Let’s Look at: How I Clean my Closet *Blog Linkup* (Blog Post #11 of 365)

I used to be such a shopping fanatic. I would buy anything I liked, the cheaper the better, not caring for quality or purpose. Although I still love shopping, I no longer buy things just for fun. My purchases are usually planned and quality is now a factor when deciding to buy something. For the same reason, I don’t own as many clothes as I used to. I make sure to clean my closet often.

Here’s how I keep my closet clean and organized:

1. If I’m not wearing it, it’s not in sight. I used to keep all my clothes together in one place which now makes zero sense for me. Why would I keep my winter coats in my closet with my summer dresses? Nowadays, I only want to look at what fits, what’s in season, what’s on my rotation. Summer clothes get put away in winter, winter coats are stored in our garage closet as are special occasion dresses. My jeans and blouses got put away for the duration of my pregnancies as they did not fit so I wouldn’t be wearing them. My maternity clothes are already gone and out of my sight a month after giving birth.

2. If I haven’t worn it in while, it gets sold, passed onto someone else or donated. I don’t keep things on the possibility of wearing them again someday. If it’s been months or a year of not wearing something, I’ll get rid of it.

3. I don’t attach feelings to clothes. Yes, I might have worn that beautiful dress to my friend’s wedding but I won’t keep it if it no longer fits just because of its sentimental value. I have both the memories and the pictures and that’s all I need. The only exception is my wedding dress, which I intend on keeping forever.

4. If it doesn’t fit, it’s out. I’ve been all over the weight scale so I’ve owned clothes in all sizes. I don’t keep something in a certain size hoping I’ll lose weight and fit into it again someday. If I end up losing weight, I’ll buy smaller clothes then.

5. I don’t keep something if it’s damaged. If a piece of clothing gets a stain I can’t remove after a couple of tries, I throw it out. If it’s ripped or broken, I either have it fixed or get rid of it.

6. I don’t buy it if I’m not 100% sure I’ll wear it. Being cute is not enough to justify making a purchase. Even if I absolutely love a piece, I won’t spend my money if I know I won’t reach for it when looking for something to wear. I’ve gotten to a point where I don’t buy something if I know I’ll have to iron it or hand wash it.

7. I don’t wait to clean out my closet. If I happen to open it and notice something that doesn’t fit the above criteria, I immediately toss it out.

8. I fit the amounts of clothes I own to the available space and not the other way around. If the available space is too full, I don’t need more storage, I need fewer clothes.

This is how I make sure my closet is clean, organized and functional. I’ll never be a minimalist or have a capsule wardrobe but I like to keep things tidy and easy when it comes to choosing an outfit.

Since becoming a mom, I’ve adopted the “less is more” approach, especially when it comes to stuff. I don’t need to make life harder by having clutter all around me so I’ve became pretty comfortable with letting things go.

What about you? Are you more of a minimalist or a fashion hoarder? Would love to hear your thoughts on this topic.

See you tomorrow.

Love,

Cheila

*Linking up with Mix and Match Mama and A Little Bit of Everything Blog

Oscars 2018 – Red Carpet: My Top 10 Gowns (In No Particular Order)

Here’s my top 10 favorites from last night:

Do we share any favorites?

xx

Weekly + weekend + February update

Good afternoon 😃

Happy hump day!

(I just hate this expression. It sounds like something naughty. It’s like Spanish. It’s a beautiful, sexy language, so when I hear someone speak Spanish I immediately think about adult activities. It’s me, right? I’m troubled. I know.)

Enough of my dirty, crazy mind.

I haven’t posted since Friday and I totally owe you an update on my weekend, my to-do list, this half week and February in general. Here we go. I’ll start by telling you what I was up to last weekend.

