better days, can´t be sold (ie not a “brand”) and isn´t going to contribute to a more pulled-together me.

Come back later for photos and details….

If you also feel like decluttering your clothes this week, please let me know I´m not the only one doing it!

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The Big Reveal…..the ugly ugly truth.

This is what happens when you move your wardrobes, have to take everything out, dismantle the wardrobes, move bedrooms and because you are pressed for time and 6 months pregnant, just stuff everything in any which way including a whole pile of stuff that didn´t fit anyway to begin with and was overflowing to other areas.

Yep, this is what happens….when you don´t need to wear anything except for a handful of pregnancy clothes.

See all the clothes stuffed in at the bottom?

This is what happens when you are a complusive shopper (was) who bought a lot of clothes….

I don´t dare open the other door!

Stay tuned tomorrow for details of what I have tossed- I may weigh the bags and reveal the kilos, lol.

Filed under: Clothes, Decluttering Monday, Decluttering to get my life back

Hats, Bags and Sunglasses

So what am I going to add to my basic wardrobe of jeans and black clothes so I don´t get lost in a sea of drabness? The coloured shoes are pretty occasional, usually they are black too.

I love hats and the way I look in them. I have a large collection of winter hats which keep my head warm and the snow off my face and as I am trying to protect my face from excess sun, I also have a number of big floppy summer hats like the one above I was wearing last summer in Turkey (and see black dress too!, though I also have print/colourful ones).

The hat I took to Turkey is black and white and I also have a black one and a white one….hmmm, I think I have mentioned before that I have a problem with buying multiple versions of the same item.

I also love BIG sunglasses. I have really embraced this trend and can´t imagine going back to the small metallic ones I used to wear in my 20s. I am really really trying to be careful with the two pairs I own currently and not lose them!

I don´t like cheap sunglasses only because I seem to break them within days- the arms snap off or the lenses fall out. I have never had problems like that with my indulgently labelled ones HOWEVER I have in the past left them in changing rooms and restaurants . These ones though I have owned for nearly two years, so I am doing well….I also religiously put them put them in their cases when not on my head to avoid scratches.

I have long left behind me the days when I dressed all in black and also carried a black handbag! Not to say I don´t currently own a black handbag anymore, but I realised not so long ago, that its just all too much black.

My current favourite is this mustard yellow bag.

Its my “it” bag for summer and the only one that belongs on this post, which is not supposed to be “RML photographs the contents of her wardrobe”, however about less is more. I made an exception with the hats as they are so important in the fight aganst ageing .

Don´t forgot to check out Kirwin´s Signature Style post too!

Filed under: Clothes, Signature Style Friday

Five Easy Pieces

Like Kirwin, I have been wanting to define a signature style for myself for some time. Currently I am lost in an overflowing wardrobe of things that don´t fit me and don´t suit me – in there somewhere are wonderful items that always get compliments, however how do I begin to weed them out? No, thats the easy bit… finding the things that suit me. The hard bit is going to be letting go of the rest.

My main problem at the moment is I need to lose 15 to 20 kilos post pregnancy. Its obviously going to take some time and it means that I´m not going to adhere to one of the golden rules of wardrobe cleansing which is to get rid of everything that doesn´t fit me now. If I did that I would be stuck with only a handful of stretched out pregnancy clothes!

In our bedroom, I am lucky enough to have two armoires for my very own. So I have decided to use one as my everyday armoire full of clothes that I actually wear/will wear and the other smaller one will have things in it that I just can´t get rid of for some reason (like they are very special occasion) or are out of season (like all my winter coats right now) and my two dirndls for Oktoberfest. Everything else has to go!

Even without fitting into my clothes, I believe I can still begin to declutter my wardrobe- firstly by eliminating anything too old or worn, not age appropriate, doesn´t suit me or clothes that I have ridiculous amounts of duplicates of – like black cardigans and black evening shoes.

Step 1 to building a streamlined wardrobe – Identify 5 key pieces to build my wardrobe around.

Step 2 – Add a new piece (or five?) every week until I run out **** I will be adding pre-existing wardrobe items for some while. Shopping outside of my wardrobe is not part of the current plan until I really identify what my style is.

Lest my stay-at-home-mother wardrobe become flat and boring, like Kirwin I will remember to add colour – mostly in accessories - bags, jewellery, scarfs, even shoes.

Before I started this blog, I had just read a book called Eccentric Glamour which started off all kinds of trains of thoughts. I didn´t want to be boring, I didn´t want to fade away.

I would like to think there is a touch of the eccentric gypsy in me and I would rather be noticed for a little bit of rebellious style rather than being completely overlooked. Stay tuned for big hoop earrings and tambourines!

(Photos in progress- I can´t find the jersey top or the jeans I want to photograph today (which is a reflection of the state of my wardrobe , you might have to imagine).

