Down a size!

This is my exciting news for the week. My clothes are getting bigger on me, and I am able to fit in some clothes that are a size smaller than what I was wearing. My pant size was an 18 and I can still fit in some of my 18s, but they look so much better. I can fit into some 16s now, but they are mostly jeans. I'm still an 18 for the most part in dress pants. They are getting bigger, but many of my size 16 dress pants are still too tight to be comfortable. As for tops, many 1x are getting too big, and I'm down to xl or l depending on the brand, cut, etc.

I have what I call a "motivation closet." It is the closet in my spare bedroom, and it is filled with clothes the next size down. I also have some clothes that are closer to my goal size, so I can be reminded of where I am going. Most of them are new, because I used almost all of my gift cards from my birthday and Christmas on clothes that I would like to fit in. Nothing too trendy, so it won't matter how long it takes me (things like dark wash jeans, black dress pants, a V-neck sweater, and of course a Beatles T-shirt).

This is after I went through and took out everything that fit again.

I have all my shirts, tanks, hoodies, and sweaters up here. It was packed to the ceiling, but now you can see there is space. Also, I didn't even try on any hoodies or sweaters since I don't need them now (meaning that some of them probably fit and should be taken out of there to create even more space).

Both of these shelves were crammed full of pants, but now there are some dresses, dress pants, and two pairs of jeans left.

Basically, I've been having fun shopping in my closet and trying everything on. My old clothes to get rid of the things that are too big and my "motivation closet" for new, smaller clothes. Did I mention that I have a lot of clothes and am addicted to sales/clearance racks? I like to call myself the clearance rack diva.

Keep in mind in these pictures that I am wearing the same black sandals, because I'm in the basement bathroom (the only finished floor in the basement), not as a fashion statement. I'm also only wearing a basic bra and regular old cotton Hanes panties, so the outfits will look a little better when I wear them to work with the right shape wear.

A K-mart clearance dress I got last fall and now it finally looks good on me.

A Kohl's shirt I got on clearance last fall with a gift card and my trusty old JCP Worthington dress pants in black. My little friend in the picture is Lilly, one of my three doxies.

A clearance shirt from Gordman's and the same black pants.

A clearance shirt and pants from Fashion Bug (where my shirt size is only large).

I also bought a new dress for work yesterday with my $10 card I got in the mail from Kohl's. I usually try to find something as close to $10 as I can, but this time I spent $10 for the dress off a clearance rack. It just fit too nice to put it back for a shirt that I could have gotten for under $3.

My new Kohl's dress.

I will do a part two with some casual outfits soon. Also, I will clean the mirror for next time, because I am embarrassed at how dirty the mirror looks in these photos.