The New Year's Resolution Every Sample-Sale-Devotee Should Make

I like these first days of the year and the crisp, fresh feeling of new beginnings that comes along with them. While some of you were overdosing on Christmas carols and cookies, I couldn’t wait for January 1st to write in my journal: “new year, new me.”

One of my new year resolutions in 2018 is to REALLY organize my closet. It was last year’s resolution too, and while my closet has seen worse days in terms of organization, it’s still far from doing what it’s supposed to be doing for me. It seems like I’ve been searching in vain forever for way to catalog my clothes. Did you know there are apps to help you organize your closet? I have tried them all. And I’ve failed each time. I typically find their methods to be labor intensive and the technology to be clumsy, so they inevitably ended up in my apps cemetery and I end up wearing the same two or three outfits over and over again.

When a new platform named Finery was launched, promising to organize styles and manage my existing wardrobe, I jumped at the opportunity to try it out. The difference between Finery and its many competitors is that it harvests data that already exists—a.k.a. my previous online purchases and organizes them into a visual catalog of items that can be used to create Polyvore-type looks. Purchases made in certain stores can be added after the fact with the easy click of a button.

Full disclosure: nobody’s paying me to give you the skinny on this app. So, here are my concerns with what seems to be an otherwise awesome way of fulfilling my new year’s resolution and sending me straight towards garment Nirvana.

1. If you are a secret agent—or simply unnecessarily obsessed with email privacy—you might not like giving Finery full access to your email account. After all, this is the very crux of their operation; they have to go through your emails to find purchase receipts to locate the items that are potentially now in your closet.
2. If you like second hand merchandise, or flash sites, you might not be able to find your purchases. As a bargain connoisseur and NYC sample sale whisperer, I do make a point of practicing what I preach and shop almost exclusively at NYC sample sales, Gilt, RueLala, and Yoox. I was rather disappointed to find none of my RueLaLa or Gilt purchases on Finery, which means I had to resort to inputting them manually… just like my other [now deceased] apps.

Ugh… Why is the world bent on making it so hard for me to organize my closet?! Despite these issues, I will give Finery a chance. I will also likely write a follow-up article to let you know how it went. I think resolutions are important, and while some of them (okay, most of them… okay, most of mine) fail, they provide what this article calls a “salient reference point” for setting a goal.

Take some time to reflect where you are in life, and identify the key obstacles holding you back from where you want to be. Be clear, set achievable goals and deadlines, and do your best reach them. Don’t punish yourself if you fail—even the incremental changes and smallest victories are worth celebrating. While the freezing temperatures and post-holiday-empty-wallet malaise might prevent you from going sample sale shopping this week, do come back.

We promise you a year of fabulous deals that might surprisingly assist you in sticking to your new year resolutions. That promise is our resolution.

Cheers to 2018!

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Posted by Staff Writer at 12:51 AM
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