Turn, Turn, Turn

It’s getting colder here in the Northeast, despite my fist shaking, hair-pulling, and constant agonizing over the waning tropical temps and wishing that winter would spare us from October to April cold, wind, and snow.  Annual exercise in futility over, I turn to a more practical yet no less disheartening issue: tackling the seasonal closet turning.  I fondly bid a teary farewell to my white skirts and pants, bright prints, shorts, tank tops, and the courageous bathing suits that served me well by defying gravity this summer, and put on my most dazzling fake smile to “welcome” back the dark legion of long-sleeved T-shirts and hooded sweatshirts that shroud me in bulky warmth for the fall, winter and most of spring.  My last ditch effort to avoid this dreaded chore, a genuine plea to move to San Diego, is once again rebuffed with a “she’s losing it” stare-down by my husband. 
 

I open the under-the-bed containers and one big cardboard box that store my humble winter apparel with a flicker of hope that things are not as dreary as I remember from a mere five months ago, that somehow wardrobe fairies have transformed my clothing with up-to-the-moment trends and higher-quality items than those that went into the boxes in the spring.  Alas, this is not the case.  As I unfold one dark cloak of resignation after another, I see my near future all too clearly, and it isn’t interesting or particularly stylish. 

To make things less depressing, I thought I’d mix up this year’s closet switcheroo by doing things a little bit differently.  Instead of arranging my winter wear by category (long-sleeved crewneck T-shirts, long-sleeved V-neck T-shirts, nicer long-sleeved T-shirts that I can wear out of the house), I’ll do it by color, like they often do in swanky clothing boutiques where it appears that there is only one of each item, none of which I can afford to buy nor wear in my life that is filled with grocery store shopping, avoiding the gym, and sitting at kids’ sporting events in a muddy field three-fourths of the year.  I’ll create a welcome environment where I can happily anticipate mixing and matching outfits from a new point of view that all the fashion magazines tell us is possible simply from looking at your pieces as separate entities and no longer as parts of outfits.

I mean, I think this is what the magazines tell us.

And it takes me four hours.

The result is stupendous, beautiful, inspiring.  Here’s a photo: 

Nice, right?   

The trouble is, even with all the shine and expected optimism that a turned closet promises (a newly organized closet no less), my clothes still suck.

Ah well, summer will be upon us soon.  Wake me when it's here.

*******