Into The Closet.....

........ and out of the closet with new clothes. I swear, I think the clothes in my closets are able to multiply like rabbits. It must happen when I turn off the lights and shut the doors. No matter how many things I take out of there and put into the donation boxes, there are still clothes in that closet that I haven't worn very much.

I am determined not to buy any more dressy or party-type clothes for a good long while. (Or at least till there's a 75%-off sale at SteinMart.) I have outfits in there that are brand new--- worn just once or twice, and that's brand new in my book. I also have things in there that should've been put into the donation boxes years ago. I tend to keep favorite outfits, even if I haven't worn them in years.

There's a black dress with a silvery ruffle in my closet that I bought when I was 30. Still in the closet.... still fits. I wore it for our Christmas party just a few years ago. But now I'm thinking "do I still want to be wearing that deep ruffle around the asymetrical hem of a dress that I bought nearly 24 years ago?" I love that dress, I truly do, but I just don't know if it's me anymore. And I've learned one thing over the years--- if you're looking too long in the mirror and wondering about what you're wearing, then you're probably wearing the wrong thing, so take it off and try something else.

My Aunt Dolly always said to "Wear your clothes, don't let them wear you." I have to say that when I put that ruffled black dress on the other day, I felt like it was wearing me. So I put it back into the closet.... not ready to donate it yet, but I'm not ready to wear it again either.

I guess I need another "little black dress." That one with the ruffled hem was always the one, but I think it needs a replacement. Its successor right now is a black skirt with a very slightly ruffled hem, and a dressy black-sequined top... put them on together and the outfit looks like a one-piece dress, not a top and a skirt. But that's still not the same as a "little black dress," so I guess I'll be looking around SteinMart pretty soon.

Which makes me go against what I said when I started writing this--- that I wasn't going to buy another dressy or party-type outfit. A little black dress should be exempt from that statement.

I can hear my husband's mother whispering in my ear right now.... Life is too short to make such silly rules.