| Five Simple Ways to Organize Your Closet Today. Copyright © 2004 |
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Renu Dalal-Jain, a certified image consultant and the owner of Flair Consulting in Philadelphia, PA, works with men and women to help them put their best personal face forward in social or corporate settings. Renu teaches......
Do you have an overstuffed, bulging closet (or two) full of clothes, and yet wear the same three or four outfits repeatedly? Do you have few clothes and despair every time you put something on because you know it just does not look quite right? Would you like to be able to wear EVERYTHING you have in your closet? And know that you look good every time you do?
Renu Dalal-Jain, a certified image consultant and the owner of Flair Consulting in Philadelphia, PA, works with men and women to help them put their best personal face forward in social or corporate settings. Renu teaches her clients how to organize their closets and shop smart so that they always have the right clothes to wear for the right occasion.
Renu teaches five easy steps that you can follow today to organize your closet so that you can understand what you have and what you need to purchase to complete your wardrobe!
FIRST – Prepare: Set aside at least three to four hours for the task, and make sure you have access to a full-length mirror. Wear neutral undergarments, as you will be trying on everything you own. All hangers should be of the same size and type (all plastic, or all wooden) and made for specific clothing items – top/dress hanger, pant hanger, etc. This will save you precious space in your closet. Hangers.com is a wonderful website (www.hangers.com) that sells all types of hangers at less than one dollar apiece.
SECOND – get organized! Dump your entire closet out onto the floor of your bedroom and be brutal with yourself. Those bell-bottoms from 1973 – get rid of them! The shoe with the broken heel that you never got around to fixing… gone! You will be surprised at how much you can get rid of, and how little you really need it. One rule of thumb that Renu always use is that if you haven’t used it in at least one year, YOU DON’T NEED IT. Some of you might think, “Well, it’s got sentimental value – I have to keep that old sweater that I got in fifth-grade band camp!” Well everyone understands sentimental value but it doesn’t belong in your closet. Put it in a box with your scrapbooks and old photos and put it in the attic. Now you will have room for the key things that you are always going to wear, and always going to feel good about. Wear clothes that make you feel radiant, not reasonable!
THIRD – Divide what you have kept of your wardrobe, into business, casual and evening wear. And if you are one of the lucky ones who actually got that long-promised Caribbean vacation, make a section for vacation/resort wear. By organizing your clothes this way, you will know what section to turn to in a snap. When you are dividing your wardrobe, pay attention to your “comfort zones”… do you wear only black slacks and sweaters to the office? Do you have sixteen white button-down shirts? Make notes for yourself so that when you next go shopping, you are aware of what your comfort zone is, and resist purchases within that zone. Stepping outside your comfort zone will help you expand your wardrobe and experiment with other styles.
FOURTH – Try on each item… this is the most important step! Make sure it still fits well, with no pulls, tears, or unseemly tucks or threads. If it’s too tight, too bright, or just plain outdated, even if it’s in mint condition, get rid of it! Make notes of what you no longer have in your wardrobe and need to purchase. For example, if you’ve gotten rid of every old pair of chinos you had, put it on your list of new purchases. If you had one black sweater (a staple item that goes with everything) that was completely worn out, make sure you replace it. Put aside the items you want to keep that need to be mended or cleaned, and make an agreement with yourself to have that done within one week of your personal closet overhaul.
FIFTH – put everything back in your closet and dresser. Renu’s rule of thumb is to hang pants, skirts, shirts, thicker sweaters and jackets. Fold very heavy items like jeans, and very delicate items like undergarments and cashmere or other loose kni
ts, which will lose their shape if hung. Hang your clothes according to business, casual and evening wear. Within those categories, you can further hang all pants together, all shirts together, all skirts together, etc. Hang pants and skirts on clip hangers; folding them over a wire hanger will cause them to wrinkle and become prone to tearing at the bend.
Don’t worry if your closet suddenly looks empty to you. You are just creating the space to build the type of wardrobe you’ve always dreamed of having. Now you can make knowledgeable purchases by understanding what you already have, what your comfort zones are, and what items you really need.
