Have you ever given much thought to your knicker drawer and how it reflects each stage of your life? Does it reveal the person that you currently are? Or does it have knickers from the past that show what was or in the case of never worn items, what could have been? Kerry Hales is a Transformation Coach specialising in decluttering your life (www.kerryhales.com) – and she believes that if you’re stuck or something is holding you back in life, there’s no better place to begin than by looking in your knicker drawer…

Kerry Hales writes an exclusive piece for Female First
Kerry Hales writes an exclusive piece for Female First

The impact of looking at your knicker drawer is like reaching into your life and showing you all the bits that you kept, which aren’t working, are compromising, and agreeing you can’t have what you really want.

When I looked at my knicker drawer six years ago, I saw a someone who was not who I wanted to be. Of the contents of that drawer, only five percent fitted me and helped make me feel how I wanted. The rest were just there to remind me of everything I wasn’t, couldn’t be, hadn’t been or never will be again. This saddened me. I felt how much I wanted those old things and they reminded me of that loss. A past. Or a future me that was ‘going to be’ happier in myself. A future that was there - yet wasn’t and I wasn’t sure why.

If I wanted something different it was going to take action and the first part of change was done. I had seen it. It wasn’t pretty, comfortable, non VPL, or any other technological jargon led structured marketing that was going to ‘make’ me feel…what?

Who am I and what knickers work for me?

All the feels were in that drawer. All my emotions and how I wanted to feel but the reality was there was so much confusion as to who the hell I was, and did it reflect me? So, I did the only thing I could and that was to transform my knicker drawer and with it how I felt about me.

I took hold of that drawer – which was part of an antique set that my mother had given me – another emotional bond to the past. I emptied the whole thing out. In it were lots of knickers but also lots of other items that I had an emotional tie to. There was a photo of my niece whom I no longer see since my mother passed away, a fossil that one of my son’s found while on holiday, and jewelry boxes that were not pretty enough for the side, but I had attachments to.

The knicker drawer in your life is something that we, as women shine a light directly into what matters to us. And if we’re not conscious, we can keep it full like a scrooge fest – living in the past, or future but ignoring the present.

When you next look in your drawer, just take a massive chunk of curiosity or nosiness with you. In fact, take me. As I will ask you these simple questions…

Do you love it?

Do you use it?

Can you let it go…

It will help you to identify what you are holding onto. Journal about what you are still holding back on or preparing for. This will take back both the physical and mental energy it has taken in your life. And once you have a ‘clean’ space, it will be there for you to fully embrace today.

Ah there you are…

Lessons From Your Knicker Drawer - Declutter Your Head, Transform Your Life by Kerry Hales is published today (Thursday, August 5th, 2021) to coincide with National Underwear Day. It will be available as an ebook and paperback on Amazon UK.