Twice in the last week, on occasions that couldn’t be more different, people expressed admiration for me being “so organized.” This doesn’t happen often, so I thought it might be useful to try to figure out what I’d gotten right.
The first occasion entailed some dress shopping. I’m of two minds when it comes to shopping for clothes: either I feel like it, or I don’t. Mostly, I don’t. My early years as a Shopping Optimist (this is fun! I’ll find something great!) have been replaced by a Shopping Pessimist, so that I’m sure anything I actually like will be in the wrong color or size and will go home, crabby and defeated.
Last week, I didn’t have the option to wait until I felt like going shopping. I’d been invited to an event that required the purchase of my first, real, bona fide cocktail dress; a day-to-evening shift wouldn’t do. After looking at styles at various places online, I stumbled upon something that sets Nordstrom’s site apart: you could sort by “store availability.” (Other sites have “store availability” buttons for any given item, but don’t have the pivotal “sort” function.) Thus hundreds of dresses were winnowed down to what I could actually see and try on--in my size and preferred color--at a local store. I made up a list of possibilities by style number and color which I handed to the sales associate. That’s when she said, “Wow! You’re so organized!” and I knew that even if I didn’t desperately need a dress, she would have made a sale. Nothing butters me up more than someone claiming I have organizational prowess.
For my new focus on equating organization with ease and simplicity, the style list passed the litmus test: it was fast to do and made things a lot easier in the store. Instead of wading through hundreds of dresses, I had a tight list of those that I’d seen on models, could guess at how they might fit on me, and were all my size. I was in and out in less than an hour, thus re-igniting my Shopping Optimist.
Left: and the winner is: style number 239393!