For the men and women who wear uniforms every day, I salute the ease with which you are able to dress for work. You have essentially created the most minimalist wardrobe possible, what with your two options that you wear every single day. Physical training in the morning and your uniform for the office or field makes your morning routine so much easier than most. For the rest of us, we're often stuck staring at a closet overstuffed with clothes that we might or might not even like, wondering what to wear.

One day about four years ago, I was standing in front of my closet, daydreaming about who knows what. It was the exact instance in which I realized I'd amassed a collection of clothing that neither represented what I wanted as my personal style nor was doing me much good sitting in a closet all the time. In the past, I'd tried to thin the herd of clothing but always ended up holding onto items because I either liked the pattern of the material, thought I might end up wearing it eventually, or had some memory associated with it, making it almost impossible to get it out of my closet.

This time, I vowed to do something different. This time, I vowed to be ruthless. Instead of taking out pieces that I thought I might bear to get rid of, I decided to take everything out. Dresses, blouses, trousers, skirts, those old sweaters I thought I'd eventually wear, scarves collected over the years, purses and yes, even shoes. Piled on my bed, the mound of clothing that I rarely wore was deplorable. I sighed, long and loud, and wondered how I'd let myself get to this point. The majority of the clothing wasn't even stuff I liked to wear and some of it, I couldn't recall wearing at all. There's a way to live with less. It's possible, but it takes some action and a lot of resolve.

The first to go and the easiest to tackle was anything that didn't fit. We all have those sections in our closets -- the hopefuls, as I like to call them. These are the items that don't fit just quite right, but that we're sure will fit one day if we just lose/gain a few pounds. It wasn't the easiest to take these out of the pile since I'm the type of person who likes to remain hopeful. But really, at this point in my life, I'm not going to either a) grow taller or b) grow shorter, so there's really no conceivable reason to keep those items.

As I continued to separate, I started making a list of everything that didn't need to be in my, or dare I say, anyone's closet. I thought about my friends and how their closets all look similar to my own. We all own too much. We keep too much. We have too much. Starting with just taking out what isn't really worn or needed is a great first step.

Next week we'll look at a list of helpful tips to clean out your closest and start a capsule wardrobe.