A sense of Balance

Balance your wardrobe – Balance your life!

My mother instilled in me an absolute love of a clean, tidy house. So much so that a messy room can make me anxious and more than a little bit cranky. I love the sense of control when my world is ordered – a clean & clear bench top means a clean & clear mind… Maybe not, but no matter how chaotic my day has been, when I walk into a tidy house I feel like I have my own slice of serenity.

OK, perhaps I need therapy, but I find an interesting side effect to creating balance in your wardrobe can also lead to a greater sense of balance in your life. Perhaps it’s a ‘spiritual principle’ at play. Regardless, I always find it truly amazing (and infinitely rewarding), that after I’ve been working in a clients wardrobe where we have culled those pieces that simply don’t work – usually dumped in a pile on the bedroom floor, made another pile of garments to be laundered and mended, and are left with more than a few empty hangers that my clients will turn to me and say “That’s great – I feel so much better!”

So how do you create balance in your wardrobe? You need to start by looking at your lifestyle: itself an exercise in work/life balance. I create a pie chart with each of my clients and ask them to delineate where they spend their time: the time at work, out with girlfriends, in the garden or gym, playing with their children & so on. It’s only when you look at your life in this way you can begin to assess what clothing you really do need. You see, if you attend formal functions only once or twice a year but have a wardrobe full of formal ball gowns, there’s an incongruence that needs addressing.

Now, you know what you spend your time doing, what do you like to wear whilst you do it? Are you at home with small children – if so you need pants that you can climb around the floor in rather than flashing your knickers in a pretty skirt. Do you head out for lunch or dinner with your girlfriends from time to time? You need to feel comfortable in that environment also. Maybe a dressier pair of pants and funky jacket fits the bill. When you look at your life in this way, you’ll be able to create a more realistic shopping list, rather than simply buying pieces you like that hang unworn in your wardrobe.

Wardrobe balance comes from more than the right shopping list, however. It also comes from the right quantities of clothing and from buying not only what you need but also what suits your body and of course, clothing that you love. Buying something ugly or cheap, simply because it’s “just a work top” or pants that are “just for work” is really a sad way to live. You see, if you look at your personal ‘pie-chart’, most of us spend more than half of our awake hours at work; which in turn means you will be spending more than half of your awake hours in clothing that you hate and that you by your own admission think of as ugly. That simply doesn’t make sense. It certainly won’t make you any extra dollars & cents either, with many published studies now citing a definite co-relation between salary scales and personal presentation.

Which actually brings me to another ‘wardrobe balance’ principle: Spend your money where you spend your time. That means, invest in pants and jackets that you will be asking a lot of – i.e. wearing often, spend less on T-shirts and directional pieces that you realistically will only wear for a season.  It just makes sense, particularly if your money has to stretch a long way. Don’t be trapped into false economies – you’ll only need to replace your clothing more often. You also need be very aware that cheap clothing can often look like cheap clothing – enough said!

So, here we are starting a new year – I really encourage you to start fresh in your wardrobe, and this year, create a plan that will work for you with your clothing. Stop wasting money on things you hate or simply never wear. I promise you’ll find that having a balanced wardrobe removes a whole lot of stress each day, allowing more time to pursue other activities to achieve a greater sense of balance in your life.