Summer Cleaning

Yesterday I took a bag of clothes to Crossroads to sell (they only wanted two items, which I am trying not to take personally) and three bags to Goodwill to donate.

Goodwill was flooded with donations, it being the beginning of the month. There were piles and piles of what looked like absolute junk all over the parking lot. The guy asked me if I wanted my bags back, and when I said "Sure, if it's easy..." he dumped my clothes into a nearby fish tank. A Splendid wrap that I had paid full price for, and fully intended to LOVE, fell on the pavement and he didn't bother to pick it up. All I could think was "What a waste." So much crap that I bought and never did love.

Money is tight around here (money is always tight around here, but especially now that we are desperately trying to buy a house….) and I need to make a new resolution to be thoughtful about the clothes I buy.

Better to invest in a couple of terrific, well-made things each season than to end up with bags and bags of crap. And..... Better to pay full price for the perfect pair of jeans than to order five different pairs on eBay that never fit properly?

I still like the criterion I set for myself when I was cleaning out my closet four years ago: "If we were suddenly offered jobs in Barcelona, what would I want to bring with me?"

Photo: Ashley Smith is All Natural for Russh #47 by Cara Stricker via Fashion Gone Rogue

I want to dress like a rock star

I just cleaned out my closet, ruthlessly excising anything unflattering and/or blah. (My hard drive got totaled. I figured why not go all the way?)

1. I've been looking a little frumpy around the house. Which makes me *feel* frumpy. Though H-town very sweetly told me I looked like a skater girl when he caught me blogging in his t-shirt and boxers at 5pm yesterday....

2. Getting dressed should be easy. I want to feel good in everything I put on.

3. The bungalow is f'ing small. H-town and I have three drawers each. But it's the same way I lived in New York, and I've gotten pretty good at letting go of stuff. Here's the way I'm currently looking at it: "If we were suddenly offered jobs in Barcelona, what would I want to bring with me?"

Now that I've cleared the debris I think I might need a few new signature pieces...

Check out the interview with Liela Moss of The Duke Spirit on Refinery29. Here's her list of 5 most loved items:

1. "A jumper dress by Bernard Willhelm."
2. "An all-in-one shorts thing by Suzy at Unhee."
3. "A circus ringmaster-style black blazer by Rag & Bone."
4. "A Canadian Mounty ex-military cape from an Army & Navy store in Toronto."
5. "A gold tunic by Renata Morales in Montreal."

All right.

(Liela Moss, photo by Andrea Spotorno; Liela with The Duke Spirit; courtesy of Refinery 29)