Inside My Wardrobe

I've been growing more and more stressed about not having suitable clothes for this warm weather, so a couple of weeks ago, I decided to rearrange my wardrobe. I figured I'd try stuff on, if it didn't fit, I'd take it out. This would hopefully give me some space as I keep pulling out dresses to wear and they're totally creased, so I put them back! I hate the thought of dragging out the iron and ironing board every day for one dress, if you haven't already guessed that from my usually crumpled attire! The stuff gets ironed when it's been washed, but my wardrobe is so full it ruins that! Anyway, I had a massive 'iron' pile and decided, I might as well keep going and 'properly' clear out my wardrobe. That turned into clearing my cupboards, drawers and a chair in my room which has clothes piled to my height (oops). It's hard graft I tell you! I'm not capable of much with my M.E. anyway, but between hauling heavy piles, standing sorting and trying clothes on, I've been shattered.
Everything in my wardrobe is 3 or 4 garments per hanger and the hangers are crammed in. It's a miracle the bar hasn't broken. My Mum suggested putting a suitcase in the attic with stuff that doesn't fit, that I don't want to throw out, as that would free up room in my bedroom. It's quite ridiculous the amount of clothes I own and I do regularly throw stuff out or take it to charity, so even I was surprised at the volume I've amassed. I'm still mid-way through the clean as I can only do so much at once and rather annoyingly my Dad took the suitcase up to the attic without asking if I'd finished!! I was fuming. So now I'm at the stage I can't be bothered doing the rest and in the meantime I've thrown (literally) everything back so I can get into my bed at night!
Typical then, that since the clear-out the weather took a turn and we've had rain most days! The whole point was to find my most summery items to wear while I had the chance, but that opportunity may have passed. I snapped some quick pics on my phone along the way (as I thought you might be interested) and the images above, show the start of putting items back into my wardrobe. I'm not particular enough to care about colour coding (although it would look pretty rad), so I've just kept similar items to the same hanger (i.e. short sleeves, full skirts, sleeveless). My hangers now have space between them (oh the joy!), granted the job isn't finished yet, but I'm already breathing a sigh of relief alongside my poor groaning wardrobe! I really am shocked at the volume of dresses I own...I just couldn't get over how much stuff I've squashed into these areas. When it was all piled on my bed, it shocked me and how my Dad managed to lift that suitcase into the attic and it's not fallen through the ceiling yet is beyond me!
I've decided my dress collection (because lets face it, I own very little of anything else and certainly no trousers!), is made up of floral, spots, lace, animals and animal prints and 'other'. I have very few plain dresses. I would say it's 60% floral...
15% polka dots...
5% lace...
5% 'other' i.e. fruit, kitsch prints like buildings, trees, people etc
and 15% animals and animals prints i.e. leopard print, birds, fish, dogs etc
I'm quite at peace with all that!  I like having a wardrobe that reflects all aspects of my personality and I love that it's so fun and colourful.  Just because I'm plus-size, I don't believe I should 'hide' in layers of black if I don't want to.  I had a lecturer who once said he knew what mood I was in, judging by what I wore.  He was spot-on! Sometimes I'm all about a crazy flamingo print, other days I want Granny-florals or sleek black lace, so I wear what I want, when I want.  We're gearing up for a lot of renovations on our house, starting in a week or so, so the clear-out couldn't have happened at a better time.  Although my bedroom isn't directly involved, I'll have to store items from other rooms, so it's definitely going to be an upheaval.  I'm hoping the disruption to my blog will be minimal, but the lack of space and access to the full length mirror may be limited for The Shoe Girl Diaries posts and the computer area will have to relocate.  It'll all be worth it in the end I hope as I'm...ah I kinda don't want to say it out loud incase it doesn't materialise, but I'm supposed to be getting a shoe room.  Yes, a whole room of shoes!  That again would free up oodles of space in my own room and indeed I'd get my second wardrobe back that I turned into a shoe closet.  Exactly what the finished shoe-room would look like is up for debate and throws up many questions like what happens to the shoe boxes if you have loose shoes on the shelves, how do you keep them dust-free (especially suede and the like), will all my shoes fit? etc etc.  It's exciting though.