I talked in the last Silver and Strong Newsletter about how to identify your style by using your 3 words (the article can be found on on the Silver and Strong website www.silverandstrong.com under the “blog” section). Now it’s time to curate your wardrobe. The first step is letting go!

Likely you already have a lot of clothes in your existing wardrobe that reflect your style, but are obscured by clothing clutter. For me clothing clutter represent clothes that I bought on impulse, usually because I was on some emotional roller coaster about the way I looked. The second group of clutter are old clothes that I had worn well past their best look date. These are the old blue jeans that have lost their shape or that old comfy sweater that had seen better days. The last group of clutter clothes are the multitude of clothing in various sizes that I accumulated as my weight has yo-yo’d over the years.

I think decluttering the impulse clothes is relatively easy. These were things I wore maybe once or twice or in some cases not at all. They usually represented clothes that fell out of my usual style choices and/or were styles I was “trying out” on myself. They definitely don’t align with my 3 style words, but I have hung on to them because getting rid of them seemed wasteful.

Decluttering the old “comfy” clothes can be a bit of an emotional letting go of the past, but it needs to be done. Admittedly, it can be hard to let go of these clothes because we have hidden behind them for years. You’re in a new stage of life, with a physique that reflects your hard work and it’s your time to shine.

The last set of clutter clothes, none of which fit, are clothes I have hung onto as my weight fluctuated up and down. When I stood back and looked at my closet, I realized I had a closet full of clothes in a range of sizes. My dreaded clothes from a time when I was at my heaviest and aspirational clothes I kept in the event I would get serious, lose weight, and finally fit into those “skinny” jeans. These can be hard to let go of.

For those on a transformation journey, sliding into an old pair of jeans and noticing that they’re too big is a huge moment in your weight-loss journey. Those old clothes are proof that all your healthy eating, exercise and newly formed habits are paying off with real results. Keeping them is like a trophy. But should you keep them?

Often, we keep these old clothes because we don’t believe in ourselves. We don’t believe we can maintain the exercise and diet and everything else that goes into a true health transformation. We still have this mindset that, once I reach my goal, I can go back to the way I lived before. These old clothes can be a kind of emotional insurance policy. Instead of holding yourself accountable to maintain those healthy changes, these clothes are there to cut yourself some slack in case you can’t maintain your new habits. We keep those clothes, just in case. Its less stressful to pull out a larger size from your closet than to have to go buy new larger clothes, which would signal defeat.

Your beliefs about yourself are what create your reality, if you believe your new self is transitory, likely you will fall back on old habits. This is an example of a self-limiting belief. Your beliefs are what create your reality, not your past and this is why working on your mindset is just as important as the diet and exercise. Catching a glimpse of those old clothes may affect your mood and your self-esteem more than you realize and may threaten newly formed healthy habits.

So, toss your old clothes along with those old habits and let your clothes in your closet represent the new version of you – the version that says there is no going back.

Now that you have cleared out the clothes that either don’t fit with your style words and/or just don’t fit, it’s time to build a foundational capsule wardrobe. In the next newsletter we will talk about creating a capsule wardrobe, finding those base pieces, complimentary pieces, layering pieces, statement pieces and accessories all that reflect your style without accumulating clutter.