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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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