A bonus: feel good while you organize – donate your clothes to any of the many great organizations in your area. In the Philadelphia area, some organizations include:
City Team Ministries - http://www.cityteam.org/philadelphia/
Career Wardrobe - http://www.careerwardrobe.org/
Junior League of Philadelphia - http://www.juniorleaguephila.org/fund.html
Philadelphia Cares - http://www.philacares.com/donate.htm
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| Florida Realtor Sets Sail on ’Slow Boat to Terror’ - Nov 26, 2004 10:52 IST |
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R.W. Perry’s first mystery novel, ’Kelly McCabe, Slow Boat to Terror’ proves to be popular promotional item for Central Florida Realtor.
Ninety percent of our clients are grandparents, said realtor William Smith. What better gift could we give them than a fascinating mystery that not only entertains, but spotlights the values and the courage needed to stand by those values that we all hope to instill in our grandchildren?
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| Runner Length Mat Traps Moisture and Dirt in Large Entrances - Nov 26, 2004 10:51 IST |
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The Waterhog Premier Roll Goods mat has many features and benefits. The versatile roll good design is flexible to use. This mat is great for large entrance area installation and custom cut applications. The unique ridged construction of the Waterhog Premier Roll Goods mat effectively removes and traps dirt and moisture.
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| Top Ten Holiday Gift Ideas for the “Science and Engineering Minded” - Nov 26, 2004 10:50 IST |
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Finding holiday gift ideas for the science and engineering oriented is far too often a challenge for many. To help provide this year’s holiday shoppers with science and engineering oriented gift ideas for their loved one, Edmunds Scientific, a leading producer of scientific instruments for over 60 years, announced today their top ten “must have” holiday gift ideas for the science and engineering enthusiast.
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| Taye Drums Announces Taye Endorser Bruce Aitken Wins ’Musician Of The Year’ - Nov 26, 2004 10:37 IST |
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Taye Drums announced today Taye Endorser Bruce Aitken has won the Musician of the Year Award at the Nova Scotia Music and Industry Awards sponsored by the Music Industry Association of Nova Scotia (MIANS).
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| Organization to Change the Face of Personal Finance - Nov 26, 2004 10:35 IST |
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For over fifty years the area of personal finance has been largely unchanged in terms of its continued emphasis on budgets and categories. Money Makes A Difference is a new organization that is poised to change that thinking.
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| Unhappy Wife Finds Renewed Love For Husband At MarriageRomance.com - Nov 25, 2004 19:44 IST |
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The key to a happy marriage is having the proper perspective. www.MarriageRomance.com helps married couples adjust their perspective on life and refocus and appreciate marriage and their spouse.
www.MarriageRomance.com is a Christian marriage and romance website with over 4000 marriage and romance writings. The website received over 1.35 million hits in the month of October, 2004 from over 243,940 page views from 59,841 unique visitors.
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| Black Family Channel Starts 8 New Shows - Nov 25, 2004 19:23 IST |
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Robert Townsend first caught the film industry’s eye with 1987’s Hollywood Shuffle, a clever satire about black actors trapped in demeaning roles. Now he wants the country to pay attention to what he calls a new kind of television, entertaining but with a sense of responsibility, especially toward young black Americans.
Black Family Channel, which Townsend joined as president and chief executive officer of production five months ago, is starting an ambitious slate of eight new programs geared for children, teenagers and families.
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| Eminem Tops Charts Ahead of Holiday Season - Nov 25, 2004 19:10 IST |
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Eminem topped music charts for a second week, warming up a recent cold spell for record companies who hope the rapper and big releases from acts like U2 and Gwen Stefani will ignite a hot holiday season
It’s been soft, but things are getting better and I think we’re going to have a good fourth quarter, John Sullivan, chief financial officer of Trans World Entertainment Corp., a retail music chain operator, said on Wednesday.
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| Mississippi Author Larry Brown Dies - Nov 25, 2004 19:7 IST |
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Author Larry Brown, who wrote about the often rough, gritty lives of rural Southerners, died Wednesday at his home, his publisher said. He was 53.
Brown died of an apparent heart attack, North Carolina-based Algonquin Books announced.
I’m just paralyzed, like most people when they lose a loved one they admire, said fellow Oxford-based author Barry Hannah.
