Shopping Ban (for Real This Time)

One of my OCD tendencies is that I keep a list of items of clothing that I have bought, but not worn yet. The list currently has 24 items on it. 

I’ll give that a minute to sink in.

That’s 2 dozen items! I’m honestly kind of disgusted with myself. Don’t get me wrong, I love each and every piece and I have plans on when and where I might wear them in the future, but until I do I’m banned from shopping.

Those who know me and/or have been reading the blog for awhile know that I’ve tried this before, but I’ve never been 100% successful. There are a few items among the 24 that have been on multiple lists (i.e. the Andrew Marc body-con dress that’s fit for a night of "clubbing," a word that isn’t even in my vocabulary anymore.), but I am determined to stick to it this time and get the list down to 0 before allowing myself to shop again.

Disgust with my own gluttonous behavior is not my only motivator. I have recently realized that buying new is lazy. Working with what I’ve got is where my creativity comes into play; these shopping bans allow me to rediscover the joy in getting dressed.

Here are a few notes on how I plan to succeed this time around:

Accept Help: V has been brave enough to offer to help enforce this ban. He has really great style and I actually ask him for help when I’m struggling to make an outfit work. I often over-think things and I'm very critical of myself, which he is very good at counteracting.

Incentive: For every week that I don’t shop I’m allowed to attend SoulCycle classes. Here’s the thing – I don’t even like how a lot of my clothes fit right now. Rather than buy new items that will camouflage my recently expanded middle session (Holiday and stress-eating), I should do something that makes me feel good about myself and will also get me back into the clothes I haven’t even worn yet.

Purge: Binge and purge go together like a horse and carriage. I have done the former and now it's time for the latter. I spent last Sunday night going through clothes and managed to come up with yet another black garbage-bag full of donations.

Consign and Save: This is old news, but I plan on sticking with it. My first attempt was pretty successful, I actually made a couple hundred bucks!

Loopholes (this is three-fold): 

• I know myself and if I want to be successful in this fashion diet, I'm going to need to arrange for a way to have a cheat day here and there. Therefore, I am going to allow myself to use gift cards that I received for Christmas. I think this is completely reasonable. Sadly, I already know that I'm going to need to use a Visa gift card I received to buy socks. 
• I’m not allowed to buy, but I can borrow or rent. My mother was never a fan of us borrowing/lending clothes with friends, so I just never got into it. In the past few years I got more liberal with the lending, but I usually just wind up giving the item to the person because they will clearly get more use out of it than I will. Now I can cash in on a few of those favors if need be.
• I'm allowed to buy make-up. I used to be so incredibly into make-up; I would sit for hours by myself in my room recreating the elaborate looks in Kevin Aucoin's books. It's so much fun to be a chameleon! Seriously, you should try it sometime. I'm hoping to get back to that, besides make-up is yet another way to transform an item or an outfit you've already worn.

So that's the plan. I've got more readers now than the last time I did this, so I have all of you to account to as well. Thanks for keeping me honest.

xoxo

Kimbo