Category: To Occupy my Time

I still had time to kill after “Seams to Fit” so I wandered up 23rd Ave. for some window shopping. On my way I came across another consignment store called “What’s Upstairs.” It’s located at 736 NW 23rd Ave. I climbed up the stairs to find out what was there.

It was a store I didn’t like at all. The person working there was not really very friendly. Though I realize that the person could be unfriendly for a lot of reasons that have nothing to do with me, the first thing I think is that I shouldn’t be shopping there. So that was the first strike against them.

As stated before, I don’t really like to shop. This means that I like things to be divided by size, so I can avoid looking through the smaller sizes. This shop was divided not by size, but by color. All the black pants were together, and all the black shirts, black sweaters, black jackets. On another wall were all the white things. In another room were all the colored things. All sizes, mixed up together. It was my shopping nightmare.

Clearly, some people like this store. Someone on Citysearch would “move to PDX FOR THIS SHOP.” I’m glad she’s happy. I won’t be going back.

After a doctor appointment, I stopped by “Seams to Fit” to see if anything fit me. The store is located at 2264 NW Raleigh and, according to it’s website, “offers an upscale retail environment for consignment of your quality articles.” It is a very nice environment and the clothing was very high quality. It was also very expensive. I’m not really an Armani-suit wearing person, but if I were, I would shop here.

I had a lot of time to kill, so I tried a lot of things on. Including super fancy clothing that I had no intention of buying, even if it did fit. Clothing that costs over $40.00 makes me a bit nervous to wear. Some of the dresses I was trying on were $80.00 to $100.00. Used.

Nothing, sadly, fit. I’m being very picky about fit and nothing fit the bill. Still, I left in good spirits. This won’t be a main clothing store for me, but I’ll probably stop in once in awhile.

I love Savvy Plus. One of the things I hate about shopping is that it is so uncomfortable. In retail stores, I tend to feel grubby and worried that I “shouldn’t” be shopping there. It’s mostly all “me” stuff, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t there. Being on the top end of normal clothing stores isn’t fun, either. I tend to feel huge in normal retail stores. Savvy Plus is the solution. It’s a clothing store for sizes 12 and up with resale and some new items. Both are reasonably priced.

And, it is run by Gaya who completes the package. She’s very nice and full of good energy and also has my favorite combination of leaving me alone to navigate the store, but also providing more attentive service if I want it. She let me take her picture, even though I could tell she doesn’t like to have her picture taken. Who wouldn’t want to buy clothing from someone so great? It’s also the kind of store where people pipe up with their opinion if something looks great on someone. The whole experience is shopping without all the baggage.
I hit the pants first. Gaya nicely told me to leave whatever didn’t work in the dressing room. I appreciated that, as it is one of those things I’m often not sure about. I tried on six pairs of pants, but nothing worked there. I wandered around the store looking for a new black sweater that fits. I found a sweater-like thing that ties in the front. It was 50% off so only $7.00. When I got home I banished the “bit too small” sweater from my closet to the donate pile. That was a nice feeling.
I also found this jacket which fits very well and has both black, white and gray in it. It was 30% off and came to $16.80.
Savvy Plus. If you are female, size 12 or larger and live anywhere near Portland you must go there. Don’t delay.

I’ve just realized that I might not need any more blazers/jackets/sweaters. I think I need to do step two of Ready to Wear before I shop again. That would be figuring out how many outfits I have in my closet and generating a list of what I need. I’ll do that tomorrow.

Today I did the big closet clean out as recommended on Ready to Wear. The plan was to go through everything and only keep things that I love and I am currently wearing. The rest go into piles and get put some where else. My piles were: Out of Season, Tailor, Donate, Other Closet, Like.

Tall order. I suspected that I wouldn’t love many of my clothes. Thus, the “Like” pile.

The closet before:


And with everything I love. That gives me 3 skirts, one pair of pants (I was wearing them) two tanks, 2 shirts, 4 sweaters/jackets. I added back in a lot of the “like” stuff. Loving everything will be a goal for the future.
I then moved onto my drawers. Before:

And after:



Here are my plies:
This is a pile that cropped up mid-sort. It is the “cut these t-shirts up to save for the quilt you are making someday” pile.
Here’s the “like” pile.
The “summer clothes” pile on the left and the “put it somewhere else” pile on the right.
On the left: the “donate” pile. On the right: I had nothing to go to the tailor, but these shoes are going to the cobbler before spring arrives. I love them.
Shoes I like that went back into the closet.
The following is a list of the “like” items I put back, and the reasons I’m not in love with them:

