The Simple Reason I Hate All My Clothes

There's a certain routine that I've fallen into. At 7 a.m., my alarm starts to softly ping, slowly rising in decibel until I can't ignore it anymore. I roll out of bed in an oversize tee and blearily make my way to the closet to figure out what I can pull together for the day ahead. But as I peer into the dark chasm of clothing, I'm at a loss. I hate everything. Sound familiar? There seems to be a common bemoaning among myself and many friends that we don't feel any sort of inspiration from the clothes in front of us. "The feeling of having nothing to wear often stems from a disorganized closet," states Lili Petit, the founder of Clutter Healing. "We only wear 20% of our wardrobe because that's what is visible to us."

While I first balked at the fact that I just might be using only 20% percent of my closet, I spent a week taking stock of not just how I felt getting dressed, but how I was actually picking out what to wear. The reality: My small closet (and an equally small dresser) was packed, and I did have a tendency to skim through what was in my sightline (who has time in the morning for a deep dive anyway?). We tend to hold on to things way past their expiration date," adds Dr. Carol Walsh of Evolve Image Consulting. "Instead of having a closet filled with things that represent who we are right now in our lives, we have a closet full of relics that represent our past experiences and life."

It turns out that feeling like I had nothing to wear is more about the fact that I have (and hold on to) too much. The pieces I didn't need were overcrowding everything else. "Arrange your closet by item type, color, and season," Petit recommends. "File fold your items in your drawers so that you can see everything that you have." Taking time to prioritize the pieces I want to wear means that my closet is full of pieces I feel good about. To help, I rounded up six key areas I'm focused on prioritizing this summer—wardrobe boredom begone.

SUMMER DRESSES

No surprise that come summer I'm focusing on seasonally appropriate dresses, but I don't think there's such a thing as a color too bright or a print too bold.

STATEMENT SKIRTS

Since I'm partial to comfy T-shirts, I've realized that statement skirts are a wardrobe must. They're an easy way to make more casual pieces seem polished—just swap your standard jeans for one of these instead.

PARTY TOPS

Now that the weather is nice and the days are especially long, the calendar is packed with after-work and weekend extracurriculars. Pretty party tops are the simplest way to help you transition from day to night.

COOL YET COMFY SHOES

I've given up on wearing cute shoes that aren't actually comfortable—one too many blisters has taught me my lesson. Instead, I look for fashionable sneakers or low heels as my go-tos.

ON-TREND ACCESSORIES

I tend to invest in clothing that can last me through a few seasons, if not many years, which is why of-the-moment accessories make all the difference. A timeless outfit is suddenly modern with the right earrings or bag.

Colorful Jeans

I've pared down my denim, it's easy to have a few too many pairs of blue jeans. But styles in surprising colors like red, pink, and purple are on the checklist for must-tries this season.