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Downsizing the Wardrobe

Anonymous

We bought a house! After living in rentals the past almost 2 years, we finally are under contract for a cute house here in our chosen neighborhood. We are very excited. However, being a 1979 era house, the closet space is minimal. I will be needing to downsize my wardrobe significantly and looking for ideas on how to do this. My wardrobe currently fits into a nice sized walk-in closet (like I had back in San Diego) but now I need to fit into a 7 foot wide bi-fold door arrangement.

So far I am getting rid of the follow types of things:

1) Things that I don't wear. Before I had the luxury of keeping stuff "just in case" now I don't. So I am evaluating my lifestyle to make sure the proportion of different types of clothes works with my actual life.

2) Things that don't go with my current colors. I am going to focus on a black/gray based wardrobe...so I can release all the browns. I actually had 2 seperate wardrobes going on!

3) Things that don't work with my dominant season. I now live in the Pacific Northwest which is a different climate than San Diego.

4) Closet orphans. Normally I would go through the exercise of hunting down new pieces to make the orphans work but now I will just let them go.

5) Shopping mistakes and all those "what was I thinking???" items.

I've done one pass and so far have 20 items for the consignment shop, and 2 big bags for the donation station. I still need to get my inventory down further. Like 1/3 further. And I'm stumped about what I can get rid of next. Any ideas? I need some firm talking to here! Brutal, honest ideas!!!!

My plan is to sell as much as possible at consignment and reward myself with a leather jacket from the NAS in the fall. So I'm motivated!

General

20 replies

Latest reply was from

Vix

Veteran

Sounds like you are being pretty ruthless! Congrats on the house.

Maybe just really check items for wear and make a separate pile of "not much life left in them" vs "in great shape" items so you can see if any of the former are staples that you need to hang onto til you find a replacement?

I don't want to derail your editing, but just wanted to say that you may want to create some underbed or alternative-space storage for seasonal clothes.

I'm in the PNW as well and have primarily 3- or 4-season clothes, but when the sun (finally!) comes out I am heading for sandals and putting away the boots. Ditto for swapping out heavier sweaters/scarves for some linen separates and items that just look "wrong" during our dark rainy days. Doesn't make sense to have them taunting me/taking up space in my small closet, so out of sight they go.

If you are set on giving away your browns and sticking to black/grey I won't stop you...but have you lived up here before? FWIW, the PNW weather broke me of my 99% black/grey wardrobe because I needed color in my life. [And I actually tend to pair the color with brown.]

ps you also might want to save some of your consignment money for a wintertime trip to San Diego or Hawaii

Vix

Veteran

Since I was going the other direction a bit, one more editing idea --

Know you've gotten rid of your orphans, but maybe start creating outfits with what's left and ditch the pieces that have *less* flexibility?

I guess you could be super-brutal and set a minimum bar...like if something can't be worn with 5 other items out it goes.

April

Veteran

Congratulations on the house! Sounds like you've made an excellent start in weeding out the items you listed. It's hard to know what to advise without knowing exactly what's still in your wardrobe, but here's a thought: is there anything in there that's only there for sentimental reasons? Special-occasion dresses that won't be worn again, grandmother's fur coat, maternity wear? Not suggesting you get rid of everythig, just that you box it up and keep it somewhere else.

If there's nothing sentimental taking up space, need more information to help you figure out what can go.

Kristine

Veteran

Sounds great!! I have a tiny closet (the door is 24") so this is a constant issue for me. It might help to think about a double rod, tops on the top and bottoms on the bottom rod.

It's probably a given, but have you tried on everything and ruthlessly gotten rid of anything that doesn't fit, anything you don't feel great in, anything stained, torn or outdated?

Sparky

Veteran

Hmm, you have done an awesome job so far. What about weeding out clothing based on the care or maintenance involved? For example, with my SAHM lifestyle, I am very careful getting anything that needs to be dry cleaned.

