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Shedding baggage I didn't know I had
The upside of my former employer was that the work uniform was jeans (not ripped) and t-shirts (not ripped).
The downside of my former employer was that the work uniform was jeans (not ripped) and shirts (not ripped).
By the way, this same uniform was in force during my self-employed freelance writer days (which was immediately before my former employer) and to the two jobs I held before that.
Which means I have no work casual clothes. None. De nada. Zip. Zero. Zilch.
I am currently in the middle of "closet shopping", which means going through everything I own.
The problem? With a few very *small* exceptions, I have bought nothing new dress-wise, skirt-wise, or dress pants-wise in the past 10 years. In some cases, as in the cases of the full suits, the clothes are more than 15 years-old.
Before my knee injury that stopped me from running for several years, I was also thinner, so it isn't like I can even dress up the skirts into something useful because I'm one to two sizes too big in most cases. (Don't ask about how much smaller the sizes were when I was running. It's even more heartbreaking.)
Which means the charity thrift store is about to get a fuckton of clothes.
On the upside, I've discovered just how LARGE my bedroom closet is. It's stunningly large, actually. I had no idea because I'd been, well, hoarding all these clothes for all these years. Some of these clothes have been dragged along through no less than 10 moves. (I moved around lot in the years after college.)
You'd think I'd be depressed as shit going through all these clothes and packing them up in bags to bring to the thrift store, but I'm not.
See, I was talking to a friend on the phone last night and she was giving me a million good reasons why I could stop hoarding the damn clothes. She spent a good hour telling me this, along with how I could cheaply and reasonably acquire work-casual clothes without making myself broke.
As weird as it sounds, it was like I needed that kind of permission to finally do what I've been meaning to do since I moved to my apartment 6 years ago: Get rid of clothes that I haven't been wearing, and am not going to wear in the near future because they don't fit or are too far out-of-date to make even a reasonably professional impression.
Even as I'm putting these clothes in the bags and the number of bags are mounting, I'm feeling this weight lift off my shoulders. A weight I didn't even know I had.
It's...liberating.
Plus, I now know that I have a kickass closet that I didn't even know I had.
It's kind of like winning the lottery.
Again.
Pee.Ess. — I've now had 3 recruiters contacting me today with actual, real positions at some fairly large companies. What the ever-loving bloody hell?
The downside of my former employer was that the work uniform was jeans (not ripped) and shirts (not ripped).
By the way, this same uniform was in force during my self-employed freelance writer days (which was immediately before my former employer) and to the two jobs I held before that.
Which means I have no work casual clothes. None. De nada. Zip. Zero. Zilch.
I am currently in the middle of "closet shopping", which means going through everything I own.
The problem? With a few very *small* exceptions, I have bought nothing new dress-wise, skirt-wise, or dress pants-wise in the past 10 years. In some cases, as in the cases of the full suits, the clothes are more than 15 years-old.
Before my knee injury that stopped me from running for several years, I was also thinner, so it isn't like I can even dress up the skirts into something useful because I'm one to two sizes too big in most cases. (Don't ask about how much smaller the sizes were when I was running. It's even more heartbreaking.)
Which means the charity thrift store is about to get a fuckton of clothes.
On the upside, I've discovered just how LARGE my bedroom closet is. It's stunningly large, actually. I had no idea because I'd been, well, hoarding all these clothes for all these years. Some of these clothes have been dragged along through no less than 10 moves. (I moved around lot in the years after college.)
You'd think I'd be depressed as shit going through all these clothes and packing them up in bags to bring to the thrift store, but I'm not.
See, I was talking to a friend on the phone last night and she was giving me a million good reasons why I could stop hoarding the damn clothes. She spent a good hour telling me this, along with how I could cheaply and reasonably acquire work-casual clothes without making myself broke.
As weird as it sounds, it was like I needed that kind of permission to finally do what I've been meaning to do since I moved to my apartment 6 years ago: Get rid of clothes that I haven't been wearing, and am not going to wear in the near future because they don't fit or are too far out-of-date to make even a reasonably professional impression.
Even as I'm putting these clothes in the bags and the number of bags are mounting, I'm feeling this weight lift off my shoulders. A weight I didn't even know I had.
It's...liberating.
Plus, I now know that I have a kickass closet that I didn't even know I had.
It's kind of like winning the lottery.
Again.
Pee.Ess. — I've now had 3 recruiters contacting me today with actual, real positions at some fairly large companies. What the ever-loving bloody hell?
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...it never rains, but pours. :-)
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Now you have given yourself permission to get some nice, new needed clothes and have a place to put them. It truly is a win, win situation.
Once again congratulations on your new job.
Shakatany
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Go you!
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Go, Liz!
Best of luck with the job hunting, too.
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yay for new closet space! Yay for donations! Yay for out with the old, in with the new.
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So congratulations... on the closet clean-out and the recruiters!
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Have you tried consignment stores? For selling and shopping--I've found nicer clothes there and in thrift shops than in most retail stores. (A suggestion: Take a Trusty Friend along on your clothing hunt. My sweetie hates trying on clothes, so I act as runner--much less discouraging for her, and it gets the job done a lot faster.)
Sounds like your ship has not only come in, there are a few in holding patterns. Congratulations--I'm glad you got the one you really wanted first!
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There are those who would say that the act of cleaning your closet opened a cosmic door to new work opportunities...I don't know, but it's as reasonable an explanation as anything to me.
Wishing you well! :)
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Relax and enjoy it all. You obviously kick arse at what you do. You have a nice exciting new job to start. You will make a bunch of new friends. You get to meet the 'new you' once your closet is restocked. I envy you and wish I was 20 years younger. *lol*
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New clothes always help, though. If you can find something that's you then it helps with confidence on the first day.
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I'm...actually kinda happy about it. Small companies can easily develop "issues" when the owners are having personal problems. And I swear that it's happened at just about every small company I've worked at.
Although I know big corporate has its own issues having worked in one or two, they also have their strengths (for example, HR policies tend to be better spelled out).
Plus, in my case it's simply a case that for the past 12 years my "work uniform" was blue jeans which...yeah. Not going to fly any more. In any case, I've got clothes that fit and actually look good on me. While it was painful to do it, I'm glad that I did. Now I have to slowly rebuild by wardrobe over time.
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Hopefully I'll be able to figure out a way to go freelance with a combination of medical writing, other writing and property rentals within the next decade anyway.
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I don't know where you're located but you can contact me through LJ about any clothing woes.
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DMs go with most clothes, but I do worry that some emplyers might not agree with that one.
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