Church Chronicles: Ep 6: Holy Chic: Mastering Church Wardrobe Organization and Care

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Hello and welcome to Diary of a Black Woman podcast. I'm your host Connie Morris

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and today we're continuing our series on Holy Chic, the ultimate church attire handbook.

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This episode we're going to focus on how to maintain and organize our church wardrobe.

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It is important to organize it and also to ensure proper maintenance for longevity and readiness.

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So let's get started. How do we store and organize our church attire?

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Now, we wear our church attire maybe like maybe a Sunday, special occasion Sunday.

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So I don't know how your closet is organized. You might have your Sunday stuff.

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Then you have your workday stuff.

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And your workday stuff, usually you can wear your workday stuff like on your

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Wednesdays or Thursday Bible study.

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So that pretty much those intermingle. But your church stuff and your special

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occasion stuff is usually pretty much in the same section of your wardrobe.

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And so let's just kind of go over tips on how to keep your clothes fresh and ready to wear.

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I hope you're enjoying this series because as I go over this,

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I'm like, this is some good information.

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This is really good information. Some things that I learned through my years

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of being part of ministry and also now just I'm doing usher stuff.

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So I got my blazers and pants for usher in a different closet than my church

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attire stuff, which I don't get to wear that much because I'm ushering a lot.

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But let's just go over how to keep our church attire nice and fresh.

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So number one, using garment bags for delicate items like dresses and suits

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to protect them from dust and damage.

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Hanging organizers can help keep accessories like scarves and ties in good conditions.

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So if you have a lot of scarves and ties.

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If you have special dresses, especially those white or any of those spring dresses

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that we wear, and you're moving your clothes around a lot, it's always good

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to keep those dresses in a garment bag.

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And usually you want to find a place a little off to the side where you keep your special.

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I keep my furs in this original, like in those garment bags,

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so I'm not touching them, getting my oily hands on them.

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But also my special dresses that I don't want to always touch when I need to

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move them, even though I don't move them a lot.

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So you want to put your special dresses and any special scarves,

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hang them out of the way so you're not constantly touching them.

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And so you can keep them in good conditions. You also want to keep your wardrobe organized by season.

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And so right now it is, we're in November, December, and so it's winter season.

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So you want to rotate your clothes based on the weather.

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Some people have summer all day and all the time, but it can be a chance where

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you get to rotate your clothes.

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A chance too, where you can go shopping in your closet.

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A lot of times that we don't rotate our clothing, we don't really know what

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we have in our closet, ladies.

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We have so many items in our closet, we can actually, instead of running out

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shopping, we can actually rotate our wardrobe and have a whole new wardrobe going on.

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And so you want to be able to rotate your clothes based on the weather,

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storing out-of-season items in a cool, dry place.

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And this prevents overcrowding and make it easier to find what you need.

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And also the opportunity to shop in your closet, to try on items that you haven't

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seen in a while, to give away some items to charity, to take some things even to consignment.

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And so if you pick a season, you might have a spring, winter,

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summer. Where I live, we have all seasons.

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So if you only have two seasons that's cold and hot, then you pick the season

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and you just try on the clothes.

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And pretty much, I haven't worn this in a while. I think I'm aware of this this season.

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It's an opportunity to go through your wardrobe and to rotate it,

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to see what you want to wear, what you don't want to wear.

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Gifts weigh some things, see what fits. That's a good opportunity to organize your closet.

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I do that probably, I think once, it depends on when I rotate.

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Sometimes women, it takes, we'll start rotating it and then you end up with

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a lot of things on the floor and you're giving stuff away. So sometimes I'm rotating it.

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It won't be a quick thing to do.

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And so kind of plan ahead for that because like me, I go up,

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done with that. I haven't wore that in a while.

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Things you haven't wore in about six months to a year.

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Try that. Try on that dress. Try on that blouse. You know, look at that scarf.

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Why haven't you wore it in a year? Try on those shoes.

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Try on those boots. Just see why you haven't put that outfit on in a year.

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If there's a reason for it, then put it in the pile and find a way to give it

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away, to give it to charity.

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Cleaning and caring for delicate fabrics.

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How to properly care for delicate fabrics and materials to make them last.

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Make them last. I don't know why my tongue has got lips like I can't say certain words, but I'm fine.

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Always read the care labels on your clothing.

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For delicate fabrics like silk, wool, and lace, consider hand washing or using

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gentle cycle on your washing machine.

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So sometimes it will tell you to dry clean only, but then you flip over that tag.

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It can say gentle cycle only, cold water.

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If you heard a wood light or any

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gentle detergent that you can wash it and then you can let it hang dry.

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It's just like dry cleaning almost. Especially real silk, you can do that.

