High School Clothes, Be Gone! | Jai's Style Part 2

Hiring a personal stylist like me is easy.

Going through clothes that hold emotional attachments (trust me, they do) is hard. Getting rid of clothes that cost you a lot of your hard earned money is hard. Deciding that certain clothes no longer fit your body or that you won't ever fit into (or want to fit into) again is hard. Choosing to stop buying things on impulse and sticking to a list is hard. But it will be worth it. I promise.

When Jai and I went through her closet (you can read Part 1 here), it was hard, but needed to be done. She had four wardrobe boxes full of clothes in the basement plus a huge walk in closet upstairs (not to mention jewelry, bags, and shoes) that needed to be gone through. The impetus for her cleanse was an impending move across the country coupled with her desire to create a more adult wardrobe for her current stage of life (new mom, creative photographer, married).  

By the time we were done, she had cleaned out an entire car's trunk worth of clothes - also known as 7 trash bags, 1 IKEA bag, and 1 apple crate full of clothes, shoes, undergarments, jewelry, bags. We reduced her four wardrobe boxes to two. I took two trips to resell stores and so far she's earned $129 back in cash and donated $521 worth of tax deductions and I still have two bags of summer items to take when it becomes seasonally appropriate.

So how did we get to this point? A few tips + tricks that we utilized and that I use in every closet cleanse:

1. We repeated what she wanted out of her style and put every piece to the test. What that meant for Jai was if it wasn't black, navy, neutral, leather, sexy or slightly boho (and that we could immediately make outfits out of), then out it went.
2. We moved quickly. While there was some dialogue about how to wear items if she wasn't sure, for the most part, we moved through things quickly. Stopping to rehash every time/place/person associated with a particular item is not helpful in getting rid of clothing and can often make you want to keep something out of an emotional connection, not a functional, practical or stylist reason.
3. We focused on "adult." 5" platform heels, gone. Mini-skirts, gone. Knock off bags, gone. Things that weren't practical, or that she had never worn, were gone. 
4. We had no mercy!! Just kidding. Sorta. Closet cleanses are ruthless though. Every item received our scrutiny and while it may seem like we left Jai with no clothes, in reality, what she is left with (for the time being until we get her wardrobe action plan into play) a closet that works with her, not against her; less clutter to pick through; items that are easy to style with one another and her currently lifestyle. 

Stay tuned for Part 3 of Jai's makeover!