About a year ago, at the advice of GRS readers, I started an experiment. I took all of the shirts and sweaters from my clothes closet and moved them into our spare room. Whenever I needed something to wear, I checked the clothes closet first. If what I needed wasn’t there (as was often the case at first), I went to the spare room to find it. After I’d worn a shirt or sweater once, it was allowed to return to its home in the main clothes closet.
The results of this experiment probably won’t be very surprising. After a couple of weeks during which I was reclaiming my favorite shirts, most of the rest remained unused. For an entire year.
On Tuesday, I gritted my teeth, grabbed the 37 shirts and sweaters still left in the spare room, and took them to a local thrift store. Some of the things I donated had never been worn (or had been worn just a couple of times). It hurt to part with those clothes. I probably spent more than $750 to purchase them (remember, I buy a lot of clothes at thrift stores), so in a way it felt like I was throwing away $750.
But it occurred to me that’s the wrong way to look at it. I’m not throwing that money away now. I threw away that $750 years ago when I bought the clothes I wasn’t ever going to wear. (Plus, I’ve managed to get rid of a bunch of Stuff, which was the whole point of this project in the first place.)
Over the past few weeks, I’ve bought a handful of new shirts to fill some gaps in my wardrobe. But I’ve made a vow to myself: I never want to buy clothes compulsively again. It used to be I’d go into Costco or Goodwill or wherever, and if I saw a shirt or sweater I liked, I’d buy it — even if I didn’t have a need for it. Now, though, I want to apply my new-found financial discipline to my wardrobe. Instead of buying lots of cheap stuff, I’m going to allow myself to purchase nice stuff (I like the clothes at REI), but only when I have a need for something.
Now that this project is over, it’s made me think:
- I wonder if there’s a way to make this an ongoing thing. Is there a way for me to tag which clothes I’ve worn most recently, and which I haven’t? Maybe if I hang the freshly cleaned clothes at one end of the closet, then I’d know the clothes at the other end had gone the longest since being worn. In this way, I could be constantly getting rid of the items I no longer wear.
- I also think it might be interesting to apply this method to other parts of my life. What about my CD and DVD collections? My books? The garden tools that are spilling out of our shed? In my war on Stuff, I’m always looking for new paths to victory, and this method could be one.
My guess is that of the things I own, probably 20% of the Stuff gets 80% of the use. While a part of me wants to be brave and simply pare down what I own to just the bare essentials, I haven’t reached that mental space yet. I’m too attached. But maybe I’ll get there in a few years. For now, I’m just happy to have trimmed my wardrobe down to a manageable size.
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That’s exactly what I did!! Except in my case, one son left for college and we swapped our upstairs, hot-in-the-summer bedroom for his cooler downstairs bedroom. Like you, I got rid of a LOT of clothes that I hadn’t worn in years. It was the only way I could (w/o much stress) figure out what I actually wear and what I don’t. Very useful experiment that everyone ought to do every year or so.
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JD,
Re: DVDs. I used to have 2 FULL dvd bookcases (one of tv dvds, the other of movies). Like your unused shirts, I didn’t even touch 95% of these movies over the time span of 2 years. I made up my mind to sell enough to get to one bookcase. It was a painful process (bye bye, Braveheart & Simspsons) but well worth it. I made some decent money back via Half.com / craigslist and donated the rest to charity. Now I try and get rid of a dvd when I buy new ones.
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If, like me, you have multiple types of hangers, you could specify for the next two weeks you’ll hang clothes up on this type. Then for the next two weeks you’ll use this type. That way you’ll have a visual representation.
Or you could just hang them up facing the opposite direction once you’ve worn them.
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Ha! I think I have it easiest. I only buy clothes when I need them and I like to rotate my clothes so almost every piece of clothing (some I keep for special occassions) gets worn eventually. Dress clothes are the only exception where I need colors to match on formal occassions, so some shirts hardly get used as they are hard to match with pants.
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About 15 years ago I started a systems that’s worked well for me. Every year about end of September I take a hanger, tape a piece of paper and write the current date on it and hang it at the furthest left of my closet. ALL clothes I wear after that get hung on the other side of the hanger, on that left side of it. Nothing gets moved over until it is worn. It’s clear to see what I wear, and what I don’t, and it makes it easier to let go of what I have not worn for 2, 3, 4 years. But I have to admit, I still have a few things I hang on to for many many years.
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Sigh. I wish I had a closet.
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Six months ago our apartment flooded as a result of a 31 inch water main break. We ended up with about a foot and a half of water throughout the place and lost most of our furniture and a bunch of other stuff.
