Alarm goes off and either gets beaten to death or snooze gets pressed to death. I stumble begrudgingly to the shower, cursing whomever concocted the notion that early equals productive. I mindlessly go through the bathing ritual, something so routine I can do it in my sleep and probably do most of the time. I try to get an outfit together through the haze in my brain, thinking that if I can just come up with something, that's time shaved off of my exit. It never happens. I step out of the shower, into my beautiful, fluffy pink robe and trudge the distance to the closet. It's come to the daily fashion roulette. And it's time to pull the trigger. I take a deep breath, close my eyes, and *POW*.... I'd love to tell you this story ends with me in a dazzling outfit dressed to kill in 15 minutes flat, accessorized and layered to everyone's envy. Alas, it does not. And I know that yours doesn't either. I have, therefore, come up with a way of dodging that bullet every day. You will need a permanent marker, labels, tape, and a polaroid with film. Your first task is to donate any and everything that you haven't worn in a year. I know it's difficult, but, let's face it-you will never be that size again, those shoes aren't coming back in style, and your grandma doesn't even remember giving you that hand knitted scarf. It's baggage, donate it to someone that needs it. There are several Haiti relief sites set up for you to trim your closet, help someone out, and have that feel good feeling. Secondly, organize things. Put suits with suits, pants with pants, dresses with dresses, and so on. You can be as anal about this down to color coordination or as vague as this simple list. I recommend being anal-you'll thank yourself later. Next-try on every single pairing that you can possibly think of and have a friend/boyfriend snap shots of you. Get their input as well, they may think of combinations that you haven't thought of. Label the pictures as dressy, girl's night, work, etc. Set them aside. You, then must remove every shoe from it's box and take a picture of everyone. As you put them back in their respective homes, tape the snapshot to the outside of the box for easy locating. Voila, my chic friends! Do you know what you have now? A menagerie of snapshots for every venue of all of the pieces in your closet! You no longer have to wonder or forget, you can flip through your photos instead of staring at your racks with blank eyes every morning. I have also given you the fabulous gift of shopping. Now that you have taken inventory, you know what staples you need to add instead of impulse buying because you've forgotten what you needed by the time you arrive at the store. Brilliance, I know....but, don't thank me. Come do my closet for me. xxoo, Brandie
