My Wardrobe, Myself

Why Does Packing for Travel Have to Be So Hard?

Debbie Roes

July 6, 2021

I recently took my first trip in almost two years. My last travel experience had been in October 2019, when I went to Lake Tahoe (Nevada) to visit my family and celebrate my brother’s fiftieth birthday. My recent trip was also to Tahoe, this time for my nephew’s high school graduation. I was originally supposed to be gone for just five days, but I ended up staying an additional three days to help my mom with a few things. Since I was out of practice with traveling, I agonized over what to pack, especially in terms of my clothing.

Before I left for the trip, I spent my final pre-travel “sit in the chair” session writing about the difficulty I always experience when deciding upon which clothes, shoes, and accessories to pack for a trip. (I’m still writing for at least an hour a day, although I take one weekend day off now and didn’t write while I was away.) I originally planned to publish that essay prior to leaving for my vacation, but I ran out of time, so I’m sharing a slightly edited and polished version now.

Do you struggle with what to pack – and packing too much – when you travel?

Packing – The Struggle is Real…

I know many of you can probably relate to the difficulties I encounter with packing. While there are some people out there who seem to have packing “superpowers,” that’s definitely not me! I’m notorious for overpacking and often packing the wrong things. I’ve improved over the years, but I believe that packing is a “muscle” that can atrophy when it isn’t being used. Because travel was placed on the backburner for most of 2020 and the first half of 2021 (for pretty much all of us), I’m having to rebuild that underused muscle now. And let’s face it… I wasn’t exactly using my packing muscle all that much before the pandemic anyway, so I still have lots of room to learn and grow in that arena.

Addressing “On the Bubble” Shoes – Summer Edition

Debbie Roes

13 comments

June 19, 2021

Last month, I published the first installment of my “Rule of Ten” series, which addressed my shoes. The Rule of Ten is a concept I created to help me become more mindful of the items that I include in my “out-and-about” wardrobe. The objective of the Rule of Ten is to limit the number of pieces in each of my wardrobe categories to ten or fewer. With my footwear, I created two Rule of Ten categories: one for my summer shoes and the other for my “not summer” shoes (for the cooler months of the year).

I only want to include items in my Rule of Ten collections that I love and wear regularly, so I ended up choosing just seven pairs of shoes each for the summer and “not summer” seasons. I shared my reasons for those selections in my initial post, and I later published a different essay evaluating my six pairs of cool weather shoes that were “on the bubble.” I’ll check back in regarding the fate of those shoes soon.

In today’s post, I address the summer shoes that I opted not to include in that season’s Rule of Ten. As I did with my “not summer” footwear, I go through these shoes one by one to explore why they weren’t included among my favorites.

deciding whether to keep or purge wardrobe items

The objective of this analysis is to get to the point where I can do one of three things:

Start wearing the shoes regularly
List them for sale online
Pass them on via donation

As a result of my introspection, I’ve made decisions about the majority of my “maybe” shoes for the summer season. For the remainder of my “on the bubble” summer shoes, I outline my plan for making “stay or go” determinations in the near future.

Less is More in 2021: Reducing Physical Clutter

Debbie Roes

16 comments

June 10, 2021

As regular readers know, my theme for 2021 is “less,” which is basically an extension of my 2020 “enough” theme.” Although I experienced big wins last year related to feeling good enough and showing increased compassion for myself, I didn’t make as much progress as I’d hoped with downsizing my possessions and streamlining the way I spend time and consume information. Selecting “less” as my focus for this year seemed like a good way to increase my emphasis on those areas while also improving other facets of my life experience.

Now that almost half of 2021 is behind us (can you believe it?!), I’ve increased the attention I’m directing toward my “less” theme. Specifically, I’m examining the various areas of excess that are getting in the way of my happiness, and I’m finding ways of addressing them. Last month, I shared about my ongoing struggle with information overload, including open browser tabs, email backlog, articles to read, videos to watch, and items that I’m considering buying. After gaining clarity on those issues and the shifts I needed to make, I got to work on implementing the changes I outlined. I checked in a few weeks later with an update on the progress I’d already made, and I’m continuing to take steps toward making information overload a thing of the past.

In today’s post, I explore physical clutter and how I plan to tackle my remaining issues in that arena. My tolerance for disarray in my surroundings continues to decline as I pare away more and more of what I don’t love and don’t use. Although my husband and I played “The Minimalism Game” in January and got rid of over 500 items, we still have too much stuff! There are a few areas I’d like to address within the next month or so to help pare things down: books, framed photos, knick-knacks, and artwork. I’ll delve into each of these topics below.

decluttering physical possessions

Do You Have a False Sense of Security About Your Wardrobe?

Debbie Roes

43 comments

June 3, 2021

My recent posts about my shoes (HERE and HERE) got me thinking about something very important when it comes to my closet (and possibly some of your closets as well). To a certain extent, it really doesn’t matter how many clothes, shoes, or whatever types of items we own. What matters are the things we’re actually wearing. The rest is simply “filler” that gives us a false sense of security that we have a sizeable wardrobe or “enough” to wear. In today’s post, I expand upon this concept, using the example of my shoes (since that’s fresh in all of our minds) to illustrate my points.

Do you THINK you have more viable options in your closet than you actually do?

The Number Isn’t the Real Issue

As I mentioned in my May 12th post, I currently own 28 pairs of shoes. This often feels like too many shoes given my present lifestyle, but if I were wearing all of them at least semi-regularly, I wouldn’t worry that much about the number. I’d likely put the brakes on new shoe purchases to cap the number that I own, but then I’d just wear what I have and let the overall number gradually decrease by means of attrition. As shoes wear out, or when I stop liking particular styles, I’d purge them and get my collection down to a more appropriate level for my needs and preferences.

But my primary issue isn’t that I have too many pairs of shoes in my closet. The real problem is that I have a number of shoes that I rarely or never wear. When I stare into my closet, I see what looks like a lot of footwear options, but can I really call them that if they’re never being chosen? If some of my shoes are only worn once in a great while simply because I feel guilty for having bought them, do those shoes even belong in my wardrobe?

Choosing Less: Information Overload Update

Debbie Roes

8 comments

May 27, 2021

A few weeks ago, I revealed my ongoing struggle with information overload. In today’s post, I share how I’m doing with my efforts to pare down my information backlogs and prevent them from recurring.

My May 7th essay outlined the following areas of data excess:

Open browser tabs
My “read” and “watch” folders
Email backlog
My “considering” folder (links to items I’m thinking of buying)
Magazines, catalogs, and clipped articles

Included below are the steps I’ve taken to address each of the above issues, as well as what I plan to do before the month is over (just a few days left to go!). I also outline how I’m going to keep myself out of trouble in the future.