They say the first step of solving a problem is admitting you have one.
Ive known mine since I saw the fridge magnet in Santa Monica two years ago. It had three gap-toothed school girls sitting on a bench, grinning. Except there was a circle scrawled around one girls face like a bad yearbook photo and the words Secret Hoarder scribbled underneath.
Her smile became much more sinister with that little piece of knowledge. And my husbands laugh attack became all too revealing. The fact that I now needed the magnet was a symptom itself!
Thankfully my magnet collection is well under control. It was my closet that was the problem taking up an entire bedroom of our house with its energy-sucking sprawl.
Perhaps it was a product of wearing a private school uniform for 10 years. Or my Mennonite thrift. Or that I work in fashion. But I had clothes dating back to high school that were perpetually still good", and it was time to find them a new home.
So when Erin Shaw from West Coast Style was looking for a closet to raid with a personal organizer and a camera crew, I put on my bravest Secret Hoarder smile and volunteered.
The sartorial executioner, Ana Snow of Collection Eight, was more than a professional panner of items with wear and tear she ruthlessly stayed on message for nine hours while somehow playing the best friend and counsellor. Then she shopped for basics I was missing (even with all that stuff), while I recovered from the cull the celebratory Prosecco serving two purposes.
The end result was the closet Id always strived for, minus 18 bags and three boxes of keepsakes, memories and fabulous phases.
I had to laugh (after some tears) when she forced me to get rid of one of my dads Saskatchewan Roughriders shirts.
Is he still alive?...Yes....Then you can make new memories, Snow insisted.
If you plan to try this at home, repeating "Someone else will really love this," makes it amazingly easy to let go. But the main and most effective refrain to keep in mind was, by far, Does this really represent who you are now?
If the answer was no, then it had to go.
Catch the episode on West Coast Style Shaw TV, Channel 4 on Jan. 16 and 23 at 5pm and 11pm.
Or watch the episode here. West Coast Style begins at the 17:25 mark:
