I was in Sydney recently and spent some quality time in the CBD, where Myer and David Jones (Australia’s largest department stores) reside in all their multi-storied glory.
As I went up stairs and down escalator, I found myself slightly out of sorts in these stores… meandering in a listless kind of way, not really engaged in what I was doing, feeling disconnected.
I saw very few things I really liked. As one of our fabulous Shop Your Wardrobe course members commented – I’m at the point where I don’t want a lot of “good” in my wardrobe (or my life, actually) – I’d prefer to have a small number of “great”. I want pieces in my wardrobe that make me feel a million bucks, not a wardrobe stuffed with outfits that makes me feel $10. Because my wardrobe is already so plentiful, if it isn’t “super duper great” then why would I want to add it to my wardrobe?
It got me wondering whether the lack of temptation I experienced in Sydney recently was to do with the paucity of “great stuff” in the stores. Or if it had to do with the changes in me. My year without clothes shopping changed me. I no longer want to spend my money “$1 at a time”, as it were. I don’t want to spend it $30 here, $50 there – having my money drip out of my wallet on a daily or weekly basis, with a cami top bought on Monday, a pair of earrings bought on Tuesday, a pair of shoes on sale on Friday. I want each purchase to be consciously considered and add something meaningful to my wardrobe. And if it doesn’t, then it has no place in my wardrobe.
Shopping is such an interwoven part of many women’s lives, they can’t imagine what life would be like without it. Of course, this isn’t true for all women [and if it’s not true for you, then just say “oh yeah, them” like you would if you were 5foot 2 and I was talking about women who are very tall – “oh yeah, them“]. But for those women for whom it is true, they tell me that it’s impossible, shocking even, to consider a year, let alone a life, where shopping doesn’t feature heavily in it.
I’m here to tell you that it’s not only possible, but it’s fabulous. I’m feel free of this shopping albatross that I didn’t even realise was around my neck for so many years.
I feel like a whole host of possibilities in terms of my time and energy have opened up – that previously were taken up with shopping, or thinking about shopping.
I am wearing and loving what I’ve got in my wardrobe, and feel like I can truly “shop my wardrobe”. When I give away, sell or swap items, it feels great, like I’m letting go, releasing something that was too heavy to hold.
You know, I don’t consider those few hours spent in a listless drifting state in the Sydney shops to be a waste of time, though. It was good research and good fodder (I got this blog posting out of it, after all). And it was a litmus test of sorts. And the stick came out green.