Saturday – 24.02

I went to bed pretty late on Friday. We had dinner with friends and it was really nice. We had a lot of fun as usual and spent a long time throwing boy name suggestions at my pregnant friend. They have a name picked out for a girl but no name for a boy so we had fun sharing and hating each other’s ideas. By the way, they have just announced publicly so I can disclose more. One of my besties Patrícia is 13 weeks pregnant. She’s the first one to get pregnant in our group of friends and we’re just so excited. We keep referring to the baby as she but they have no idea if it’s boy or girl, which is really funny. Here’s the little cutie:

We’ve been friends for a very long time and are very, very close so our kids will be calling us auntie. I’m so happy and excited. You know how much I love a pregnant lady and how obsessed I am with babies. Congratulations mama! I love you and I love your baby already. ❤️

Anyway, I’m talking about Saturday, not Friday. But I do have a point. Because of dinner I went to bed late which means I took my pills pretty late and that plus being very tired resulted in me waking up at almost 3 p.m the next day. Oh yeah. We wanted to go out but I wasn’t feeling well (side effects from no longer taking some of my medication, which I don’t mind at all) so we decided we would only go out to buy dinner. We went to Aldi but there was nothing we wanted and it was almost closing so the security guard was giving us dirty looks. Feeling pressured, we decided to try a different store. I was about to pass out because of said side effects and hunger so I just picked my usual carbonara pizza. Rui picked something else. We tried a new drink and a new dessert (a new weekend challenge) and we weren’t impressed by either. Remember, when I say “drink” I mean “non-alcoholic beverage”. I don’t drink AND I take medication. We wanted to watch a movie but I was too sleepy, so we just went to bed.

Sunday: 25.02

We woke up earlier on Sunday and decided we definitely had to go out and get a few things. Rui needed new running gear (my man runs 12 km, 3 times a week, I’m so proud of him!), I needed some new underwear and socks and we definitely needed some groceries. My mom happened to call while we were having a very late breakfast. We bugged her so much to come with us that she eventually accepted her defeat and said she would come, after endlessly complains about “why am I going shopping with you? It’s boring enough to do my own grocery shopping.” I think it might have been the promise of ice cream. We picked her up an hour later and off we went. We do have lots of fun together, the three of us. I was too lazy to wash my hair so I wore a hat.

It was not cold at all and my mother said I looked very silly with mah beanie. She said I had tricked her because I mentioned I was going to take a shower when I hung up the phone earlier. I told her I hadn’t lied at all. I did, in fact, take a shower. I never said anything about washing my hair.

First, we went to this huge sports store where Rui got new running shoes, socks, shorts and a t-shirt. I got a new swimsuit and mom got bored. We stopped by H&M to see if they had the panties I like but they didn’t so I had to buy this jeans:

I mean, they’re pink and 9,99€. I had to have them. Does anyone like colored jeans? Not even this really nice pastel pink? Okay. Well, they do match about 50% of my closet, so.

Mom was way too bored at this point so we finally took her to McDonald’s. We chatted for a while and then we took poor Isabel home. My favorite grocery store is near my moms house and so I convinced Rui we HAD to shop there instead of going to a supermarket close to home. I found a few nice, cheap packs of panties (yes, I do buy my everyday panties in boring packs) and got about 10 pairs for 10€. I got a few pairs of socks too. We got 2 cute mugs but I forgot to take a picture of Rui’s. This is mine:

It says free but I totally had to pay for it. I promised I didn’t tell that stupid joke to the cashier. But only because I forgot. We got many things for a cheap price. That’s why I love this store so much – great variety and awesome prices. I thought I would take a picture of my shopping cart. Not that you can actually see much.

And then I got home and decided to take pictures of my kitchen shelves:

Two of them, anyway. I promise I have more food. Here’s our breakfast/coffee station:

And really bad picture of a lovely sign:

We made a big pot of rice and veggies for dinner, with some fish fingers. Easy and I could eat it every single day. Then, bed.

Monday: 26.02

I didn’t sleep well so I woke up late on Monday and didn’t do anything of what I intended to do. I worked from 5-7, got home and deep cleaned/de-cluttered the bathroom, while I made dinner. We had leftover rice with sautéed black beans, onions, peppers, green beans, sweet corn, mushrooms, olives and cherry tomatoes. It was yummy and healthy and no-meat which is always a win in my house.

Tuesday: 27.02

Again, I slept nothing.

