← Her Style Podcast | Shopping, Color Palettes, Fashion, Wardrobe, Outfits, Clothing
Her Style Podcast | Shopping, Color Palettes, Fashion, Wardrobe, Outfits, Clothing
206 | 6 Tips to Overcome Your Excuses and Start Simplifying Your Wardrobe Today
00:24:40
Tomorrow is NYE and I don’t know about you, but this is one of my most favorite times of the year. It’s right up there with Christmas and Halloween! Any day is a good day to implement better habits and routines and get serious about your goals,...
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Heather Riggs
Tomorrow is New Year's Eve and I don't know about you, but this is one of my most favorite times of the year. It's right up there with Christmas and Halloween. Any day is a good day to implement better habits and routines and get serious about your goals, but there is an undeniable motivation that comes with a crisp new calendar year. I love taking the week between the holidays to start envisioning what I want to improve on in the days ahead. Whether it's sticking with my workout routine or being more diligent about my daily quiet time, I recognize that I can't do the same things and expect different results. So I'm really excited to support you in giving your wardrobe and style goals a fresh start in 2025. And before we dive into today's episode, I want to remind you that my free four day wardrobe revamp bootcamp starts in just one week from today. From January 6th through the 9th, I'm going to walk you through my proven system to build a wardrobe you love in the year ahead. No shopping money required. We'll be reviewing practical tips to rework your existing pieces in better ways, get crystal clear on how you want to show up and be seen, and uncover ways I've shared before to help you be more intentional and strategic at shopping. If you're ready to do things differently this year and up level your style without having to buy a whole new wardrobe, then do not miss this live event. Head to herstylellc.combootcamp to register and join me for free. And while we're on the subject of starting the year fresh in today's episode, I want to support you with a project you've probably been putting off for a while. A good Closet purge. If you have too many items that are no longer serving you or just plain overwhelming you, I want to help you start simplifying today. You don't have to wait until the boot camp next week to begin making progress on your wardrobe goals, although we will be diving even deeper into this next week on January 8th. But for now, I want to hand over six tips to help you let go of any guilt or emotional attachment you feel when you look in your closet, decide between what to keep, toss and replace, and find time to get this done so you can save time every single morning when you go to get dressed. This is going to be a good one, friend. Let's dive right in. Welcome to Her Style Podcast where we're all about empowering you to show up and get dressed every day with confidence. I'm your host, Heather Riggs, a 15 year and counting certified image consultant and color specialist. Ready to build a wardrobe and a personal style you love. Let's get started. Have you been putting off your wardrobe clean out for a while? I hear this so often. It is something I think we all know we need to do and it's really great to do it every single season if you can, but it's one of the things that is so easy to put off and to avoid completely. There are so many reasons that doing your closet audit, clean out or purge, whatever you want to call it, can feel daunting and make it also feel like kind of an impossible task. But today I want to help you cut through all of these excuses and give you some really practical tips to make this so much more doable. So first, let's talk about some of the quick reasons that we avoid doing our closet audits altogether. Number one the number one excuse is guilt of letting go. It's so hard to see dollar signs when you look in your wardrobe and feel a ton of guilt around wasting money on purchases that are no longer serving you or the of letting go of things that did cost you money. Either way, this can be a really tough thing to face. The second reason is emotional attachment. We have so much fondness for the past, whether it's a past clothing size that's not fitting you currently, or a specific location or person or event that you're holding on to and not ready to give up just yet. The third reason is that you could be feeling overwhelmed by the sheer volume of what's in your closet. If you have hangers that are packed tight together or you have dresser drawers that are overflowing and stuffed to the gills, it can just feel daunting to even think about tackling this project. When you have too many pieces, you don't even know where to start. The fourth reason that we avoid doing our closet audit is because you might be feeling worried that you're going to make a mistake and you're going to get rid of something and realize later you actually needed it or you wanted it. And you might be finding that you're missing some of those items later down the road. So maybe it's better to just keep them in place in case you need them for a rainy