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That you got silk with something else in it, it might require dry cleaning if you don't like irony.

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Because sometimes you'll watch something that says, if you don't read the label,

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it'll wrinkle up and it'll never be the same. I think wool is the same way.

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Use appropriate detergent for different types of fabric.

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For instance, use a wool detergent for woolen and a silk detergent for silk garments.

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Avoid using too much detergent as this can damage delicate fibers.

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So make sure you read the labels on your blouses, your clothing,

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and also make sure you read the labels on the detergent you use.

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If you wear glasses, go to the go spend that time.

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Like sometimes when you're at

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the grocery store, we're always in a rush throwing things in our basket.

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But that could be a special day where you say, I'm going to clean out my closet

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and I'm going to wash some things I haven't washed in a while.

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Go to the grocery store where you buy your detergent and look on the back of

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those containers and see what you need and just be ready to do the closet cleaning

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thing and also do the washing.

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And also find a place, one of those temporary hanging things that you can hang

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in your dryer or around the house so they can dry.

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So updating your wardrobe with seasonal trends.

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Staying current without breaking the bank.

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So how to refresh your wardrobe seasonally.

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And you do that, you don't need to buy a whole new wardrobe every season.

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Instead, focus on updating a few key items.

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For example, a new scarf or a belt and refresh an outfit.

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New nylons can refresh an outfit. New shoes can refresh an outfit.

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New earrings can refresh an outfit.

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I even think when people update their glasses, they refresh their outfit.

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You can even refresh your hairstyle and that gives you a new look.

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You can have the same dress on, but you didn't change your hair and your glasses

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and you've got a whole new look.

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So stay mindful of current trends, but choose pieces that align with your personal

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style and dress code of the church.

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This ensure that your wardrobe remains both fashionable and appropriate and that powerful.

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So when you cleaning out your closet, organizing your closet,

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it is an event, ladies. We know that we know it is event.

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And I remember, yeah, I clean out my closet and I remember bags and bags of

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stuff that I'll give away.

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And I'll know where I want to give it away to, to who is going to be the most

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benefit. You know, this is a funny joke.

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I had a coat rack in my downstairs closet and it fell and I had it filled with coats.

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Well, I love coats, but how many coats can you wear in a day?

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You only can't wear that many coats. And so I went through my coats and I hung

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them up in the garage for a moment.

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Remember, sometimes you're forced to organize your closet because the coat rack fell.

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So you got to figure out which coats am I going to keep? And so I went through

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my coat racks. I tried on, I mean, I had them.

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I moved from Michigan to Nebraska, still the same weather.

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And so I'm like trying on coats. I'm like, oh, I had trench coats.

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I had all kinds of coats and I realized that it was, it's a good time to give away some coats.

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Why, why, why give coats away in the summer? No one's buying coats in the summer,

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but these are still good coats.

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So I tried on the ones and say, uh, nope, nope, nope, nope.

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Started a pile and some coats I had for years, but are still good coats.

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Why? Because I take good care of my stuff.

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And I had like two bags of coats.

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They're two bags because coats are big and fixed my closet rack in my closet

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and kept the coats that I would truly wear.

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Some of the coats that I gave away still had tags on them.

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Because I like coats that much. And so that one incident became a coat cleaning,

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organization, closet time.

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Come on now, because I was collecting too many coats.

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I think God has a way of saying, hey, hey, over here, you got too many coats.

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It's a good time to give away stuff.

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And while I did that, I got rid of some boots in my closet.

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I like boots too. Boots, coats, and books are my thing.

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I got rid of a lot of books the other day. Most of those books were dated and

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I threw those in the garbage because some of the pastors have kind of flopped on me.

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So got rid of those books. Maybe that's a good thing.

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Get rid of some books that you've been holding on to.

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Books, boots, and coat.

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All right, let's keep going. I'm going to give you some scriptures and we're

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going to close this one out.

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First Corinthians 10 31. So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do,

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do it all for the glory of God.

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So I don't give away junk for one. So if I look at the coat and it's junk,

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I throw it in a garbage can.

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Anything that's wearable, I give it away to charity.

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I really don't give a lot of stuff away to consignment because I bought it from consignment.

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So I'm not going to give it back to them because they always say they wanted

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to three to five years old.

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So the stuff is still good, but I'll give it away to who would need it the most.

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And it's a good season to give away coats.

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And so whatever you eat or drink, whatever you do, do it for the glory of God.

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So if I'm not going to wear it, I'm going to give it away to someone who will

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wear it, but I'm not going to give away junk. Give me a second while I take a drink of water.

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All righty. I decree that everything I do will be for the glory of God.

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I decree that my actions, words, and choices will reflect God's glory.