I woke up way too late and had to take a taxi to work. It was raining so the kids were literally wet and wild. There were so many of them and they were crazy. It was a madhouse and there was nowhere to sit for 3 hours. I forgot we had this dinner with friends and to tell Rui I was off at 8 and not 7. But we made it to dinner on time. We met with his friends at this nice little restaurant and had a great time and a lovely meal. We got home late and I decided “Fuck no, I’m not going to wake up late again” so I didn’t take my sleeping pills. I didn’t sleep at all, obviously, so I spent all night listening to podcasts.

Wednesday – Today: 28.02

I got up at 7 a.m for coffee and breakfast and got ready to go to the pool for some hydro gymnastics class. While having coffee, I realized my pink and white pajamas kind of matched my pink and white mug:

Such is life. I might have issues. Either that or I own too much pink. So yeah, that’s it. I’m currently writing this post before work. It will be pretty crazy again. So excited.

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About my weekend to-do list:

• Deep clean/organized the bathroom; – Done on Monday!
• Deep clean one of our bedroom walls that is getting moldy (there’s this perfect detergent that cleans any trace of mold or humidity marks without any damage to the surface); – Done on Sunday.
• Deep clean/purge our kitchen;
• Laundry, always; – Some, obviously.
• Make a dental appointment; – I did, but then I had to miss it for work.
• Schedule a vet appointment;
• Force Rui to schedule an eye doctor appointment;
• Meal plan and prep for next week; – I have the plan on my head. It counts for something.
• Charge my power bank;
• Work on my freelance project;
• Clean living room;
• Clean bedroom; – Hoping to do this today. I hate cleaning during the week but it really needs to be cleaned and organized.
• Change bed sheets;
• Get two gym bags ready in advance;
• Get my clothes ready for the week;
• Do a little grocery shopping; – Done.
• Do some gardening;
• Watch a movie or two;
• Try making homemade granola/cereal bars;
• Get my eyebrows done;
• Write a few letters;
• Sell a few things online;
• Get something for my dry ends; – Done on Sunday.

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About February:

• Finish my big freelance work project and get maybe one more. Extra income is always welcome.
• Go to the pool 5 times a week. I’m really enjoying it. – No. I’ve been going twice or 3 times, which is weird for someone who has never actually done any regular exercise. I would really love to go every weekday. I love it, I sleep better, my back doesn’t hurt, my day runs smoothly, I’m in a better mood, etc. So many benefits.
• Keep on leaving my nails alone (not biting them) – Done!!!
• Keep on drinking 1.5 l of water every day. – Yes!!
• Blog every single day. – I don’t think so. But I’ve definitely got my groove on. I had lost in somewhere in August and am now getting back to my normal rhythm. 
• Read 3 books. – No, but I’ve been listening to so many podcasts. That counts for something? No?
• Read as many blog posts as I can every day. – Yes. I’ve been better at this.
• See/talk to family and friends as much as possible. – Yes, yes, yes!!
• Keep my de-cluttering/rearranging/reorganizing process. – Going!
• Remember my year 26 challenges. – Yes!

Well, I must confess I did/am doing better than I thought. Not such a bad month after all.

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Random photo dump:

See you, guys!!

My Dress Collection + Skirts: Part II

This dress/tunic is the exact same model as the floral one from my first dress collection post. They’re the same number, PT 42, UK 14, USA 12 (Large) but this one runs so much smaller. It seems to be a size down. They’re the exact same collection, fabric, and model, just different patterns (there were more). You would expect them to be the exact same size. Nope, this one is smaller by one or even two sizes. I bought both at H&M in March 2016 for 14,99€, plus 25% discount.

This skirt is from C&A. Do you know this brand? We have a few stores here in Portugal. I fell in love with the color and the lace on this skirt. I had bought one in dark blue (M) and loved it so much that I went back for this one. They only had S or XL. I obviously bought XL an it was too big on me for a long time. Now it does fit. I have no idea where the dark blue one is, I think I lent it to someone. It was about 9,99€ or 14,99€, I can’t remember, 4 years ago.

