Wear it Well

I never tell clients what they should and shouldn’t get rid of. Every decision is personal and I my job is to honor those personal decisions. But many clients understandably want advice when it comes to whether or not to keep, trash or donate items. 

Throughout the session, I want the power to stay in my clients hands. This doesn’t only make for a successful organizing session, but it helps clients to build skills around organizing when I’m not around so that they don’t need a professional every time they want to clean out a closet. So when a client asks, do you think I should get rid of and article of clothing, I always answer with more questions:

Do you wear it?  Do you like it? Do you feel good in it? 

You would think that if the answer to Do you wear it? Is “yes” then it means that that answer to Do you like it?  would also be “yes.” But so often, that’s not the case. Like many habits, putting on the brown sweater that you’ve had since the Bush administration is tough to break. But we aren’t necessarily asking ourselves if it makes us feel good. And sometimes it takes a conversation with the petite woman in a Stuff of Life apron to bring the truth to light.

At the end of a session, I want clients to open their closet and feel not only feel calm, but self love. That may sound corny, but trust me, there is a reason why a closed door gives you a creepy feeling in a horror movie — because something bad is behind there! But a closed door can also represent opportunity. It can represent the opportunity to start a new day and to be the person you want to be. We all deserve that.