I’m a lifelong purger. I absolutely adore getting rid of stuff; the flip side is that I married a man who loves to hang on to stuff. So it horrifies him to no end to see me purge things. It makes him feel 10x better if I can make some money off of it (which is why you should shop my sale over here! Prada! Coach! Yes! Buy for the health of my marriage!!!).

Cleaning out your closet is a little bit like moving. When you have to physically remove every last item from a space, you begin to wonder, “How much is this truly worth to move it?”  As I was cleaning out our closet this week with Lauren from the Riley Group, I realized I tended to have a gut reaction when I looked at each item: “Love it!”  or “Goodbye!”  The Goodbye pile was growing ever larger and I was physically feeling lighter and lighter.

But there was that one pile of things that were “maybe.” Things that I didn’t know if I’d wear again, like that denim pencil skirt from a few years ago. Or that one dress from Anthropologie.  Admittedly that pile was substantially smaller than the Goodbye pile, but I was still ambivalent enough that I needed outside help.

Enter fabulous neighbor Susan of Working Closet fame. She flitted on over to help me wade through the pile of maybes that I just wasn’t so sure about. And while I tend to be an independent type of shopper, I really trust Susan. She has practical advice and I felt enabled to donate stuff that I wasn’t wearing. Denim skirt? Out. Anthropologie dress? In! The single best advice she gave me on a dress that we all agreed I should keep was, “If you don’t wear it by Labor Day, toss it out.” Now that is a parameter I can work in! Boundaries, people! Boundaries are the key to life!

I told you it was closet therapy over here.

Another benefit of moving out every single thing you own is that you are able to better assess your needs. In other words, I determined that I no longer need to buy the following:

(However. If you should decide to go out and purchase these items, would you let me know so I can live vicariously through you? Because clearly I love purchasing these items as I have an abundance of them. ::sigh::)

If you’re in the OKC area, both Susan AND the Riley Group would love to help you out. The Riley Group will organize your closet to retail-worthy perfection while Susan can help you to style the clothes you already have and fill in the blanks for what you need to be buying. No more wasted trips to the mall buying things you already have (ahem, like me)! No more trips to Target buying up bins to store things in that you don’t need to keep (ahem, like me)!

Come back next week for the big reveal of the closet makeover on Monday!