I’ve had this dress for about 5 years, maybe more. I bought it at Primark for about 3 or 5€. It was supposed to be a beach dress but I wear it to go other places in the Summer. It’s an L. It used to be too big on me. Not anymore.

This is a long, black, lace dress that I bought as an option for a wedding but decided not to wear it. It was 5£ at https://www.everything5pounds.com/. It’s really good quality, true to size and beautiful.

This is a maxi skirt my mom bought me at a local store. I can’t remember the price. I think it was about 3 years ago, maybe more. There’s no size in it but I assume M.

This skirt has a funny story. I decided that my group of friends (boyfriends and all) would take a family picture for Christmas (we do consider ourselves family). I picked the colors, red, grey and dark blue. It was fine, everyone had something in those colors. I really wanted a red skirt but couldn’t find it anywhere. I went to C&A and asked the lady if they had any red skirts. She said no. I asked if she could go and take another look and she did. She came up with nothing. As I was leaving the store, I saw this nice red skirt (L) for 5€ in the discount rack. It was the last one and my size. Lucky me. We ended up taking 0 photos because I was feeling really bad about myself and just couldn’t. I was going to wear red skirt, white blouse, black tights and black shoes. Rui was going to wear white shirt, grey pants, dark blue pullover.

I’ve told you about this skirt but I’ll tell you again. It was a dress I bought it for my sister from the children’s department at Primark when she was about 15. I thought she would find it a fun Summer dress but she thought it was too childish. I asked my ex-boyfriend’s mom to make it into a skirt for me.

I love this maxi skirt. The color is just gorgeous. It’s an XL so it is a bit too big for me, there’s too much fabric. But it makes her more flowy which I don’t mind. I fell in love with in as soon as I saw it at local store, last Summer and bought it for 15€, giver or take. I love to wear it with a simple white top or even a black one.

Sorry about the wrinkles, guys. This is a very simple dress I bought at H&M a few Summers ago, maybe 3 years ago. It was 5€ on sale and I love the color and how comfortable and relaxed it is.

And that’s it. I’ve shown you my whole collection of dresses and skirts. Literally all of the skirts and dresses I own.

Do you have a favorite?

Do you know everything5pounds?

Talk to me.

xx

My Dress Collection – Part I

I was halfway through the post and everything got deleted and was not in my drafts. Don’t you get murderous thoughts when that happen? Or does it only happen to me? It’s quite possible.

A few days ago, I did a post on My Shoe Collection inspired by Angela’s post. I said I might do a similar post showing my dress collection and everyone seemed to be interested. Angela got on board, which made me really happy and Here’s her post – Favorite Dresses.

I feel really happy and blessed to have met Angela. We always share ideas and inspire and support each other. We are very different in some things (especially movies and series preferences) but we are similar in others. She’s one of my favorite bloggers to read and I consider her a true friend.

Now, before this gets too cheesy, lets walk into my wardrobe.

I was wearing this dress on my last video. I love that fact that it is A-line, which makes it quite flattering and forgiving. I love the pattern and the three-quarter sleeves, making it wearable, all year round. In winter I just throw a cardigan on top of it, a coat and thick black tights. It’s a size PT 44, US 14 and UK 10. I paid 8€ for it, on sale, at Primark, last October.

I really like the color on this one but I don’t wear it much because the lace sides show my love handles. I bought it at H&M for 7€ or 5€, I can’t remember, plus staff discount. I think it is about 3 years old. Oh, and it’s a PT size L, US 12 and UK size 16.

This one can be worn as a dress or as a tunic. I’ve never worn it as a dress because it’s short and it wouldn’t look good on me, due to my current size. But it’s fine with thick black leggings underneath. I bought at H&M, over a year ago and it cost 14,99€, plus staff discount. I don’t think it’s true to size. It’s from the teenagers brand at H&M and it’s marked as a PT size 44, US 10 and UK 14. I would said that it is closer or even smaller than a PT size 42, US 8 and UK 12. I just adore the pattern and it matches many of my clothes and accessories.

