Ever notice how that outfit from your subscription box always stays exactly the same outfit? Or those pieces you bought together somehow feel permanently married in your mind. It's like your brain puts them in a little box labeled "these go together" and rarely considers other possibilities.

After working with hundreds of women with closet organization and wardrobe styling, I see this pattern everywhere.

• The guilt-keeping of expensive pieces that don’t fit or feel right

• The stress-purging followed by panic-buying (usually the same styles on sale)

• The daily self-talk that says “not yet” to feeling good in our clothes

Shopping mindlessly brings about another level of guilt and shame that stares us in the face every morning as we dig through it all trying to get dressed. But here's the truth – going cold turkey with a "No Buy 2025" pledge is like swearing off sugar after a December binge or signing up for intensive boot camp when you haven't exercised in months. Sure, you might succeed briefly, but is it sustainable?

Here’s the thing… I get it. Those perfectly styled before-and-after photos are an illusion of what could be. And buying pretty containers is WAY easier than doing the actual work of understanding your stuff.

But what if I told you that for about the same investment as your annual ‘new year, new bins’ shopping spree, you could actually break this cycle forever?

I’m exhausted by the hype already! But I know I need to do these things to make good decisions.

We used to have a joke that my husband couldn't go into the Whole Foods alone because he would come home with $47 worth of random cheese.😲 There was a very thin line between need and want when it came to a WF grocery excursion.

“If my closet was clean/organized, I'd be happy getting dressed", otherwise known as “Clean closet-Happy me”. Most of us don't have this kind of closet and let's face it, if we did we'd probably fill it up and still not be able to find what we needed.