Welcome to Open Post.
For those of you who haven’t been here before, Open Post is where we talk about everything that has happened in our week. We cry, we commiserate, we laugh and we have a looooong debate about which season is the best. (Winter, obviously.)
Let me get us started.
So this may be incredibly lame to some, but you have no idea how happy it made me.
On Sunday, instead of a Spring Clean – I did a Winter Clean of my wardrobe.
I’m a Virgo, so clutter and mess makes me rock back and forth in my chair. My fiancé is a Virgo too, and he cleans the apartment most days.
We love a clean apartment like Kanye loves Kanye.
But my fiancé doesn’t go near my wardrobe. That baby is all mine.
So I started with my shoes. I packed away the sparkly sandals and brought out the dark hued boots.
<style=”text-align: center;”>Read more: Five ways to eradicate slavery from your wardrobe.
Yes I have a lot of shoes. A few years ago I went to Ikea and bought the display racks myself. After building them I sent a photo to my dad. He said he was equally impressed that I’d built the shelves and appalled that I needed shelves for so many shoes.
But here’s the thing: I’m 41 and some of those designer shoes are seven years old. When I’m travelling, instead of souvenirs I buy shoes. Each time I slip them on I’m transported back to a fabulous holiday memory. Red Valentinos to celebrate my engagement in Hawaii, hot pink stingray Mui Muis from girls trip to New York, electric blue Alexander McQueen’s on a trip to Melbourne to celebrate a big promotion at work (oh – a side note to that: I bought the shoes only to then find out the promotion didn’t come with a pay increase. I had baked beans on toast a few times that month. Welcome to working in the media.)
Oh and another great thing about shoes I’ve learnt over the years – not matter how fat or skinny I get, the shoes still fit. What’s not to love about that?
So after lovingly colour co-ordinating my shoes, I moved on to my wardrobe.
In preparation for the first day of winter I packed up all my summer clothes and unpacked the winter woolies. Goodbye strappy dresses and hello warm coats. It was like I’d doubled my wardrobe without spending a cent. Outfits I’d forgotten about felt brand new.
And because I’m anal, I folded them perfectly and stacked them. One row for cardigans, a different one for jumpers, another for jeans. You get the drift.
<style=”text-align: center;”>Read more here: Would you like a pair of dismembered legs with your new shoes?
I hung the dresses and jackets according to length. (Hmm, maybe this is borderline OCD.)
Then I attacked my desk. Very long work hours meant it was piled high with receipts, unread books, old newspapers and stray beauty products I’d meant to put away. I was ruthless. I filed what I needed for tax then I filled a garbage bag ready for recycling.
A quick spray and wipe — and I was done.
The whole process took me about four hours. Four happy hours of whistling and daydreaming and not thinking about deadlines and dramas.
Sigh. Only three months until I get to do it all again for Spring!
How was your week?
Want to read more about shoes? Sure you do!
Richard Marles: “I didn’t understand my wife’s obsession with shoes. Until now.”
Top Comments
You've definitely inspired me to go threw mine this weekend. Im pretty good at managing it and tend to have minimum one cull a year however the last two culls (over the past 8 months - 1 due to moving house) and I havent bought any new clothes so its starting to look slightly depleted. I feel like a lot of money is about to be spent!!
Ah shoes, the loves of my life, my husband doesn't understand, I have shoe shelf envy. I am a Libra and I too am very anal about my walk in wardrobe, I love how organised it is.
Off to the Blue Mountains for a 4 day weekend, lots of walking, reading, red wine, cosy fire cabin and planning on watching the first series of Bloodline, can't wait, roll on Friday.