Now Is Not the Time for A Wild Closet Clean Out—Try This Instead

Friends! Welcome back to Self Checkout. Have you missed me? ;) I’m excited to be back in your inboxes after a nice long break; it gave me the chance to brainstorm a couple of new moments I’ll be adding to the weekly send, called Reading List and Anatomy of an Outfit. Reading List will be as it sounds—a list of really great stories you may have missed on Marie Claire this week. Anatomy of an Outfit will be a peek into what I personally wore that week (I usually get dressed dressed somewhere between two and four times a week), outfit credits (or approximations; much like anyone else, I rewear my clothes season after season, so some exact things may out of stock) and what was on my schedule that day, so you get more of Nikki wore what where outfit kind of connection. Sounds good? I think so, but feel free to DM me any feedback at NikkiOgun on Instagram.

But before we get to those moments, let’s dive into the topic of this week’s newsletter: why I’m against a full-scale closet clean out at the top of the new year. In short, it’s because I believe most people’s inclination is to take the new year, new me vibes to an extreme and mass clear out, then shop with abandon to adopt the personal style they think is “in” every year.

Instead, my suggestion is that during the dead week (the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve), do all your laundry and dry cleaning, finally mend/tailor/hem everything that’s been sitting in The Bag or The Chair for the past year, go through all your winter clothes that have been sitting in storage, and then consider what you need to buy going forward. This was my tactic, and then I was able to make a hyper specific list of what I wanted to shop for, which was as follows:

•  A winter going-out top
•  Warm, utilitarian ankle boots that are easy to pull off and on
•  Straight leg jeans
•  My signature Nili Shon pants in leather
•  Merino wool socks that won’t slip around in my ankle boots
•  A Kelly green v-neck sweater
•  Black mittens
•  Winterized, waterproof running shoes
•  An oversized black button-down

I haven’t bought any of these things yet (except the sweater!) but the exercise was a useful, more measured approach than ones I’ve done in the past. Give it a shot!

—Nikki Ogunnaike, Editor-in-Chief

Anatomy of an Outfit

TUESDAY...

In-office day—which means commuting into the city from Brooklyn. I also had a personal training session.

WEDNESDAY...

In-office day and a Mile High Run Club workout class.

THURSDAY...

In-office day, business lunch, after-work Barry’s Bootcamp workout with a friend.

Reading List

First time reading Self Checkout? Catch up on the past few weeks.