day. The fifth reason I hear all the time is that you don't have time to do it. I get it. Our lives are busier than ever before, and when we have a lot of different things that we want to accomplish, it can be hard to prioritize something like doing your closet clean out, it's easy to avoid it because it's hard to find the time. And the sixth and final reason is that it can be difficult to decide what to keep, what to toss, and what to replace. If you're not used to making confident decisions about your wardrobe and what's really serving you, it can also feel overwhelming to think about making some of those hard decisions that require some information about what's working for you and what's not working for you. And I realize this might not be an exhaustive list, but it is the roadblocks that I see most often that I've also experienced myself. And today, I really want to help you overcome each of these reasons or excuses so you can start actually streamlining what's in your closet. This is a goal that I know most women have. You want a streamlined wardrobe, and you recognize the peace and the confidence that comes from having fewer but better options. This doesn't need to mean a minimalist wardrobe either. I'm all for having options and having enough pieces in your wardrobe that you feel really satisfied and excited to get dressed. But we do want quality options that you are excited to wear every day. So let's figure this out, friends. I'm going to give you some of my best suggestions to tackle each one of these obstacles. I want you to stop making excuses to avoid this, this critical step in building your dream wardrobe. It is so important to know what you have before you can start filling in those gaps and being really intentional in your shopping and styling decisions moving forward. You can do this, and it can be so much easier and more fun than you think. So stick with me, and I'm gonna help you work through all of these challenges. The first one, as I said, is guilt of letting go and thinking about all of the money that you have maybe wasted. And this might be one of the biggest roadblocks I see. I know it can be so hard to face and admit our shopping mistakes, but let me tell you something, friend. We've all made them, myself very much included. I've bought pieces I've only worn once or twice or that didn't hold up well, or that weren't as flattering as I hoped. And maybe you've invested in some high ticket items that just aren't practical for your real life needs, or lots of things that you picked up just because they were on sale and maybe they sat in the back of your closet with the tag still on them. Shiny object syndrome is real. Whether it's the trap of the sale or the trap of something really beautiful and extravagant that just made you feel confident in the moment and then didn't actually work for your day to day life. It gets all of us every now and then. But here's the thing. You can't get that money back unless you want to resell your items and recoup some of the costs. That's always an option. But you can't unbuyer that piece and leaving it hanging in the back of your closet is just a sad reminder of the money that you've lost and the impulse shopping that you've done or the life you're not really living. For whatever reason, it's not doing you any good and it's certainly not making your money back. So my best advice, if this is a challenge that keeps coming up for you, is to gently ask yourself, what can I learn from this purchase? I want you to look at it as an investment in your style education and squeeze every penny that you can out of it. Maybe you didn't get the cost per wear that you would have loved out of those expensive riding boots, but what can you take away from that investment? It could be that just because it's a designer piece doesn't mean it makes you feel your best or your most confident. Maybe it was a lesson that you need to make sure everything fits you right and feels comfortable before you bring it home. Or that it's more important to be true to your personal style preferences than to go along with the trends. I want you to look for the lesson in it, which is often way more valuable than what you spent on the item itself. So go ahead and grab a journal, write anything down that comes up for you, and reflect on this before your next shopping trip so you can avoid the same mistakes again. Then be willing to let it go. Recognize that it's not serving you to sit in the closet collecting dust. I want you to give it another life with someone else and make space for things that will serve you so much better in this new season. So that is number one to letting go of any guilt around money that you've spent. The second issue again is emotional attachment or having a fondness for the past. And similarly, it can be easier to avoid auditing your wardrobe than parting with meaningful pieces from your past. Our clothing and accessories can carry stories with them, and it could be memories of a person, a specific place, maybe somewhere that you lived, an experience that you had, or a time in your life that no longer. And it is incredibly hard to let go. Sometimes this is one of the more