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| Sirius Shares Slip on JPMorgan Downgrade - Nov 25, 2004 18:48 IST |
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Shares of Sirius Satellite Radio Inc., whose shares have doubled over the past month, on Wednesday fell 8 percent after a JPMorgan analyst said that a further rally would make the stock expensive relative to its growth potential.
We believe Sirius is now much closer to reflecting the near-term rapid growth opportunity we foresee, prompting us to take profits, said Barton Crockett, an analyst at J.P. Morgan, who downgraded the stock to neutral from overweight.
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| Almodovar’s ’Education’ Gets NC-17 Grade - Nov 25, 2004 16:41 IST |
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Oscar-winning director Pedro Almodovar’s latest film, Bad Education, will carry an NC-17 rating, a commercially damaging tag which means that no one aged 17 and under will be admitted.
Almodovar’s film, which delves into the issue of priestly sexual abuse within the context of a homoerotic film noir, was released Friday in New York via Sony Pictures Classics. It opens Dec. 10 in Los Angeles.
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| Film Studios Win $24 Million Against Web Site - Nov 25, 2004 16:41 IST |
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Hollywood’s major movie studios said they won a $23.8 million judgment against a California company and its Malaysian owner for operating a Web site that charged customers to download illegally copied movies.
The company, MasterSurf Inc, is owned by Tan Soo Leong, and it operated a site called Film88.com, according to a statement by the Motion Picture Association of America, which represents the studios in governmental and industry matters.
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| Sony Pictures Sets Up Operation in China - Nov 25, 2004 16:23 IST |
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Sony Pictures has set up a joint venture television and film co-production unit in China, taking advantage of a loosening of restrictions on the tightly controlled industry.
The joint venture with Hua Long Film Digital Production Co. of the state-run China Film Group, which holds a majority stake, has full approval from Chinese regulators, Sony Pictures Television International said in a statement Thursday.
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| Conrad Sentenced to House Arrest - Nov 25, 2004 16:22 IST |
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Former Wild Wild West star Robert Conrad will pay a price for his wild, wild ride.
The aging action hero has been sentenced to six months of house arrest, five year’s probation and alcohol counseling for a 2003 DUI accident.
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| Beatles’ Guitar, Cobain Letter Up for Auction - Nov 25, 2004 16:17 IST |
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Rock ’n’ roll fans with deep pockets can buy a Beatles guitar or a mugshot of the pop star formerly known as Cat Stevens at what Christie’s said on Wednesday was its biggest auction of show business memorabilia.
The Gibson SG electric guitar, played by George Harrison from 1966-1969, is the star attraction among over 400 lots, ranging from Britney Spears’ book report to a handwritten 1991 letter from the late Kurt Cobain to Courtney Love.
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| Critics Blast ’Alexander’ But Novelist Defends It - Nov 25, 2004 16:16 IST |
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While critics savaged Oliver Stone’s long-waited epic Alexander, novelist and social activist Gore Vidal rallied to the $160 million movie’s defense saying it was barrier-breaking because of its frank depiction of bisexuality.
Stone’s film opened on Wednesday to near universal pans from critics who called it everything from a noble failure to an indifferent epic.
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| Police praise ’courageous’ Ozzy - Nov 25, 2004 16:2 IST |
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The singer grabbed an intruder who then jumped 30ft (10m) from a first floor window as the star gave chase at his Buckinghamshire home on Monday.
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| McCartney backs UK conservation - Nov 25, 2004 16:1 IST |
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The awards set out to honour excellence and innovation in preserving the UK’s cultural heritage.
Sir Paul, 62, agreed to fund the awards after meeting 2002 winner Ian Clark and hailed conservationists’ work.
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| Elderly ’need digital TV funds’ - Nov 25, 2004 15:58 IST |
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The Ofcom Consumer Panel is advising the government on how to make sure the vulnerable are not left behind when the switch-off happens, probably in 2012.
The UK government may have to spend £250m-400m to make sure those groups can still receive TV, its report said.
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| UK sweep up at global Emmy Awards - Nov 25, 2004 15:32 IST |
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Channel 4 won three prizes - for Brat Camp, The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off and children’s tale, The Illustrated Mum.
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