Capsule

I've recently moved house, which has meant that I had the awful task of packing up and sorting out my things (does anybody ever really enjoy packing?!). 

Whether you're moving house or just sorting a room it's usually a surprise to find just how much stuff you've managed to accumulate...

Why do I have 5 pairs of scissors in my bedroom? Why have I kept an old, out of date pair of prescription glasses? Why have my "white" (brown) trainers not just been thrown out?

Then there's the wardrobe full of clothes, of which you probably only wear 40% of...

If you're anything like me then you're not a hoarder, but you are sentimental and you're forever giving your clothes a second chance...and a third, and a fourth.

(Pinterest)

I've also recently become quite intrigued by the idea of a Capsule Wardrobe. In brief, a Capsule Wardrobe is where you limit your wardrobe to 37 items (excluding underwear, formal wear, gym clothes, coats) that can work together to create a large number of different outfits with the different combinations. It's meant to help keep clutter down and live in a more minimalist way. You can Google it, Youtube it or Pinterest it - I think it's pretty interesting. I gave it a Youtube and watched as a number of people tried it and showed the contents of their wardrobes and the many outfit combinations they had put together. I loved it, and it was definitely an indulgent nosey into other people's styling choices, but there was something that stood out to me in one of the videos. This particular Youtuber had read up on the Capsule idea and said that you were encouraged when sorting out your clothes to ask yourself if you loved the item, if not, that it was just taking up room where something you did love could go.

 

We keep things for all sorts of reasons; sentimentality, wanting to give it second chance to be worn/used, not really ever sorting through stuff or even just forgetting it's there!

I started to think about this idea of keeping things in life, whether that's clothes, habits, hobbies or even relationships and wondered if, actually, it would do us good every now and then to de-clutter our lives and not just our wardrobe.

If we look at those reasons for keeping things through the idea of capsule wardrobe, and we do it honestly, we might find some interesting pieces...

(Pinterest)

1. Sentimental things - 

Some sentimental things are fine to keep, but some aren't. Sometimes these are things close to our hearts but we know they stopped being any good to us a while ago. Whether these are physical or emotional be honest with what you need to throw out. 

2. Second chances - 

Some things we keep in our (heart) wardrobe because we want to give them a second chance, that's fine, but be honest if it's not the second chance, but actually the third, fourth or fifth time. You aren't a bad person for cutting things from your life if it's not doing you any good.

3. Forget - 

Life gets busy and a lot of the time we aren't even aware of what we do without thinking, or what is going on inside unless we stop, look and re-evaluate. Something happens when we become intentional about things. Start being intentional about habits, mentality, and you time and you will start to see a real difference. It's also good to assess what we're holding close and whether we need to any more. Being intentional about these things can help us to keep what we want and get rid of what we don't...

(Pinterest)

I don't want to just have a wardrobe of things I love, I want a life I love. Of course, we will all have things in our lives that we can't just change, drop, or get rid of, and some of those will be things we find really really hard. But have a look at what you can change, and what can help you to feel the best you can in your circumstances. And if things don't need to be there, work on chucking them out of your life...

... to give that place to something else that you will love, that will fit, that will be positive, that will empower you and give you confidence and freedom.

My plan to is to attempt this capsule wardrobe idea; to use what I have in my wardrobe more efficiently and challenge myself in getting rid of what I really don't need anymore. I'm also going to think about my inner chest wardrobe and give that a de-clutter, so I can try to keep only the good stuff in there and wear it well.

Yours faithfully,

Jen

x

The Pressure of Perfection (part 1)

After staring at my wardrobe for what seemed like forever, and trying on a good 5 or so outfits I settled with what I was going to wear for the day.

No, this isn't going to be a post about fashion, or how to have a capsule wardrobe (though I would love to nail that!), it's a post about the pressure we put on ourselves to appear *insert word here*...

The word could be "stylish", "on trend", "effortless", "cute", "sporty", "confident". How we appear... perfect.

We don't limit this to clothes either, we do this when it comes to exams, school, in our hobbies or sports groups, in social situations and even around friends and family.

Why?! Why do we do this to ourselves?

I think there's a number of reasons but here are a couple...

1. Comparison

We are constantly exposed to snippets of the "ideal" life, body, partner, you name it, through social media. Yes, we have struggled with unachievable advertising for years but when I was a teenager magazines and celebrities were pretty much the only big factors; yes like anyone else I compared myself to friends or others in school, but I could seen them in full light, not just an edited snippet.

Nowadays (how old do I sound?!) we are bombarded with fake perfection as we are constantly connected to the world of social media. Don't get me wrong, I love social media - it's creative, inspiring, feel-good, and informative. But it can also be used negatively, not just through cyber bullying and awful content but by giving us a false sense of what is real. We see edited pictures, the best bits of someone's life, we see people at their best angle and we see effortless chic and style, but what we don't see is that that selfie you would love to look like was actually their 421st attempt at that shot. We don't see a lot of what really goes on in someones life, which is totally normal - but we can be tricked in to thinking those hard days don't exist for that perfect Instagrammer or Vlogger.

For my dissertation at Uni I did a research project into the affects Instagram has on self-esteem in teenage girls. My findings confirmed what I had assumed - comparison was soo high! Even when they were aware that posts were edited and did not show real life, they feel victim to the "they're much better at make-up than me", "they're much more confident", "they have so many friends and no-one really likes me".

Sound familiar? I'm no longer a teenager but I definitely still have my moments...




2.Who Am I?

Not to get all educational and boring, but from toddlers we have been going through moral development - this is where we figure out what is "right" or "wrong", where we form our beliefs or values, our principles and our behaviours - and did you know during our teenage years our moral development brings us to the stage where our biggest question is "Who am I?!

If you're a teenager and you're reading this perhaps you totally get it and you're really aware that you've been asking yourself that question for a while now, or perhaps you didn't know and now a few things make sense... this is the stage we figure out what we have to offer the world, what part we have to place, and naturally to assess that we compare.

Comparison will always be part of how we judge things; to compare against something else. But let's learn to love ourselves a little better on the way to figuring out exactly who we are, and what we have to give to the world.

Remember we are all figuring it out and the truth is we all have something incredible and unique to offer, and sometimes that comparison or strive for perfection only sends us in the wrong direction to finding out what, or who, we really are.

It took me 5 outfits and a stress fit later to decide on an outfit, to then sit in John Lewis Cafe doing some work for 2 hours where no-one cared about what I looked like... I'd like to start using my time for better things...

Yours faithfully,

Jen