delicate obstacles because it doesn't feel like an excuse, it feels like a necessity. You don't want to emotionally unravel, you don't want to relive the pain sometimes, or you don't want to think about saying goodbye to chapters in your life or people in your life forever. So first, from the most empathetic place, you don't have to I'm actually a big proponent of thoughtfully preserving some of the more precious memories from your life. And I highly recommend that if this is the camp that you're in, consider buying a beautiful keepsake box. Tuck a few of those treasures away, fold them up neatly, look back later and appreciate them as often as you like and as often as is healthy and healing for you. For example, maybe you want to go and have your wedding dress preserved. Or tuck your grandmother's jewelry that you never actually wear into a pretty jewelry bag. Keep some of the meaningful pieces that you love. You don't have to let those all go. Now there is another side to this coin, and sometimes I'm not pointing any fingers because there would definitely be three more pointing back at me. But sometimes we want to hold on to old sizes that we wore in the hopes that they will one day fit us again. And I don't think that this is completely unrealistic or impractical, but we need to put a few realistic parameters in place. So if you are on an active weight loss journey, then here's what I encourage you to do. If this is the situation that you're in, I want you to evaluate all of those pieces just as you would anything else. Number one, does it reflect your desired style? Number two, is it flattering on you when you are in that size? If you want some help, maybe you can look at past photos. If you have some of you wearing those pieces and try to use that as a way to help you decide if they really did look good on you and served you in the best possible way. And then number three, is it in a good color for you? Does it bring out your best? And number four, do you have a need for it or will you have a need for it again? I want you to think about it. Once you reach that goal weight again. And I know you can absolutely do that. If you have the determination, some support, and a good system in place, you can totally make this happen. But ask yourself, will you want to rewear those old pieces or would you rather invest in items that feel more current? Now, if what you have are classics and you still absolutely love them. They completely speak to your style. They're beautiful colors for you. It would be a dream for you to get to wear them again, then keep them. But I want you to move them out of the space where they're cluttering up your closet. You need to dress for the body that you have today. So as motivating as you think it might be to have these clothes front and center in your wardrobe, I have a hunch that they could actually be making you feel some shame when you look at them every day, too. So instead, I highly recommend that you put them in a storage container, put a goal date to fit them again on your calendar, to fit in them again on your calendar rather, and don't revisit them again until that day comes. If that date is here and you've hit your goal, then awesome. You have a wardrobe ready and waiting for you. You have my full blessing to dig them out and put them in your closet and start wearing them again. If you don't, if they still don't fit you, please don't stress. It might just be time for you to come to grips with the way your beautiful body looks today and let it go. Or you might fit in them again, but find that they're not actually pieces you want to wear, and then you can let them go. Then the key is to give yourself the accountability of a deadline and making sure that you stick to it. So I want you to get them out of the way for now, and then you can really celebrate wearing them again when the time comes. All right? The third excuse that I hear all the time is that you're overwhelmed by the sheer volume of things that you have in your closet. And I know any big project can feel overwhelming at first. This happens to me all the time. In my business. I will have a big goal or a giant idea or a project, and I sometimes avoid starting it until I break it down into small, manageable tasks. Isn't this like the number one productivity hack or something? You've got to make things feel easy and doable or you simply won't do it at all. So no matter how cluttered or chaotic your wardrobe feels, I want you to break it down into one small, teeny weeny segment at a time. Please don't force yourself to do the Marie Kondo method and pile everything onto your bed. I admit it can help to bite the bullet. And for some people, it does work better to dedicate an entire day and rip the band aid and get it done. But for most of Us. This is not realistic. What I encourage my clients to do is start with one tiny category or section of your wardrobe. For example, one dresser drawer or one category of clothing, like your T shirts. You could set a timer for 10 minutes and just go through your sock drawer. Seriously, I want you to start really small. This is going to help you feel like you accomplished something, and it can