All our clothes were sent to salvage so we were left with the clothes we were wearing plus anything we grabbed as the water rose, which wasn’t much. We did get to visit the salvage place in November so we could get winter coats and a few other things but that was all. For example, I had a single pair of jeans to wear during reconstruction.
Fast forward to last month when we finally got back in our place and all those clothes were returned. We were excited until we got the stuff and realized we hadn’t missed probably ¾ of our wardrobes and why were we keeping that stuff anyway.
We donated probably 2/3 of those returned items.
I should add in here that we aren’t packrats and we didn’t live in a clutter-filled environment. We have a decent-sized apartment for Boston (about 1k square feet) but it’s hardly enormous. Our dressers weren’t stuffed to overflowing prior to the flood and our closets weren’t bursting either. Yet we had way more than we needed or wanted.
I don’t think a flood or fire would be anyone’s recommended decluttering method, but it’s certainly had that effect on us.
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About a month ago, I was way behind on laundry and decided to look what was in my closet before hanging up the clean clothes. Out of the clothes in the closet I picked out four outfits for the week for work (Fridays are jeans days), and still had enough to make a couple more outfits. I also looked to see what was still hanging there and decide if it was something I actually wore. Not only did it help me weed out clothes I don’t wear, but I felt like I had “new” clothes by grabbing clothes I didn’t normally wear. After this, I realized I really don’t “need” new clothes!!!
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I clean out my closet once a year. A couple of friends give me their cast-offs, because I don’t mind wearing things from seasons ago. Designer clothes are taken to one or two consignment stores (making a couple of hundred dollars), appropriate dresses are given to an organization that provides prom dresses to girls who can’t afford them for the event, (similarly, Dress for Success is an organization that provides work attire for women interviewing for jobs), coats go to coat drives, and the rest to Housing Works or Goodwill (some T-shirts are made into rags for cleaning). Also, animal shelters will take old towels and sheets.
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I do the hanger trick and it does work. My problem with the purging is that I wear tshirts, sweaters, and jeans to work so when I need to go somewhere “nice” I’m in trouble. so those types of things stay around just in case.
Also, I’ve been deciding as I wear an item that If I really don’t like it or it’s shrunk oddly or something I need to get rid of it that day. Haven’t quite figured out how to do this and send them to Goodwill washed, though.
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I go through my closet twice a year, and whatever I don’t wear goes to the local consignment shop. I often shop at rummage sales, and if I buy something that doesn’t work out when I get home (since they don’t usually let you try things on there!) I just put it in the pile to bring in; usually I get at least as much for it as I paid for it. I do occasionally buy new clothes, but usually from clearance racks. I had a very nice wardrobe for several years….but recently I lost some weight, went down two sizes, and have been slowly replacing those clothes. I will be choosier now as I buy new, because I usually do tend to have lots of clothes hanging in my closet that I wear never or rarely. Purging twice a year does help keep on top of it. I rarely regret getting rid of things….the only exception I can think of is last summer, when I hit the jackpot at a rummage sale. There was a ton of beautiful, high quality clothing that looked like it would fit, so I took a chance and bought a lot of it. When I got it home, most of it was too small. I took it to the consignment store, but now that I lost weight I would fit into it. If only I could have seen the future!
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Instead of trying to figure out a system to keep track of clothes that are getting worn or not getting worn, maybe you can focus your effort on WHY you tend to wear certain articles of clothing versus others. The clothes you wear most often are probably the most flattering on you and are the most comfortable. Maybe you tend to wear certain colors more often than others. Maybe you wear certain shirts more often because they go better with the pants/jeans that you already have. Maybe you would wear the other shirts more often if you had something else to wear with them. Whatever the reason, try to find out WHY and keep those reasons in mind when you buy new clothes. Before you buy, ask yourself if you already have compatable items in your wardrobe. Take the few minutes to try it on before you buy, to make sure it’s really comfortable and flattering. In other words, try to keep purchase mistakes to a minimum so that your’re not throwing them out next year.
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“Any advice for overcoming the psychological barrier?”
You’ve gotten some great ideas from others, I see. My suggestion is more of an emotional one. I lost my husband almost 4 years ago. Following wise advice from a friend who was widowed a long time ago, I didn’t worry about getting rid of his clothing at all, though I did think about where I’d take it, which items I would keep, etc. I let time take its course. Suddenly one day I found myself taking all of his clothes out of the closet and sorting it into types, shirts, pants, sweaters, suit coats, etc., so I could do a count for taxes. Then as soon as I’d loaded it into the car, I went to my chosen charity and unloaded them.
