Do you have favorite clothes? Like can you picture them or name them out loud right now? They're the item you reach for constantly because you love the color and fit and style of the thing.

That's what this pair of vintage shorts are to me. I got them as a gift from Brandon's mom last year. They didn't scream “Alex” at the time but I liked that they were vintage and that they looked like the shorts that were coming back in style so I took them. I gave them a few test drives last summer and liked them enough to include them as part of my loose capsule wardrobe this summer.

But something changed this summer. I don't know if it's because I didn't use a lot of my old denim shorts in this summer's capsule or if my style changed or what, but this year all I've wanted to wear are these shorts! I reach for them con-stant-ly. Seriously, if I could wear these to my day job, I would. I love them so much.

You know, I might never have worn these shorts ever, let alone as much as I have this summer, if I’d never gotten rid of my old favorites last year. I let myself experiment to see whether I really needed to hold onto them by simply putting them away, out of sight, for the summer. If I needed them, I would take them out of the storage bin in the closet and wear them. That little experiment translated into me rocking four (maybe five) pairs of shorts all summer instead of seven.

Surprisingly, I didn't miss the old shorts all that much. I mean, I won’t pretend that I didn't wish I had more of a selection at times, but I never wished for the shorts I was storing. I actually forgot I still had them!

Getting rid of your clothes can be scary and weirdly emotional so I highly recommend taking this approach if you want to get rid of something but can't seem to get yourself to actually take it out of your closet quite yet. I'll for sure be trying this with my jeans this autumn! I've always liked having at least seven jeans (FINE! More like ten) in my wardrobe so we’ll see if I can finally pare down my collection!