motivate you to keep going. At the end of the 10 minutes, if you're feeling excited and good about purging, then keep going. Do another five or another 10 minutes. Or make an appointment with yourself to come back tomorrow and spend another 10 minutes on your workout tanks. I want you to break it down as incrementally as you need to and then get going. It might take you longer this way than dedicating a whole weekend to the project, but it won't take you as long as avoiding it forever, and you will feel so good when you finally get it done. All right. The fourth challenge was that you could end up being worried about missing some of those items later down the road. I want to tell you, my parents are not hoarders by any means. They're really quite organized, and there's a method to the madness. But my dad, my amazing, incredibly kind, so helpful dad, keeps so many unnecessary things for this very reason. He always thinks he might need it again one day, and he has a hard time letting stuff go. In fact, just this past weekend, my son happened to mention that he wanted to see if we could find some Polly Pockets when we were out shopping. I don't even know if that's what they're called anymore, but he saw them in the Amazon catalog. It's like the little tiny hand size or palm size compartments really, that when you open them up, they have all these teeny little characters and house pieces and things like that in them. I had a million of these when I was a kid. And my dad actually was like, I think I might have some of your Polly pockets in a box in the basement. And a few hours later, after he got back home, he sent me a picture of all of these Polly pockets lined up that he had saved. And what was so funny to me is they were going to give us some Christmas garland for our new home, for the staircase. But when my mom went to get it for me, the box that was marked Christmas garland was empty. So I was joking with him. Christmas garland doesn't make the cut, but Polly pockets get to stay. And it was really funny, but he just wasn't sure if there would be A time we would want to reflect back on the Polly Pockets. And I know my son is going to be very grateful that he didn't get rid of those. And I think personally, I straddle the line between my parents, or really more so, my dad's desire to hold onto things and my husband, who's the polar opposite. He wants to get rid of anything that feels even remotely cluttery or excessive. I have one box of childhood memories and he thinks that too much. He actually gives me a hard time for saving maybe two yearbooks. I'm like, seriously, that is nothing. And maybe it's hereditary. But I have struggled as well with the worry of letting go of things that I might desire to have again one day. And I have had actual experiences of looking back at an old photo of myself and thinking, that was such a cute outfit. Why did I get rid of that? But you know what? I just remind myself there was a good reason. I let it go at the time and I have what I need now. And so my general advice is that if you haven't worn an item in the past year, it's unlikely that you're going to have a need to wear it again. With the exception of maybe special occasion attire, it can be helpful to hang on to that one timeless, flattering cocktail dress for the infrequent wedding or special, you know, cocktail event. But remember, you can always rent a dress, too. If you can't bear to part with a piece, ask yourself why you haven't been wearing it and when you will realistically wear it again. If you can argue for it, if you can make a strong case to keep it, then I want you to do the same thing I just suggested for the emotional attachment items and put it away. Give yourself a deadline to revisit it and then follow through. There's no reason to keep unnecessary clutter around on the off chance that you might want to wear it again in five years, ten years or longer. If you're saving it for another family member, maybe you have a grandchild you think would maybe one day want to wear this item. Put it away. Put it in a storage unit. It does not need to take up space in your closet. The odds are as well that your tastes, your body, or your lifestyle will have evolved and something different could work even better for you by then. So, in the words of Elsa, let it go. Let it go. Sorry, I had to. All right, number five, finding the time to do it. I'm going to be really frank about this one. Do you have time? Not to do it. If you're feeling overwhelmed every day when you look in a packed closet full of pieces you no longer love, how much time are you wasting each morning trying to put an outfit together? How much time are you wasting thinking about how you should really get to this project instead of just doing it? I know we're all busy, believe me. Time management continues to be my biggest struggle, my number one area for self improvement. That is like my main goal every single year. But I do believe that we make time for the things that matter. And if you are serious about streamlining your wardrobe, you've gotta make the time. And that's exactly what I want you to do. I want you to literally make appointments with yourself