Greg likes to talk to me about the cycle of expanding and contracting. A lot of what I do at home and for work is about contracting/simplifying/letting go. One of the reasons I do this is to create room for expansion/potential/inspiration. Here are some of the things that have inspired me, or at least made me smile, this month:

1. WANT Les Essentiels via thesartorialist.com and their inspiration: "A journey can be the moment when we step outside of ourselves, shift our perception, open our minds, and deeply consider what is important."

2. I discussed unwanted gifts a little bit before the holidays: “A gift is not an obligation” and unclutterer.com had some more thoughts including “When you receive a present, your duty is to receive it and thank the giver—not to keep the gift forever.”

3. Photographs of inspirational, well-ordered interiors from this book by Terence Conran: Plain, Useful, Simple

4. More on the benefits of a Lean Closet from The Cut: Don’t Cleanse Your Diet, Purge Your Closet Instead. “With fewer items in your closet—all of which you love—getting dressed doesn’t feel like a chore and you'll find you feel better about your body.”

5. We did Sarah's pretty winter weekend cleanse (for a day ;)

6. Garance’s style detox while surfing. One of these days I’ll learn how to surf!

7. Getting to meet the lovely Erica and read her book: San Francisco: A Food Biography. It’s interesting to see the similarities between this area during the Gold Rush and present-day (Tech Rush?)

8. As a recovering gossip and somebody who loves monthly experiments: Could You Go 40 Days Without Being Mean?

9. I’m loving the new Google Chrome People menu in my browser (above). Now I can easily use and switch between my personal and professional workspaces without having to log out and in! It’s the small things ;)

10. And finally this guy who talks productivity and uses Asana: Brandon Carter “Get Shit Done” video.

Mine has been a moody, simple, pretty January. Yours?

I am a t-shirt-and-jeans kind of girl. Plus heels and fancy lingerie but that’s another post. ;) I feel like our closets can get filled with tees because they are pervasive and affordable. In San Francisco, companies seem to give away a new shirt for every milestone they accomplish. Every band I go to see sells merch to help pay for the tour. We collect these shirts through the years and never seem to let them go.

I’ve seen articles and posts on organizing closets that have stacks upon stacks; organized by color, sleeve-length, neckline, material. Oh my! I don’t think we need to organize our tees, I think we just need to own fewer of them. I own 6 tees in my Fall/Winter 2015 Lean Closet and that gives me almost one a day for the week before I do laundry.

I keep shirts within my seasonal palette and try to wear them as layers as well as on their own with just about every bottom I own. To own fewer items of clothing, most pieces must work in multiple outfits.

I even dress up my Maiden tee with a skirt or heels!

What about you? Are you drowning in t-shirts?

+ Getting rid of all of my other t-shirts took some time. There were some I kept as mementos that held a lot of emotion. There were some that were completely worn out and therefore the softest things ever. Now I try not to keep things as memories and I let clothing go when it no longer flatters me.

+ As with pants, Capsule Wardrobes, like this one, usually don’t count workout or lounge wear. The tees I workout in and play soccer in are not included here.

January Inspiration

Lean Closet: My Tees (Fall/Winter 2015)