Small Closet, Big Picture
Last post, I mentioned my resolution-breaking. Today, I share a New Years resolution story in 5 parts:
- My 2024 resolution to wrangle my clothing
- Success and Failure in 2024
- Do Over for 2025
- So, what's different this time? The Big Picture
- Seven Success Factors
It's a detailed story of a big organization project.
The first three parts are loads of context to why the Big Picture Drawing I made was a gamechanger.
I share the details in case you are also wrangling a lot of clothes.
Or feel free to transfer what you read here to your own project that needs forethought, realistic expectations, and iteration to succeed.
If you want to jump straight to the Big Picture Drawing, go to Part 4.
1 | My 2024 resolution to wrangle my clothing
I resolved to reckon with my clothes. The closet and dresser were packed. Like many folks, the pandemic meant not touching vast parts of my wardrobe.
I began with three initial pushes:
- Get an inventory of everything I had.
- Do a 100 day challenge, wearing the same Wool& dress every day.
- Around that one dress, build a 4x4 sixteen-item capsule wardrobe ala The Vivienne Files.
I made pages of lists by category: tank tops, short sleeve tops, long sleeves, etc.
As I listed items, I culled stuff for donation, promptly crossing them off.
I had no magic number of items I wanted to get down to.
Just fewer than I had.
In two days of hyperfocus, I:
- Got most -- but not all -- on my clothing documented.
- Planned out a different 4x4 wardrobe, Wool& dress included for each month, January through April.
- (Unsurprisingly) pushed myself too hard.
- Created a 'chairrobe' of undecided items on a bedroom chair.
Mostly strong start, but a little wobbly in my first steps.
2 |Success and Failure in 2024
Here's my overall 'scorecard —
Failures
Success
Neutral
It feels good to reflect on this because the fricking fracking pile of clothes on bedroom chair taunted me for ten months, 'louder' than the progress I didn't see daily.
At right: At the midpoint of my 100 days in my Wool& Willow dress.
All in all —
- I still have more than enough awesome clothes.
- I have some stuff I don't love that I am struggling to let go of.
- Weight loss necessitated some changes, but not a whole lot. Still can wear and love most of my stuff.
- My style remains steadfastly muppet-y and comfy.
Outstanding Questions
How much 'speaker clothes' do I hold onto?
I want to be doing far more in-person keynotes, but in my current reality I am either teaching virtually or teaching a workshop. Neither are a "sage on the stage" keynote that usually expects more polish.
Note to self: Maybe take a cue from masculine dress and pick one suit and a couple tops. Could probably do this out of current items.
Why can't I get rid of tank tops when I nearly never wear them?
What is my glitch with the dresser?
The dresser is like putting clothes in deep freeze. I don't see it, it doesn't exist.
Sixteen items of a 4x4 capsule wardrobe can easily stay on the small clothing rack next to my bed. Perhaps this is a moot point.
How to eliminate the timesuck of window shopping?
First thoughts are to unsubscribe from clothing company emails and stop scrolling fashion on Pinterest. Their algorithms adjust quickly and well.
3 | Do Over for 2025
Reenergized by clothes that fit my body, fresh undies, and awareness of what was in the storage unit. I am now committed —
I will not buy any clothing in 2025.
I thought about what obstacles might get in my way.
I mean, I can do a 365 day white-knuckled streak of abstinence. That is what works for my husband on his goals.
I'm not quite wired that way.
Anticipating the year, I have three exceptions:
Exception 1
If altering my summer weight pants doesn't work, I can get a few pair of summer weight pants. I know how to sew, but I will see how much adding darts can do vs. patience-testing waistband removals.
Exception 2
I can buy up to 5 print-on-demand items of my own design. Definitely one or two silk scarves that tie together color schemes.
Boy howdy, I want that number to be higher. But honestly, over 12 months, that should be fine.
Exception 3
3 Wild Card items.
This is not a excuse to keep window shopping, but a smidge of leeway of I stumble on something.
Making a pinky swear to myself.
Motivators
Defining and publishing these will help when/if I get caught up in old patterns.
4 | So, what's different this time? The Big Picture
First, with my 2024 progress, I begin the year farther along.
I am not looking at 2024 as a failure. It was a mixed bag, but I did do more good than harm.
I can build on what I learned.
Second, on December 31, 2024, I made a far more useful drawing of what I have.
It was as obvious as the nose on my face.
Last year, I made lists of what I had over several pieces of paper.
Pages of lists overwhelm me.
Today, it dawned on me —
Get all of my clothes on ONE page.
After three iterations, I got there!
The X axis is clothing item type, Y axis is color.
It is the combination of those 2 things that matter.
I love matchy-matchy, and I have a certain bands of the spectrum I adore.
Here is the 1st iteration on top of the 3rd. After the first round, I noticed I could use more nuance to color. Egg Yolk yellow is different than mustard. I have tooooons of chartreuse clothing, but some of it is mustardy, more acid green. Others are a sweeter chartreuse.
Am I the only one who senses flavors and textures with colors?
Never known if it was just part of my color vocabulary, or actually synesthesia.
Mustardy chartreuse looks fantastic with eggplant. The sweeter flavor? Less so.
Now this is both soothing and sparking my brain.
Being able to see type and color together is far more meaningful than the long, separate item lists.