It was somewhat emotional, sorting through them, but suddenly it occurred to me just what some said previously – there are people who *really really* need these clothes. This was part of my husband’s legacy to the world, and part of my honoring his memory. That was still emotional, but in a totally wonderful way.
You just divest yourself of things as your heart is ready. When you’re ready, you’ll know.
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I keep the size of my wardrobe in check with this rule: for every piece of clothing or pair of shoes I buy, I get rid of at least one piece of clothing or pair of shoes. If you are still paring down, the rule could be to get rid of at least two, three, or more items for every one item you buy.
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Also, please don’t forget your local hospitals!! Many times, when accident victims come in their clothing is cut off and they have nothing to wear home. — of course family can bring some things in, but not everyone has family to come to them etc.
When my father passed away, I gave several of his T-shirts to friends I knew would wear them and enjoy them. When I see them being worn, it reminds me of him and I know he’d like that they were being put to good use. As for all his business suits, I donated the majority to good will, but I also gave some to a group who gets the homeless back on their feet and are trying to get jobs, etc.
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JD great great post on a strategy to implement the 80/20 principle on your wardrobe. I too got rid a lot of my cloths a year ago after setting aside cloths that I did not wear during that year. By doing this, I was able to donate about 3 garbage bags to charity.
In addition to downsizing my wardrobe a year ago; I also downsized to a smaller wallet and reduced the contents in my wallet. Some people literally carry “bricks” as wallets with all the credit cards and business cards jammed in there.
I just wanted to mention the wallet because I carry around my smaller sized wallet everyday and it acts as constant reminder to reduce clutter in my life!!!
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I recently went entirely digital with my cds/dvds and books. I had been heading in that direction for so long and I suddenly realised that it had beeen years since I’d listened to an actual disc.
In the last few years I’ve gone from having a book library that took up an entire room plus many, many cds/dvds to one shelf of books and a hard drive
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So true about clothes…I wear different clothes to work than I wear at home, but what I wear to work is pretty much the same thing (mix/match) with no more than four pair of pants and jackets. I wear lots of different sweaters and rotate through them on a regular basis. When I come home I change and wear the ‘at home’ clothes all week.
In the past I was a shop-a-holic. It was my hobby until I came across your site. From buying every week or two (always on-line because we live overseas) I now only buy every few months, but even those are due to wishful thinking as I too need to loose weight. Overall I have way too many wishful things that I keep hoping to grow down to. I’m going to make myself do a purge by the end of this year…if I haven’t lost the weight I want to, then out go the clothes!
For #18: I can understand how difficult it is to part with clothes that were your mother’s. My mom passed away over ten years ago and I have things of hers (not clothes as none would have fit me) that I don’t really need to keep, but hold on to for sentimental reasons. Perhaps you would consider donating the things in her memory to a woman’s shelter or other charitable organization. From what you write, it seems like your mom was a very stylish lady (mine was too!) and those clothes could go a long way to bolstering someone’s morale.
Good luck with whatever you choose. You’ll find the best time and solution to let go.
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I moved recently and took about 1/3 of my clothes with me. It’s amazing how much I don’t actually need even though I can conjure up thousands of scenarios where I might just need that one item. Too bad none of those scenarios could ever actually legitimately happen.
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My husband took up running and lost a lot of weight. He didn’t have to replace as many clothes as I thought. He’s tall with very broad shoulders, so most of the shirts still fit. Pants had to be replaced eventually.
Personally I wear mostly the same things all the time. Black tops and jeans 90% of the time at home. I take better care when I have fewer clothes, plus I have so much less to cycle thru the laundry now. I don’t like laundry.
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I hoard clothes because I am 6′ and finding any pants or long sleeved shirts in my size at thrift stores is impossible. So those jeans I haven’t fit into since before my daughter was born are hard to part with because I know a replacement pair is going to cost $60-80 as I only know of a couple places that fit and the standard jean styles never go on sale.
But when I don’t have room I do purge. But until I run out of room I don’t worry about it. Although I’m behind I have a pile of clothes of the floor to take to donate.
I’m waiting for Tyler to come in and make his comment about how the 80/20 rule is a little silly. Yeah some stuff you can get rid of because you don’t use it that often. But when you need a funnel, water shoes, miter saw, party clothes, or whatever, it really sucks to not have it (and you often have to buy it when the occasion arises). You don’t use your spare tire that often, why haul it around?
Some stuff you don’t need, but its value isn’t necessarily in how often you use it, but how convenient it is when you DO.
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re: the emotional attachment, when my father died my sister and I picked out the clothes we would wear and kept them. Then we picked out the things we associated seeing him in on a regular basis – the recognizable stuff – and had those several shirts, shorts, suit, etc made into four quilts for the four of us. It’s a wonderful keepsake and much more practical than individual clothes that none of us would wear.