• 2 black tank tops–cut a bit too low for work.
• Orange striped shirt–faded
• Green sweater–nothing to wear with it. It also draws attention to the psoriasis on my arms
• red long sleeved shirt–faded
• black sweater–is a bit small, but I need it to complete outfits, so it has to stay for now.
• straight long black skirt–I wear it all the time, but I know it isn’t the most flattering thing.
• khaki pants–I had them hemmed before I washed them and they are a bit short. I’ve also gained weight since I bought them and so they are a bit tight. Until last week, my only pair of pants.
• black skirt–I’m on the fence about if this is a flattering skirt or not. Also, I don’t think it looks very good with flats, but I don’t wear heels.
• Long black skirt, a-line. I keep reading that short people shouldn’t wear long skirts.
• Running shoes–I really need a new pair, but if buy any new ones, I will destroy my clothing budget.
• Black heels–I hate heels because they hurt my feet. Still, it’s good to have them on hand, and these are more comfortable than most.
• Old running shoes–I wear these for project work. It doesn’t matter if they get paint or sawdust on them
• black birkenstocks–I’ve been wearing these every other day in fall, winter and spring since 2004. I’m a bit tired of them, but buying new shoes would (as above) destroy my clothing budget.
• sliver heels–I actually really like these shoes a lot. They aren’t really the kind of shoes you can walk in though, so they aren’t practical. I tend to carry them to events where I wear them. Then I don’t walk too much.

Now my closet is much less cluttered and I have an entire empty drawer in my dresser. The next step will be making outfits and generating a list of what I need. I’m starting to suspect that this project will be longer than 40 days.

I’m a big fan of Here We Go Again. Despite the slightly awkward name, it is a very good consignment store. When I lived in SW I liked to go to the store on SW Carolina. Since the move to North Portland, I haven’t been, but they recently closed their Barbur Blvd. store and opened one on NE Broadway which is closer to me.

I’m on their mailing list, so I knew that they were having a sale that started on Valentine’s Day at the Carolina location. I got off work at 4:30 and had a class at 6:45, but I figured I could navigate public transportation and still have 40 minutes of shopping.

Alas, it was rush hour and the bus was running a bit late. I had about 30 minutes of shopping. The sales staff was wonderful as always. They are very nice and leave me alone, which is what I prefer, but I get the feeling they would love to help me if I wanted that. Every colored tag (about 80% of their merchandise) was 40% off and white tags were discounted too. Once again I concentrated on pants.

The selection wasn’t as good for me this time as it has been. There were a few size 12 and even fewer size 14 pants. Larger sizes must not be consigning there as much lately. It didn’t take me very long to try them on, but nothing fit. I grabbed a few dresses too, just for fun, but struck out there. I went through the jackets and there was a very nice leather jacket that I really wanted to fit, but alas it was a tiny bit too small.

I ended up with this bag. I’m pretty excited about it, because I’ve been carrying things in a backpack with a duct-taped strap. The backpack is a very roomy bag and when I was going to the gym could hold my food, my newspaper and all my gym stuff. However, since I haven’t been sleeping I haven’t been going to the gym and the duct-tape strap, even though I specifically bought black duct-tape to match the bag, makes me feel a bit shabby.
Backpacks are better for the back, but I think this bag won’t be too hard on my shoulder. It’s big enough to fit my lunch and thermos as well as my camera, wallet, and my letter writing kit. I also like the green lining. With my 40% off, it was $15.00.

Goodwill on 10th is what I call the “Fancy Goodwill.” They have better-quality clothes in a smaller setting for more money. I find this to be a good thing due to the Expanding Clothing Size Decreasing Quality Theory. That would be the theory, formulated by yours truly, that if you are size 10 and below, shopping in thrift stores is easy, or at least easier, because those are the clothing sizes that women either gain weight and grow out of, or buy in hopes of someday getting into. Or alternatively, women just are those sizes, and are happy about it so they take care with their wardrobe. Size 12 and up, however, it becomes more difficult to shop in thrift stores because women who are that size mostly spend time wishing they were a different size. So they don’t take as much care with their wardrobes and/or wear their clothing until it wears out. In those sizes, there is a bunch of crap at thrift stores. Any place that will winnow out the crappy clothing is a good place, even if it charges more money.

I stopped after church to see what they had in pants. I tried on 10 pairs and found………a pair of khakis just exactly like the ones I was wearing. But pants that fit are pants that fit and I bought them. $14.99.

After the pants shopping ordeal was over, I looked around for other things. They had a rack of coats on sale for $9.99 and I got this coat, marked down from $39.99. I’m really excited about this coat. Its an Ann Taylor rain jacket and it should serve me well this spring. Sorry about the blurry photo.
On the way home, I bought a full-length mirror, you can see it behind me. We didn’t have one in the house and they come in handy. The Ready to Wear book suggests to buy two and hang them in one corner of a room so you can see more than one side of you. I plan to do that, but the store had just one so I’m starting there.

In looking for a picture of Goodwill on 10th I found a post that explained that the clothing at Goodwill on 10th only comes from two stores. Although another article says that they come from a central processing facility. And yet another article says the best days to shop there are Monday and Tuesday. Given that this store is on my way to and from so many things, I may just stop in weekly.