1. Jeans – bootcut always to balance out my pear shape. Medium rise (hard to find) and dark.

2. Ballet shoes – here are four that I own. From Pretty Ballerinas. Because of my big feet which I am self conscious about, I don´t usually do colour on them and will probably never wear anything except for dark or metallic high heels, sandals or wedges. But wearing these brights with a black dress or my jeans somehow worked for me.

3. Loose Jersey Black Top – back to black- slimming and wears well. I like loose drapey jersey fabric especially. Other colours I might wear if I can find them in the right fabric and cut would be navy, bright pink, medium blues or green.

4. Necklace – I am growing to love big chunky pieces – something I will probably look for more of over time, though I would like to expand my colour range beyond the lots of silver I have now.

5. Cardigan – a classic black shape: I would normally scrunch up the sleeves to highlight rings or bracelets. This is an old favourite I love and have had for years. I like wearing a more fitted cardigan piece over my looser tops. Somehow it works.

This outfit is something I would feel secure in – based on black, but with a favourite handbag in a colour (next week!) I feel ready for anything.

Filed under: Clothes, Signature Style Friday

Capsule Life List – Shoes, Part One

I started thinking about why I have so many shoes (I have no idea how many- maybe 50 or 60?). I can´t count them now but that is a wild and horrific guess.

I suffer from panic buying and reluctance to throw out shoes that may be a little past their “best by” date. The reason? I have a large foot – it is a EU 43, UK 9, Australian 11 and US 11(?). I was half a size smaller 10 years ago.

In the past shoes in this size have been hard to come by – if I saw anything that fitted, I usually bought it. When I lived in Australia up until about age 25, there was no point browsing to see what styles I liked, my shoe buying technique was simply to walk into a store and say – what do you have in a 10 and a half? Please bring everything out. And from that I would make my selection.

Now days though Australia has great shoes in size 11 and I have no trouble finding what I want. HOWEVER, living in Germany now – nice shoes in size EU41 and above are surprisingly hard to come by because they are mainly what I would call granny style, ugly and orthopedic looking- think Birkenstock. So, I need to buy online, which usually works fantastically and given time I can find what need.

However, its not the same as just being able to walk into a store in town and buy what I need….so the shoes I wear a lot do get run down quicker and I don´t seem to be able to retire them. And then I have an ever growing collection of fancy shoes that get worn once in a blue moon.

I need to stop buying any type of evening shoe altogether (for years and years and years) and do a good assessment of what I wear the most- either get some shoes repaired or retire them. Replace if necessary. I know already I have quite a few pairs of flat summer sandals with broken straps from last year- repair or retire.

I would also like to stop feeling that shoes are out of reach for me- they aren´t now due to the internet and I also could probably send my Mum shopping for Diana Ferarri or Sandler in Australia for me if necessary. I have to stop hoarding shoes and believe enough in the bounty of the universe, that I will not have to go barefoot unless I want to

TO DO:
In the near future
- get all shoes out of wardrobes and baskets
- categorise on short lists how many of each
- make decision to repair or retire shoes that are worn, broken or whiffy
- immediately replace what I truly need so as not to feel “shoe poor”
- donate “nearly new” shoes that I can let go to charity or sell if never worn.
- blog about this task as a follow up (will be a nice warm up exercise for doing the same type of thing with clothes )

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I am waiting to go home now, need time to recover slowly and move slowly. No baths, saunas or swimming pools for six weeks I think. Great pity about the bath bit especially.

Little one is a bit jaundiced so I am sitting here waiting for the results of his blood test while he sleeps. Its a beautiful spring day outside- about 20C so I am looking forward to getting out into the fresh air soon

Filed under: Clothes

Back to the Drawing Board

I lay in bed this morning for a while feeling despondent, though however I might like a good wallow, I know that after a while I have to pick myself up and go on.

After taking care of some general chores around the house, I revisited a large cupboard full of things I was going to “sell”. My compromise after a little thought was to immediately put in the charity bag anything that I had planned to take to a flea market- it´s just not going to happen in the immediate future. It was very easy once I had made my mind up- flea market, in the bag.

So, I filled up a charity bag very quickly and I left some things in the cupboard for Ebay. However, they will be listed TOMORROW or else put into the charity bag as well. I don´t even have to go far to get rid of charity bags either, they have regular pickups on our street. I don´t ever feel tempted to revisit and remove things from these bags either strangely enough.

I also two thirds filled a garbage bag with garbage from a stash of paper, broken things and junk I had been keeping.

Tomorrow will be a better day and the day after that, I know what I have to do, which is just keep filling those charity bags.

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A link I just found – food for thought – When Self Storage is a Bad Idea

Filed under: Clothes, Decluttering to get my life back

Repeat Buying

I liked this article I read on repeat buying in The Times this morning.

