To truly have a wardrobe that let’s you get dressed without any stress, you need to be able to open your every day and be able to pull out any item and wear it at a moments notice.

Doesn’t that make sense? Why would you want clothes in your closet that you can’t wear? Here’s the thing—getting dressed can be stressful enough for most women. When you don’t have to qualify the pieces before deciding whether to wear them or not, you’ve taken a big part of the stress out of the equation.

There are a lot of factors that play into whether you can wear everything in your closet, but in this post, I’m going to talk about fit. It’s the one thing that can definitely cause us the most mental anguish.

Yesterday I did a presentation for a group of women at a major financial planning institute.  A woman raised her hand and asked, “What should you do when you have size 6, 8, 10 and 12 in your closet?”

As a wardrobe consultant I have found that so many women have “just in case clothes” in their closets, clothes that are too big or too small. They’re simply not serving you!

Most of the time clothes that are a little bit big can be altered down if they’re still in style. On the other hand, you run into risky territory much of the time when clothes are more than 2 sizes too large. And why would you want to hang onto clothes that are too big? Unless it is a medical condition (and my intention is truly not to sound judgmental,) you don’t really want to give yourself a safety net of having things to grow back into.

Clothes that are a too small can rarely be altered. But that is okay. Get them out of your closet! (If these things are newer and stylish, you can put them in another storage space, just not the closet you’re getting dressed in.) Having clothes in your closet that are too small wreaks havoc with your psyche. It’s depressing!

Here’s another thing, if you’re losing weight, that’s great. Most of us have been there, but I believe that if you lose weight and go down in size, you deserve new clothes. Chances are good that the size 4 or 8 or 12 or whatever size clothes you’ve gotten back into are out of style. I believe you totally deserve to celebrate yourself in something new and stylish when you’ve reached your weight goal.

If you’d like to learn more about how to dress when you’re losing weight, there’s a great chapter in Image Power by Kathy Pendleton called Look Great During and After Weight Loss. Learn more and get the book here.

So what if you fluctuate in size? Boy, can I relate! So much so that I’m going to use myself and my own closet to illustrate how to get your closet to the point where you can wear (almost) anything at any time.

I fluctuate between my goal weight and 7-10 pounds higher. (Funny how it’s never lower, lol!) While I have done a pretty good job of staying at my goal weight most of this year, I had a bunch of trips and celebrations all starting in mid-May. I like to eat sweets…and drink wine! At the end of June, I found myself up 7 pounds.

And some of my new favorite pants are far too tight around the waist! And these pants, that were actually a little baggy last summer, are fitting quite nicely.

The moral of the story? It’s okay to have a few pieces of clothing that are 2 different sizes, but not a full closet’s worth.

I’m no diet coach, but I also advise not buying clothes when you’re in this flux state, (or at least not many if you absolutely have to.) For example, the Nordstrom anniversary sale is going on right now, and I’ve vowed not to buy any pants or skirts. I bought a pair of highly structured leggings last July and had to have them taken in. They’re still not quite right!

If you want to have a wardrobe that’s easy and makes you feel confident all day long, it takes some discipline and work on the front end. You have to be rather brutal, (in a loving way of course,) when it comes to editing your closet. The ease of getting dressed when everything in your closet fits is well worth the exercise!