The number of long sleeve shirts I own is an arbitrary number.
Seeing that I have more than enough dark blue long sleeve shirts is useful.
Instantly seeing what 4x4 capsule wardrobes I can make is valuable.
Third, I can now make far better decisions using this drawing.
Last year, I struggled with an incomplete picture.
For me, incomplete info raises questions that become "open tabs" in my mind.
Too many open tabs? I get overwhelmed.
Now, I can see exactly what I have.
As I made the physical drawing, I was tuned into physical sensations in my body.
Listening to my gut, and noticing feelings of tension, ease, and indifference are great information.
Information that does not fit into words or into one cell in the table.
For example, I noticed what items I was 'meh' about.
I felt resistance even writing them down because they didn't feel important enough to capture and keep.
Deciding what to get rid of is a different kind of thinking than gathering inventory. I didn't want to 'cross my wires' mixing up what stays and goes.
To keep moving forward, I wrote down the "mehs." But I grabbed a pencil and crossed them out with a single line.
A visual reminder when I come back to the drawing with fresh eyes. If I keep the item, I can erase the line. if I get rid of it, I can black out the item with a thicker line.
5 | Seven Success Factors
There are 7 principles that make this drawing a brain-soothing and brain-sparking success:
- Right size
- Fit details into a tiny space
- Understand categories within complexity
- Capture what matters... for now
- Progress, not perfection
- Make this puppy portable
- Know where it will live long-term
Right size
In the first iteration, I was running out of room on my 11x17/A3 paper before I had a complete inventory.
Instead of even smaller writing with a finer pen, I just taped 2 tabloid size pages together for A2 space to play.
With more color nuance it made sense to make the item columns wider and the color bands narrower. Thus, I flipped the X and Y axis.
Past this point, the objective is to fill in the boxes.
Fit details in a tiny space
Into the first iteration, I was noticing what items 'sparked joy' and changed to writing those in all capital letters.
Later, I wanted to mark some action steps. I added D for dyeing, A for alterations, and M for mend. Quickly shifting from letters to even simpler and high contrast equivalents, becoming half-circle, triangle, and rectangle instead.
By flagging the items this way, I could pack a lot of visual information in a small space.
Understand categories within complexity
This isn't really reflected in the current drawing, but making the drawing helped me clarify functional categories.
| Level 1 Ultra Comfy |
Level 2 Casual clothing |
Level 3 Work clothes |
Level 4 Speakerwear |
Level 5 Special Occasion |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Doesn't leave the house - pajamas, sweats, warm-but-slobby layers. | Regular stuff I wear. I tend to be fairly put together out into the world. | Worn onsite for graphic facilitation, on camera, or teaching in-person workshops | Fancier level of work clothes for standing on large stages as keynoter. | Parties, weddings, you know, the fanciest. |
|
Action: Get rid of anything ratty, scratchy, or less than ultra comfy. |
Action: Doing 4x4 capsule wardrobes will show what doesn't work and should be donated. |
Action: Donate unwanted items to 'career closet.' |
Action: Wear these for video to test for comfort. Donate unwanted items to 'career closet.' |
Action: Store items more carefully and find/make more occasions special. |
In the future, it could be interesting to add more columns to better suss this out. Not necessary right now. But the clarity feels good.
Capturing what matters... for now
Right now, it mattered to add levels 4 and 5, which I skipped last year. Now I have a more complete picture.
What's not in the drawing?
- Underwear and socks
- Workout gear
- Storage unit contents
The first two don't really matter because the small space they take up doesn't warrant the space in the drawing.
And the storage unit? Not important... for now.
But I look forward to having a drawing to add those things to when the time comes.
Progress, not perfection
This is drawing as a verb. Not a noun. Not a masterpiece.
The only judgement of verb-y drawings is, "Does this get me a step closer in what I am trying to do?"
Absolutely. It I fussed with perfect lines, or worried about the boxes packed full of words, it would slow me down.
It only has to be legible and useful.
✅ and ✅
Make this puppy portable
Knowing I would take this drawing to the studio and back, I needed to fold into down to letter/A4 size.
I grabbed a plastic sleeve and added the black and gray pens, and some sticky notes for good measure.
Know where this will live long-term
Where are last year's lists?
I have no idea.
Organizing paper is a known weakness. And last year's lists are evidence.
Instead of beating myself up for no good reason, I'm thinking ahead this time.
I can tuck the plastic sleeve on the first shelf on my closet, to the far right, near where I hang my robe. of mine.
Visual thinking for life.
I begin 2025 with this clarity on this one area of my life. Thanks to a drawing.
From the outside, it may seem unimportant in the bigger picture of my life.
But getting dressed is a daily occurrence.
And currently what to wear, how to store it, what to mend, what needs altering, what to let go of, and what fits my body and my activity now, are all distractions taking up precious focus.
Distracting myself with window shopping and buying things I have no space for, burn up executive functioning and wastes money.
The one-liner resolution is "I will not buy any clothing in 2025."
Those words work as a guide for my behavior. A clear rule to follow.
But the drawing makes it crystal clear there is absolutely zero reason to buy any clothing in 2025.
Three iterations to get where I needed to go.
✨The 12 Days of Vizmas✨
This post is the seventh gift in the series of a dozen days celebrating the gifts of visual thinking. Click here to see all the days >>