to work on this project each week. Again, it could be just five to 10 minutes per day. It could be a one hour block of time each week. Make it work for you, but make it a priority. I want you to treat it like a doctor's appointment. Don't reschedule it or keep putting it off. Maybe pause this episode right now? No, not maybe. Pause this episode right now and get out your calendar. If you can find 20 minutes to listen to this episode, you can find five minutes to start tackling your closet clean out. So maybe go through your closet for 20 minutes this week while you listen to the next podcast episode on Thursday. I love multitasking. One mindless activity like listening to a podcast with one focused activity like deciding what it's time to let go of in your wardrobe. You can also make this more fun in another way. You could put on a great soundtrack, make a fun cocktail to sip on while you go, or treat yourself to a Starbucks to fuel you. Invite a friend over to help and enjoy a few laughs over your past purchases and get a trusted opinion from someone you love. Make it something you look forward to and put it in your calendar to actually make it happen. All right, apologies, this is getting a little long, but this is important. The last one, number six, is the struggle to decide what to keep, toss and replace. And this is the hardest one because it does require the most intentionality, information and confidence. And I think the best way to decide what to let go of is to be crystal clear about what you need and what works for you. So, friend, if you are struggling with this, then I would really love to team up with you. Whether you're ready to join her Style collective to get all the training you need on your style foundations, the exact step by step system to build a wardrobe, you love to audit your closet effectively or if you're not ready to invest financially in that level of support, but you want to continue growing in your knowledge base, then you are definitely going to want to join me for my free bootcamp next week. No question you are going to learn so much and be so equipped for success with this training, but to feel confident in making these decisions for yourself, it's really going to come down to how confident you are about what's working and what's not working for for you. So let's figure that out together. There are of course tons of resources right here on the podcast, but for the fastest way and to take out some of the guesswork, I'm going to walk you through exactly what to do at the Wardrobe Revamp Bootcamp next week so we can do this step by step again. You can sign up for free@herstylellc.com bootcamp or if you're ready to stop talking about streamlining and upleveling your wardrobe and you're ready for the accountability, the exact system and the support you need to make it happen in 2025, then you can also come right inside her style Colle my 90 day group coaching program today and we can get started right now. You'll have this entire thing done and dialed in by spring and I will be there to guide you through each and every step alongside the most incredible community of women who are working toward the exact same goals as you. If you want to accomplish your style goals in the fastest way that you can rinse and repeat season after season, then you can also head to herstylellc.com collective. And we can team up and make it happen. No matter which path feels right for you today, let's make it a point to take some action now. To quickly recap, the first tip is to look for the lesson in all of your wardrobe investments. This can be more valuable than the pieces themselves. The second thing is to put emotional attachment pieces away and optionally revisit them with a deadline, especially if it's around a weight loss goal. The third thing is to start small, set a timer and do one micro category of your closet at a time. I promise you the momentum will keep you going. Number four if you haven't worn it in the past year, you're unlikely to reach for it again. Tip number five make appointments to do it and make it something that you can actually enjoy and look forward to. And finally get the support and systems you need to make confident decisions about your closet. You can come to my free bootcamp next week at herstylellc.com bootcamp or we can team up for three months together inside Her Style Collective at herstylellc.com collective either way, I know this is your year friend. Let's go make some wardrobe magic happen. I am so excited to be by your side every single step of the way. Thank you for listening to today's episode. If you want to stop copying everyone else's style and start dialing in your own swoon worthy signature look, head over to take my free 5 minute personal style quiz which you can find at the link in the show notes. If you've enjoyed our time together, please be sure to rate, review and subscribe to her style podcast so you never miss an episode. Finally, I invite you to make this a two way conversation and send me a DM over on Instagram eatherigstyle to let me know how I can best support you on your style journey. I'm always here for you in style and service. Until next time.