The Satin Hanger Challenge: Accepted

If you read my last post you will have a better understanding of this post.  But in short: I'm getting rid of a bunch of clothes and want to get better ones that I'll actually wear.

Now that you are all caught up, here is my latest ridiculous challenge I have set up for myself that I am so excited about:  The Satin Hanger Challenge.  Oh it's a goodun...

When I was a teenager and hated clothes as much as I do now and cared much less about looking nice, one of my fashion frenzied, luxury loving aunts gave me a set of 12 satin, padded clothes hangers.  I'm sure 15 year old Heather was thrilled and I am sure my face made that fact evident.  You see, I have these two aunts who are quite comical to describe, not as comical to be around.  They are twins.  In their 70's.  Neither has ever been married or had kids.  They are not identical, but look very similar.  They could not be more opposites.  That's what is hilarious.  One is a true Gates: overbearing, bossy, annoying, crass and high strung.  The other (presumably true Rachels?): quiet, mousy, compliant and laid back.

That was quite a useless tangent...

Anywho, so I was sitting there on Christmas with these ridiculously nice hangers, assuming they'd be destroyed, lost or stolen within a year.  My overbearing aunt tells me, "Oh honey, those hangers are worth their weight in GOLD!"  She said that about everything.  Little did cranky-miss-hates-these-women know that nearly 15 years later she'd not only still have all 12 hangers, that she'd be blogging about them! (She might also find me very annoying and decide that blogging was something I had made up and not something she'd ever concern herself with.  What a skeptic).

Well, here I am, ya stupid brat with these damn hangers.  ALL OF THEM.   And just tonight I came to the realization that my loud, know-it-all aunt was absolutely right.  Because these hangers just became a part of my minimalism challenge.

I'll get to it here, I promise.  I have gone through my closet three times in as many days to clear out clothes.  I have read every blog written in English on minimalism and how that relates to wardrobe and I made my plan that works just for me.  The Satin Hanger Challenge.

I have 12 of these.  I counted just now and I have 65 items hanging up.  I have no intention of getting my wardrobe down to 12 items.  That's not realistic for me, at least not now.   So I am going to invest in more of these hangers.  I haven't come up with a number yet, but I plan to.  But I intend to have my entire wardrobe hanging on a fancy satin hanger.

The reason behind this idea is simple.  All the minimalist bloggers have different methods and ideas for how the minimalize, but the root of all of their ideas is this:  Only own what you love.  And you know what is hanging on those 12 hangers?  The clothes I love the most.  They get the fancy hangers because I love them.  So if I am going to get my wardrobe down to only things I love, then they all deserve the fancy hangers.  Make sense?  Of course it does.

I went on eBay to try and find some hangers to buy (or to put on my two week purchase list) and you know what?  I didn't find any fancy enough.  They all had this ugly plastic hook instead of the pretty gold one like mine have.  So, I am going to keep looking.  Because my new wardrobe deserves the best.

Oh, and Daniel if you are reading this, we can do the same with yours but with the fancy wooden hangers.  Let me know what you think.

So tell me kids, what do you think of this plan?  It's not worked out perfectly just yet, it still needs some tweaking, but I really think it will work for me.

Now if I can just get the issue of knowing how to shop for this presumed new wardrobe figured out, I'd be pretty well set.