Category: Fashion

Exercising My Free Will: Personalizing My Clothes

Since shopping secondhand is my preferred way to shop, many times I’ll find something that’s close, but not exactly what I was looking for. Or maybe the fit and fabric are fabulous, but the color looks terrible on me. Through thrifting, I’ve learned to look at an item for what it can be, rather than what it currently is.

So, let’s take a look at two items I’ve recently personalized:

My Tiered Skirt Glow Up

I bought this skirt off Poshmark recently because I loved the color, the shape and the swish factor. However, each of the three tiers was lined with accent beads. And to my eye, the beads just made the skirt look dated and cheap. I bought the skirt anyways, because I have free will… and a pair of scissors.

And I cut off Every. Single. Bead.

And yes, it felt like it took forever. But now it’s perfect and I love it so much!

Cardigan Color Switcharoo

This is going to be shocking… but I actually bought this cardigan RETAIL at a Loft Outlet on the way home from Ocean City last summer. I really liked the 100% cotton, chunky stitches and cute cropped length. I tried to convince myself that I would grow to love the color or that it was exactly what my closet was missing. But it just didn’t work for me. The light brown felt like boring sweater oatmeal and it just didn’t look good with my coloring or play well with other items in my closet.

So, I grabbed a bottle of Rit dark green dye, spent about 40 minutes swishing the cardigan around, and BOOM it’s exactly what I was hoping for. A beautiful shade of green that I will actually wear:

The moral of the story? You don’t have to accept something exactly as it’s sold. If a piece is almost perfect, it’s okay to make it yours. Remove the beads. Chop the sleeves. Change the color. You bought it and you get to decide what works for you!

My Style: October 2025

The air is crisp, the leaves are beautiful, and there is a hint of bonfire smell in the air! October is my favorite – which why we got married in October 17 years ago. This month, I went into the office once, celebrated Taylor Swift’s new album with my sisters, attended an engagement party that turned out to be a surprise wedding, and celebrated our wedding anniversary.

Let’s take a look at my October outfits:

Office Style

The return of this fantastic vintage skirt! This time, I paired it with a couple ancient Anthropologie pieces – a tank top that I bought retail more than 10 years ago and a fun, vintage looking embroidered cardigan I found on Poshmark in 2022. I also love the sweetness of my Mary Jane Rothy’s (bought on Poshmark) and think they are a great fall work shoe!

Celebrating Style

The dress was my choice for an outdoor engagement party that turned into a surprise wedding. I found this dress a few months ago at a consignment shop and love the color, the fit-and-flare of the waistline, and the milkmaid-ish bodice. I paired it with my thrifted vintage cowboy boots, since I knew we would be outside in the grass.

The cowboy boots made another appearance on our anniversary weekend. Travis and I decided to take a drive out to the Shenandoah Valley to have a delicious lunch and enjoy the changing leaves at Skyline Drive. So, I paired a fun tee with a sassy skirt (that used to be a dress before I chopped it in half).

Casual Style

The rest of my looks are different combos of jeans, v-neck tees and sweaters. I’ve been revisiting a few different pairs of jeans in my closet and added one new pair from Lucky Brand (the dark pair on the bottom right). I absolutely LOVE the new pair, so I may need to write a post just about them at some point.

New vs Secondhand Tally

This month, I count 9 items that I purchased retail and 15 items I purchased secondhand.

Closet Cleanout: Sales Update

Back in September, I walked you through an aggressive closet cleanout (you can read that post here). By the end of my purge, I had two big bags that went to the local thrift store and a huge pile of stuff to sell.

When it comes to clothing sales, I typically sell in three places: Poshmark, targeted Facebook groups, and a consignment store. For this pile, I used all three resources, so let’s take a closer look at what sold, where, and how much I earned.

Poshmark

I’ve been selling on Poshmark for years and it’s pretty easy to photograph and post each item for sale. So, that is usually going to be my first stop. For this pile of stuff, I slowly worked my way through it and ended up adding 47 items to my Poshmark closet.

I figured I’d list everything for about 2 weeks or so, to see what sold quickly. Then, I’d go through and remove items that I would take to the consignment store (marking them as ‘not for sale’ once I dropped them off).

Here is what I sold on Poshmark:

  • Anthropologie beaded belt – $15
  • Anthropologie corduroy dress – $31
  • Johnny Was blouse – $50
  • Anthropologie floral dress – $28
  • Vintage brown suede skirt – $40
  • Anthropologie leather belt – $16
  • Boden blouse – $15
  • Frye boots – $65
  • Eileen Fisher sandals – $25
  • Sezane blouse – $40
  • Birkenstock sandals – $38

My total of sales was $363 before Poshmark fees (20%).

After about a month on Poshmark, I deleted any item that had 0 likes and added it to a donation bag. One more full bag of items was dropped off at the thrift store.

If you’re new to Poshmark, you can use my special invite code to open an account and get $10 off your first order. Just use: POCKETFULOFJOUL And here is a direct link to my closet: https://poshmark.com/closet/pocketfulofjoul. Feel free to make an offer on something if you love it!

Focused Facebook Groups

Some ‘specialty’ items sell better in focused Facebook Groups. A benefit is that you don’t have to pay fees (I typically use PayPal). However, you DO have to pay for your own postage. In this pile of stuff, I had one purse that I sold on the Rough & Tumble Fans Facebook Group for $190.

Consignment Store

I have a consignment store that I adore, that is about an hour away from my house. About 2 weeks after I posted everything on Poshmark, I removed 16 of the items that were accepted by the consignment store. According to their portal, I have earned $140 so far through my sales. After 60 days, I’ll collect any unsold items from the consignment store, pick up my check, and decide whether to donate them to the thrift store or re-add them back to my Poshmark closet.

My Earnings

As of today, here is my total for closet cleanout sales:

  • Poshmark: $300
  • Targeted Facebook Group: $190
  • Consignment store: $140

Total: $630

I’m very happy to have done a full purge of my closet to get rid of a bunch of items I wasn’t wearing or loving anymore. It is nice to pass on things so that someone else can enjoy them AND I certainly don’t mind some extra money coming back to me!