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I decree that I will honor God in all aspects of my life, including how I dress and present myself.

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I decree that my lifestyle will be a living testimony of God's grace and love.

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And so even the little things we do honor God, whether someone's watching or

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not, you know, we're cleaning out our closet and we're honoring him by keeping

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the stuff that he blessed us with organized and clean.

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That's an honor to God. And that makes room for more, right?

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Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to

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your own understanding. and all your ways submit to him and he will make your path straight.

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I like that because it just came to me now is that a lot of times we don't trust

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that God will give us anything else.

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So we become what you call hoarders. We hoard onto things.

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I mean, I had probably about, I don't know, 50 or 60 coats. How many coats do a girl need? Honestly.

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And I could hoard onto that thinking that one day I want to need one of these

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coats, one of these coats, right?

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And so a hoarder is a person who can't let nothing go because you are so afraid

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that nothing's going to come back.

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That little rack held on to all those coats. And I thank you, Lord, for doing that.

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But when it was time to give some stuff away, that rack gave in.

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And I looked at that rack and I was like, okay.

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And to me, different things happen for different reasons, right?

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And so if the coat rack dropped to the ground, that means it was too many coats on the rack.

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Okay. So I'm thinking like, what coats, Lord, do you want me to give away?

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And so I just kind of went through the coat rack. Like this one,

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Lord, this one, this one, this one, this one, this one, boom, boom, boom.

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And then what you have to do is you got to do it right away.

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If you hold on thinking, I'm going to do it tomorrow, guess what?

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You're going to go back through that bag because everything you have in your

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mind is good stuff, right?

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But you want to trust in the Lord according to Proverbs 3, 5,

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and 6 with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding because it

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fell for a reason. So now you need to figure out, Lord, the reason is what?

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Give some of this stuff away. Check. I got you. And so you begin to do it.

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I put it in my car on my way to work. I did a drop.

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Did I look back like lost wife? No, I did not.

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I just drove off and said, Lord, I'm good. I'm going to give away.

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And I love with joy because I just love when I see somebody in your stuff and

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they're wearing it with joy because they're like, I found this at the consignment.

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How happy are you when you find something at the consignment or at the mall,

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wherever you shop? You're happy.

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I'm happy. I'm going to consignment shopping today because I'm just all stirred

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up because I'm talking about this wardrobe.

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Let's see what the, I can't talk. I can't talk.

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We're going to talk to these decrees because we're trusting in God.

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So if you are a hoarder and you too afraid to give stuff away,

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then there's nothing else going to come in. You're just going to keep hoarding stuff.

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So trust in the Lord and clean out your closet and give some stuff away that

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you know you need to give away.

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And then God will bless you with more. Amen. So let's do this.

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I decree that I will trust in the Lord with my heart. I decree I will trust

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in the Lord with my heart.

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I decree that I will not rely on my own understanding, but I will seek God's guidance.

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And sometimes his guidance comes by a broken something.

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If your closet is all cluttered, you can't find head from tail, maybe that's a sign.

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I decree that I will submit all my ways to the Lord, trusting him to direct

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my path. And number four, I decree that my life will reflect the steadfast trust

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in God's wisdom and his plan.

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The key takeaways will be proper storage and organization to keep your wardrobe in shape.

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I'm going to add this other one. If you feel like you're a hoarder,

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you might be a hoarder. So check yourself.

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Caring for delicate fabric ensures they last longer.

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And then updating your seasonal trends, keep your wardrobe fresh and stylish.

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And you know, another thing you can do is you can add one of those nice little,

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those moth things in there or air fresheners so that your clothes smell fresh.

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Another thing I found out, which is interesting, is don't spray perfume directly on your fabric.

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Spray it on your body so that that perfume doesn't like fade your clothes or

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also just kind of deteriorate your clothes.

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There's alcohol in it, right? And so begin to take care of your fabric, not to spray it all.

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People spray their perfume or men, their cologne all over their clothes.

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Just spray it on your body.

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Remember the warmth of your body radiates the smell of your perfume or cologne.

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That's some good information. Let's keep going. I think that's it.

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So thank you for joining me on this journey.

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Stay tuned for the next episode. I think we got one more episode or I think so, maybe two more.

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Stay tuned for each episode as we bring Holy back to our attire, our church attire.

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This is your host, Connie Morris with Diary of a Black Woman podcast.

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And at the end of this series, I think it's available now on the webpage,

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Diary of a Black Woman, LLC.com.

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The book, Holy Chic, the ultimate church attire handbook will be available as a free download.

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And so until next time, God bless you. Take care of your stuff.

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And hey, word to the hoarders, give some stuff away. Jesus name, amen.