Okay, I am a closet shopper. In fact I have clothes in almost every closet of the house. Even the bonus room over the garage functions in part as an off-season storage closet. It also contains items that have been banished from my love list to my like list, just marking time until I finally decide to redesign them or discard them. Fashion experts and closet organizers say to toss out the things you haven’t worn in a year. Some say to discard an item every time you put something new in your closet. Now that is just pure nonsense! Certain things like cashmere sweaters, scarves, belts, and almost anything black have staying power. I can’t tell you how many times I have searched the malls for that perfect piece I needed, only to find out that I already had what I was looking for at home in another closet.

Sometimes when I am bored or procrastinating working at my desk, I flip through the hangers in my closets and look for old friends that are “out of sight, out of mind”. One of my favorite ways of entertaining myself is going through and trying on different combinations of clothing and photographing ones I like. It helps when you are in a hurry and want to put on something eye-catching but don’t have the time or energy to figure out what to wear. A side benefit of photographing yourself in the clothes is checking proportions and deciding whether or not you are delusional about how you look in your clothes. It is also helpful to know which pants fit over boots, which must be tucked in and which ones look good with ankle boots. (That is another day’s topic for sure.)

I spent a couple of hours today doing this. My husband is away on a weekend of playing golf with his buddies so I could spread things all over the room. The only downfall is having to hang everything back up but that can be entertaining too. I “merchandise” my closet regularly, sometimes organizing by color, sometimes by item. Admittedly, I like handling clothes so cleaning my closet is a chore I don’t mind doing. So, for a few hours, I rediscovered things I had forgotten and managed to entertain myself at the same time. I think it’s a good thing to be a closet shopper!