A few years ago, I worked at an art gallery as an executive assistant. There was going to be an opening and my boss said she would like to pay for the dress. I told her it wasn’t necessary and that I would happily pay for it. She insisted and I accepted. She said the only conditions were: black, discreet and chic. She told me not to mind the price. I went to H&M on my day off and my coworkers helped me pick this dress. My bossed loved it and, on the day of the opening, said I looked very elegant. Oh, I forgot to show you but it has an open back, which is really cool. I paid, I mean she paid, 40€ plus staff discount, so 30€ for it. I haven’t worn it since because it doesn’t fit at all, because it’s not a stretchy material. It’s a PT size 42, US 10 and UK 14. It was a little too big for me at the time.

Here’s me wearing it at the opening:

I obviously cut my colleague (the body-guard) for privacy reasons. I was a red at the time and I was wearing my “I love H&M” bracelet which I wore every day. Thinking back, it might have been disrespectful.

This is quite short but I could pull it off three years ago. I love the lace and the color and I was surprised because, although it’s strapless it could perfectly hold my cup D. Amazing. I bought it at https://www.everything5pounds.com/ for, you know, 5£ and was really surprised because it was true to size, good quality fabric and arrived in 3 days, from the UK. I wore it to a wedding in August 2014. It’s a size M or US 6/8 or UK 10/12.

This one I bought at a cheap, local store for about 15 or 20€. It looks much nicer than what the picture shoes, actually. I wore it for a family wedding at 2008. It’s still in perfect condition.

I bought this one along the coral (or peach?) lace on at the same online store. It also cost 5£. It’s really great quality and also a size M. I’ve never worn it. It doesn’t fit now but it’s so nice I’m not and classy that I won’t throw it away. If in 2 years it doesn’t fit, it goes. I bought it for the same wedding (I bought 3 to choose) but ended up going with the other. It’s another little black dress.

You have no idea how much shit I get over this dress. I love it. No one else does. They make fun of me and say I look like one of those haunted little girls from horror movies in a nightgown. 😦 I love it and as Charlotte from Sex and the City yelled once “I CHOOSE MY CHOICE, I CHOOSE MY CHOICE!!!) It’s more burgundy than it looks in the picture and it cost about 7 or 8€ at Primark, last October. It’s a PT 42, US 10 and UK 14.

I absolutely love this dress. I first saw it on H&M for something like 29,99€ or 24,99€. You know I wouldn’t pay that price for a dress, unless it were for a special occasion. A month or so later I saw it on sale for 15€, plus staff discount (25%) I paid 11,25€ for it. I’ve worn it a few times, and I’ve worn it for my 24th birthday party, almost 2 years ago. It’s currently too tight. It’s a size M.

I love this dress but have never worn it. Too short, I think. I bought it at Primark for about 5€ and it’s still waiting to be worn. It’s a PT size 40, US 10 and UK 14.

Another favorite. Bought from Primark for about 20€ in 2011. I’ve worn it in 2 weddings, one in 2011 and another in 2015. It’s still impeccable. It’s a PT size 40, US 8 and UK 12. Funny thing, it has fit me through different weights and sizes. It still fits right now but doesn’t zip up.

This one is a tight, bodycon dress. It looks really sexy when I was thinner. Once I wore it to work at H&M, with thick tights and boots. Someone called my attention (one of my colleagues) and said I was too fat to be wearing that. I was about 15 kg lighter than I am now. That one hurt and I’ve never worn it again. I bought it at Primark for about 4 or 5€. It’s a PT size 40, US 8 and UK 12.

This one was a gift from Rui. I love the color, the texture and the fact that it reminds me of the 50’s. I’ve never worn it, though. It’s Primark and a size 40 (PT), 10 (US) and 12 (UK). It’s from either 2013 or 2014.

I have more, but two were in the washing pile and there were others I couldn’t take a picture of. So there will be a part too.

Which one if your favorite?

Don’t forget to look at Angela’s post.

xx

Chey

Oh and I’m obviously sorry for the shitty photo quality. My phone is shit and apparently my camera is shit as well. Either that or I can’t work either device.

Thank you ❤