I did a radical, emotion-based closet cull

Here's what I learned from Intuitive Culling

Sometime ago, my friend Tiia, who is probably taking a much-needed break from this space (I imagine her often in the real, touch-and-feel world in her Finland home and shop), wrote about a “chaotic culling” brought on by her desire “to see (and wear) just the good stuff in my closet, and to not get bogged down by fillers.”

Her approach went like this:

1. “Stand in front of the closet and grab things instinctively or at random

2. Let yourself have feelings about the things that you reach for

3. Try stuff on if you’re feeling unsure, to feel more feelings

4. Then make decisions based on your instincts”

What stuck with me most was her critique of the predominant wardrobe “edit mode" we fall into, consume in itself as a whole subculture, and deem so valuable: “Ruthless and disciplined wardrobe edits might give us a temporary sense of being in control, but they don’t allow us to deal with our feelings, especially the ones that we might label as unpleasant,’ ‘negative’ or ‘difficult.’ We tend to forget that all feelings are valuable, and one is not better than another. By rationalizing and compartmentalizing our wardrobe culling we might be sidelining the very feelings that trigger our consumption. Often a wardrobe edit leads to a spending spree, and before we know if, we’re back to culling, and telling ourselves that ‘this time it will be different.’”

And then also this notion of instinctiveness as a basis for decision making. In my mind I started calling this Intuitive Culling*. [*Want the speed read version? Hop right to the bottom where I summarize in 10 steps. I don’t mind. XX, Rachel.]