It's been 43 days on Shop Your Closet, and I've made the shift. There's supposedly some period of time - is it three weeks, is it four days? - to create a new habit. Well, my old habit went out the door pretty quickly and my new habit became reality faster than I thought possible. Shopping was such a habit! Just the fact of always looking for something. Only in retrospect do I realize how time-consuming it was. When SYC ends, this is a lesson I will not forget.
What Shop Your Closet has done for me so far (and I still have a LONG way to go to Dec. 31) is to free up huge amounts of time and energy. I made space in my life and have been amazed at what has stepped in! It's almost like these things were waiting outside the closet door, patiently, for me to clear out the clutter so they could come in and live with me. They are richer than any shopping experience. They are ideas for books I'm working on, job opportunities, amazing novels, home projects that are making our house feel wonderful, and friendships. So many wonderful things have rushed in to take shopping's place. My only regret is that shopping kept these gifts at bay for so long.
When SYC started, I imagined five months of constant struggle to avoid buying this item, or that. SYC hasn't been like that at all. I do miss shopping, and the fun of running around the mall with a friend, seeing what's new. But I don't miss buying. I haven't seen one piece that would make me leave SYC. I also haven't looked at shopping websites or gone into stores that might tempt me, and in this case, ignorance is definitely bliss. Maybe it's because, compared to others, I have much more in my closet already, and so many things that could be tempting would actually be duplicates.
SYC came at the right time in my life, when I was absolutely READY. It hasn't been a sacrifice - it's a gift.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Laura, that is wonderful! I'm not ready for SYC yet because there are some replacements that I do need to make for this year, but I know there will come a time this year when I will also need to embark on my own period of SYC. Are you also loving the pieces that you do have in your wardrobe more when you know that you don't have to look for anything "better" to replace them?
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question (from a week ago) - it's absolutely cool enough to wear jackets, unfortunately. Summer is OVER here, but it looks like your weather is still warm for a while yet. Enjoy it!
We talked about this the other night, but I am catching up with all my blog posts in my web browser now. I want to tell you how very very happy I am you are such a good space about this, and how much you are learning about yourself and trying new things. It's the strangest things that set us off into self-examination sometimes, don't you think?
ReplyDelete