I have two extremely cluttered wardrobes which I haven´t tackled yet in a huge variety of sizes (due to weight gain and loss) and I know a lot of my clutter is due to repeat buying- jeans, little black dresses (as I like going out for cocktails with my girlfriends when not pregnant), black cardigans, similar shoes by the bucketload (though I justify this as my large shoe size is hard to find, so I have bought favourite styles in bulk before), lots of black in fact and its a mess.

Besides clothes, repeat buying can be a problem in other areas- toys, books, kitchenware for example. On holidays I tend to buy lots of colourful ceramics which are only for display, but I have sworn no more (unless its really special!).

I have minimalist friends that don´t repeat buy, so it´s not in everyone to do this- it´s the opposite of minimalism. And I also think its a fear of not believing the future will provide for you, so feeling the need to stockpile.

Its a mantra I need to repeat as I donate clothes to charity or sell them- “The future will provide for you, it will. You will be able to buy the things you need in the future, as you need them”. And notice I say, need not want .

I love clothes and I love the confidence that comes from knowing that you look good. What I would love is to be one of those people you read about in magazines who just buy a couple of things to update their look ever year. However I will never be able to do that if I am repeat buying the same articles in different sizes- it´s not at all thrifty to have vastly fluctuating weight.

“Notes on repeat buying

– Eschew endless variations on one thing, even if it defines your look

– Only buy if it’s a serious upgrade that will replace unworn items

– Update by thinking outside the box”

What do you repeat buy?

Filed under: Clothes

Still Chipping Away at the Iceberg!

Little by little I am putting things way, but I am not joking when I say it will take me weeks more to get everything as I want it. I took some photos of the main mess, will post them later…

I came across the term I was looking for, for what I am doing- it is called “rightsizing”. Rightsizing means having the appropriate amount of belongings to fit your space and circumstances. I am so far “wrongsized” right now, it is hard to even know where to begin sometimes.

Books- I “lost” the mini bookshelf I had next to my main one (see this photo- it is the little one stacked with travel and language books). I gave it to my daughter to use in her room, so I am now “over” by that many books of fitting into the big bookshelf. So, will be doing some major listing on Amazon and an expat site I belong to, to sell some.

Clothes- Always a problem. Deserves its own post. Due to my ever fluctuating weight, I have too many clothes to fit different sizes. its neither practical, efficient or economical. I need to get a handle on this after the baby is born. Will no doubt be the subject of many many posts later on this year.

Kitchen- I am actually quite happy with the kitchen situation. We have a large kitchen and it is rightsized for this area. I use what I have, like cooking and entertaining (when my house is tidy, not CHAOS- Can´t Have People Over Syndrome) and apart from keeping it tidy with a good spring clean once a year and the odd purge, this is the one area I am not out of control in. Less said about the top of the fridge the better though…..does anyone have any helpful suggestions for this area?

Media- My beautifully organised Media shelf (see here ) will be relocated to my daughter´s bedroom which is a pity, but there is just no where else for it to go in the main living area. And I don´t want it in my “new” spacious and non-oppressive feeling bedroom (well, not currently, but when I am finished). However her bedroom is next to the TV (luckily walls are thick), so there is not too much of a walk. My kids don´t have TVs in their rooms, however they are lucky enough to have a laptop to share for NickJr and ISpy games. I discussed with my husband the fact that we don´t ever ever listen to CDs anymore (ipods and itunes rule) so maybe we could get rid of a lot of CDs in the future too.

Kid´s Rooms- plenty to “rightsize” there. A reasonably enjoyable job unlike my own belongings. PS. They are loving having their own rooms, though I feel soooo far from my little son now as he is the apartment length away.

Misc Junk- OMG! OMG! Horrible, horrible.

Filed under: Clothes, Home Matters, Living Arrangements

Small Spaces….

I have been looking for decluttering information on the web today….ok, ok, instead of actually doing it, but I counted today still as a sick day and its hard to get stuck into anything when the family are around on the weekend.

My un-unique problem is that I live in an apartment- we have a small cellar area (full!) and a small storage rental (full!) and the apartment is full too. Our bedrooms are full, my kitchen is full and the laundry and hall cupboard too. As I don´t want to move at present, I have to declutter and downsize to make this work. It´s overwhelming. I don´t have photos of the “full” areas to share today, but they are in really bad shape- don´t be fooled by the neat and tidy before guests come over photos that I posted yesterday!

A lot of my clutter is kid´s things particularly clothes and shoes they have grown out of that I was keeping just in case or wanting to sell at the flea market. I have dozens of bags and boxes and I don´t even know what is in there anymore, let alone have thought about sorting things out for the baby.

I found this article about small spaces and am looking for more. A lot of organisation solutions I read just don´t work for a family in an apartment.

Now tomorrow is Monday and I want to tackle a small project of clutter (as well as folding mountain of laundry and picking up weekend mess). I will remember to take a before and after photo this time. I´m just not sure what its going to be at present…. perhaps the shoe rack by the front door and all the coats (see photo, what a mess).

Filed under: Clothes, Decluttering to get my life back, Media storage