I am a clothes hoarder; I admit this.

My hoarding applies to many aspects of my life, from books and magazines, to clothes and accessories. Now I'm not at the stage where my collections are cause for concern and intervention but I do find it hard to let go of clothes.

There is an emotional attachment to many of our items of clothing. We spent time choosing them, hard-earned money buying them and then the memories attached to the occasions we wore them. I often reach in my wardrobe for the same shirt or jacket, not because I don't have anything new, but because those items made me feel good or, strangely, safe.

Because of this mentality, I amass new clothes that never see the light of day and I'm often pictured in the same clothes over and over (Noticed the lack of pictures of me on my blog in the last year or so? I've not felt compelled to wear anything new let alone get photographed in them)

However, every year, Caelan and I endeavour to have a big clear out of our wardrobes. This is an activity which causes me stupid levels of anxiety but I know it's for the best. I love clothes and I always want to explore and expand my sense of style but how can I do this when I am stuck in a wardrobe vicious-cycle?

Holding on to clothes that are way past their best and past being on-trend. Keeping clothes that don't fit in the hopes that this year, I'll get skinnier or that I can get them altered when I get round to it (which I rarely do!) 
All this is a burden we don't need. I'm not going to go all minimal on you here, extolling the virtues of 3 items of clothing because that's not my nature and life would get pretty boring pretty fast. However, as with many things, we have to clear out the old to make way for the new. 

Yesterday, we filled a total of 7 bin liners (& 2 holdalls) with clothes and accessories we don't want or need but had been needlessly hanging on to. Looking into my wardrobe, I saw items of clothing that just aren't me anymore (I can't remember the last time I wore any of my many tweed blazers) but I was unable to let them go because of some limiting influence I was putting on myself.
These bags of clothes are all still in great condition (many items worn once and shamefully, some never worn at all) and will be making their way to local charity shops so some more good can come from my purging. 



A clean slate and empty wardrobe allows me to almost start from scratch and develop my style all over again and I'm excited at the prospect!