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I totally changed all my hangers backwards as suggested-moments after reading this suggestion.
I think the more material items we own- the more stressed some of us become because of the clutter.
I also signed up for a Listia.com account as I already do ebay-finding time is another subject. Hence I am headed to 43folders.com
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I pack away winter clothes in April/May and pull out my summer clothes (the opposite happens in October). When I pull the summer clothes out of storage, I try everything on. Whatever doesn’t fit, goes to Goodwill. While I’m packing away the winter clothes for the summer, I get rid of anything I haven’t worn that season. I figure if I haven’t worn it in a year, I certainly won’t miss it!
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I love this idea! I’m going to do this with the boxes of stuff we have. They are going into the guest bedroom. Anything needed in the next year will be put back to work and everything else will be donated. My only exception will be photos…they get to stay even if I don’t get around to putting them in albums like I should. Thanks!
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Great post JD! My fiancée and I are planning to a spring purge of our wardrobe in the next couple of weeks. I wish I would have known about that hanger trick a year ago.
I usually wear dress clothes to work and jeans on the weekends, but sweats/comfy stuff while just at home. I could probably pear down my stuff to about half. Clothes are one of things I spend my money on, so I have a lot of jeans that I don’t wear — do consignment shops accept both mens and women’s clothes?
If I can make a bit of money back on some of the clothes, great, but if not, it doesn’t really matter.
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Now that you’ve pared down your wardrobe to items you wore over the past year, the next step is developing a more robust wardrobe. Check out articles about packing for travel by Rick Steves and others for ideas such as making sure your shirts, shoes, and pants can be interchangeable to form various outfits. For example, do you have a favorite shirt that only goes with 1 pair of pants? That’s not ideal. It’d be better if the shirt matched 2 pairs of pants for greater versatility. A more versatile wardrobe will result in a smaller wardrobe.
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Am I the only one who actually knows what I wear and don’t wear just by looking into my closet? How many clothes do you all have?
I never use these tips though, because it seems like as soon as I get rid of something I haven’t worn in three years I find myself wanting to wear it again at least every month. This only ever applies to things I get rid of because of style and not because of fit, though.
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This is a fabulous idea, one of which my closet could benefit from. I am guilty of purchasing clothes on the spur of the moment or because they were a “good” deal. Purchasing fewer items may help me to appreciate what I have and learn to be more creative. For more great wardrobe ideas feel free to check out this post. http://c1c.bz/f03
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I’ve done the “hanger trick” and it works great. As I get down to the last few hangers facing the opposite direction, I tell myself “wear it or give it away!”
It also helps to have a 1940s era sized closet and one generous 5-drawer chest of drawers. Everything for half a year has to fit in this amount of space while the other half of my wardrobe is in one very large suitcase. My hope is that eventually I’ll be able to fit both seasons’ worth of clothes in the small closet and chest of drawers.
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Paring down your wardrobe is excellent, but one important step is to keep these ideas in mind when shopping in the first place. Similar to Amy @ #22, I always bought the almost-right items because they were the right price, and would end up with 5 not-quite-what-I-wanted black shirts that never got worn because, well, they weren’t right.
Then I hung out in the dressing room with my best friend one day while she tried on a mountain of new clothing (job change required new work wardrobe). I was amazed at how fast she took off things that weren’t quite right. She didn’t linger in the mirror, turning this way and that, debating over whether the item could be right *if*, the way that I always did. If she didn’t love it right away, off it went. Now I try to emulate her resolve whenever I shop for clothing.
Another good tip I’ve heard is if you try something on and it doesn’t make you feel GREAT, don’t buy it because you won’t be motivated to wear it.
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Any suggestions for dealing with that “special” outfit/dress that you use maybe once every 2 years for a wedding/funeral but wouldn’t be caught dead in at any other time? I wear all of my “normal” clothes (jeans and tops) all the time, but then I have “work” clothes which I have to wear when meeting clients (2-3x per year), and the “fancy” clothes for weddings, etc. I have several of each type of outfit, and I’d love to get rid of them, but finding clothes that fit is hard enough already, I’m not about to donate/throw them out just to have to try to buy new ones when the time comes.
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I just wanted to comment on the lose 50 pounds this year part. I have lost 33 pounds in the last month, and i have to tell you it was pretty easy. I had a really high triglyceride reading and felt that I needed to make some major changes. I already work out 6 or 7 days a week, and have for years, but while I’m not fat, I was never trim. The following worked wonders for me:
No alcohol
No sugar (cakes, cookies, etc. but also ketchup bbq sauce, etc)
No white flour (bread, tortillas, buns, etc.)
