What we keep in our closets are more than just clothes; we have memories associated with these items, whether it’s a pair of shoes you bought on a trip to Italy, which happen to be a half size too small, or a uniform from your days in the Air Force. I sat down with Celeste to discuss her closet audit and started by saying I always know it is going to be a difficult audit when you find a prom dress in the closet.Now this isn’t because it means their closet is disorganized or they are difficult people. It is just one of the most tell-tale signs that someone has emotional connections to memories manifesting through garments. Maybe your mother made your dress, or prom was particularly wild and you like to have a chuckle once in a while.Celeste nervously laughed and said, well, I have three: one is winter formal, one is prom, and one is homecoming. We both started laughing, and I instantly knew she really needed my help...but also that this was going to be fun. Check these out!!I could sense she was nervous about getting rid of pieces in her prized collection. Days leading up to the audit she mentioned she didn’t want to get rid of anything. Then she said, “I don’t want to get rid of too much!”Pairing down and weeding through the “riff-raff” that distracts you from your beautiful pieces will never, ever feel bad afterwards. Sometimes in the moment, though, it is hard and sometimes seeing the huge pile of old “fast-fashion” clothes that have seen their day (or never should have seen any days) can feel overwhelming.Celeste’s closet was very organized. We are talking clear plastic shoe bins and a label maker. My kind of girl. The structure was there; we just needed to categorize her clothing pieces and pare everything down to make it all more accessible.She has a unique problem, or excellent perk, depending on how you look at it: she owns a store and needs to make room.And make room, we did! As we did this we reorganized the flow of the closet to mimic how she gets dressed. Easy grab-and-go for her workout gear for those early morning classes, and precisely placed jackets and vests to remind her to layer in those beautiful pieces.Overall it was a huge success for phase one — and I think Celeste proved me wrong. You can have a prom dress and still be reasonable about letting things go. (Well, some...not all!)Next step, will be changing all of the hangers to black, and then auditing shoes and accessories. We will then go in and really fine tune the placement of the items and create outfits to make sure she is maximizing the potential of each of those special pieces! Stay tuned...

Before...

..and After