Nothing fried
No junk food
No red meat
No dairy
No eggs
What do I eat? A lot of veggies with hummus. Lots of caesar salads, chicken, fish, sushi, subway turkey sandwiches with no cheese or mayo, fruit. Oatmeal for breakfast.
Dry cereal with dried fruit and nuts for snacks. Lots of hot peppers, giardiniera, mustard, red pepper relish, etc for spicing things up.
Now that I’ve lost the weight I’ve reintroduced two low cal protein drinks/day as well.
In about two weeks, it becomes easy.
Good luck.
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Thank you for this great article and subsequent tips from readers. I do have the luxury of being able to use a spare room for my wardrobe experiment, and it is eye-opening to see how much clothing I have, and how little of it I wear. What resonated most for me on this page is the comment about how we [developed nations] can go for weeks without having to launder [except maybe socks/underwear/towels] while those in poorer countries have maybe 2 or 3 total outfits each. Obviously that can be said of more than clothing, so I plan to take this process into every room until I’ve culled my Stuff to a manageable, and usable amount. The rest will go to people who really need Stuff.
Someone asked about dealing with personal, emotional attachments to articles clothing. I saw on some HGTV show that they took sentimental but unwearable items and dismantled them, then used the fabric/trims to make pillows or quilts [or even covers for scrapbooks]. That way the item isn’t taking up valuable closet space but is actually utile, and the sentiment is preserved.
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I hang my freshly laundered items on the right side of the closet, and when I select something to wear I start from the left side. The things I skip over tend to gather on the far left and make it easy to gather them up for a Goodwill run. This also helps me keep variety in my wardrobe, instead of wearing a few favorites over and over – if a blouse is on the far right, I know I just recently wore it and need to select something else that day.
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With collections such as CDs and DVDs, I would look to burning them first to an external hard drive. Whe I graduated college I had over 150 CDs and 200 DVDs. Last year, I moved and it was a pain to move all those cases and binders of discs. So, I bought a 500 GB external hard drive and began the process of burning my collection. I managed to get rid of all my CDs (think a small bookcase of stuf) and now I am working on the DVDs. with high capacity storage devices so cheap these days, I look to making everything digital if possible.
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I put all my clothes away on the right side of the closet. On the first of every month I put a tag on the right-most hanger with the date (I just use a sheet of scrap paper on a wire hanger). The clothes I don’t wear end up on the left side of the closet AND I know how long its been since I’ve worn them.
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In response to elwing, I keep my “once a year” outfits (weddings, funerals, etc) in the hallway coat closet.
I only keep 1 warm & cool weather “happy” outfit for weddings or graduations, and 1 warm & cool weather outfit for funerals.
Since we live in a warm weather climate, I rarely need to go into that closet, so it stores all the incidentals conveniently, but I don’t have to go through them to get to my daily clothes.
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I do the reverse hanger trick.
http://www.leanforeveryoneblog.com/2010/05/lean-for-the-home-4-simple-steps-to-doing-a-red-tag-event-in-your-closet.html
I have a lot of other tips and tricks for around the home also.
Oh and good luck on the weight. I’m down 17 lbs by using my fitness pal.
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If you have older clothing, say Grandma’s from the 1970s, give them to a local theater group. Then you can go see her clothes on stage!
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Neat! I do something similar; if it stays in the “off-season” box through an entire season, it goes in the Goodwill box.
I’m also in the process of losing ~50-60 pounds (22 down, 42 to go!) and trying to figure out how to best clothe myself, especially in the middle zone there, while I’m floating on a size I don’t plan to be again next year.
This would be easier if I weren’t sort of clothing-happy, although I never have been massively clothing-spendy. I want nice clothes, and I want to look nice the whole way ‘through the weight loss. Tricky.
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Like @Susan, I try to use the “for every item in, another item out” rule as much as I can.
Books and magazines are tougher for me. I cut down my magazine spending by subscribing and limiting my “impulse” magazine purchases. For books, I rely on my public library a lot (requesting online is great!). With the exception of “books I buy on vacation,” I try to limit my book purchases to books for business (I’m in web design), so that I can get a tax credit. I always try to sell my text books online, to recoup some of my expenses and clear out my shelves.
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You wrote that you are losing weight now. It strikes me that I also lost a lot of weight when I decluttered and emptied my surroundings.
I guess it’s the old “as within so without” – getting rid of excess in my surrounding I got rid of excess inside of my body.
Makes Me Think
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