Sparky

Veteran

One other thought - have you weeded out duplicates? Do you have a few too many jeans or fun tops or something that you can cut down on, that don't fit the other categories you're weeding by?

tarzy

Veteran

I'm facing a similar situation. We may have to move my husband's business into our home to save money (stupid economy!), and the only room where his equipment will fit is - of course - our bedroom. We'll move into the much smaller guest room.

I am starting with the same things you've done., I'm going to cull out anything that I haven't worn in a year, and anything that's a repeat. I'm also going to take out anything that I don't absolutely love. I have a lot of things I like - in theory - but that I just don't wear. Like button down shirts. I love the "idea" of them (partly because Angie loves them so much) but in truth, I rarely wear them.

I'm going to be brutal. If I don't wear it - it goes. (I have two pairs of nude pantyhose "just in case." In case I ever have to go back to 1985???)

Good luck! I'm actually looking forward to having a smaller closet with things I only absolutely love and wear all the time.

Lisa

Veteran

I like this list, you have a very good process going to streamline your wardrobe. I am thinking of doing something similar after my hangar flip experiment is over and I see what and how much I really wear of what I own.

taylor

Veteran

Sounds like a great house and you are headed in the right direction as far as streamlining your wardrobe:) You and Tarzy have some tough decisions ahead, stay strong!!! Jeez, I dread the day, I may need some serious support groups!!:)

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

Congrats on finding a new house! That must be a fabulous feeling :0)

Your list sounds great, Marlene. Look through this post and click all the links too:

http://youlookfab.com/2009/01/.....al-closet/

Kate

Veteran

Another idea is getting rid of older clothes, especially ones you've worn in a picture and that would be easily identifiable. It's always awkward to see pictures of myself at two different family events four years apart where I'm wearing the same bright red sweater...

fathenry

Veteran

I would get rid of anything that does not fit you to a T, and reduce some of the summer items. I have found that being super picky on fit really helps separate the great from the just okay.

You won't need as many sandals, shorts, swimsuits, etc. in the northwest.

I would keep the jeans and layering pieces. So far it has been a cool summer.

Anonymous

Thanks for the congrats on the house! We are very excited...finally able to set down roots. I am originally from Vancouver BC so I'm happy to be back in a more moderate climate after 16 years in California. CA was too hot for me. It feels good to be back in more comfortable temperatures.

Thanks for the feedback....some more ideas I can use!

Regarding underbed storage: I prefer to have everything hanging in front of me. The only stuff I have out of sight are pieces that are too-big/too-small. But I'm thinking of getting rid of that stuff as well.

Re: black-based wardrobe. I do have plenty of color but they are all colors that i wear in my tops. So I am only keeping the base colors black/gray moving forward. This actually eliminates duplicates becasue I normally go through an exercise of buying a top to go with a black bottom and then duplicate the item to go with my brown bottoms. So if I get rid of the brown bottoms, then I can eliminate several tops as well. I do like browns but I made the strategic decision to stick with the black/gray theme because of space. However, I am quite attached to my chocolate brown boyfriend sweater and brown knee-high suede boots....I will keep and work in with my new wardrobe just because I love them.

Re: mix and matching. I am totally keeping pieces that are more flexible and will work with many other pieces. This is even more important now that I live somewhere where we can wear pieces 3 seasons. I am only keeping a small number of things for really-really cold and really-really hot. Everything else now needs to be able to be layered, if necessary.

Re: special occasion and special need: maternity stuff was ditched ages ago. And no chance it will be needed again Part of my purging was definitely the special occasion stuff. Several cocktail dresses are being purged. I'm keeping my favorite. Sentimental stuff.....just one piece is left and I'll hold onto that one forever!

Re: I definitely got rid of anything that doesn't fit well or was in bad shape. This was part of my thought process when dealing with duplicates...out goes the yucky one!

Tarzy has a good point about rethinking about things that fit into my lifestyle. I actually do NOT wear button front shirts all that much. Yet I am keeping them because I am "supposed" to. I will re-evaluate during my next pass! I did get rid of the ones that don't fit nicely or have some sort of splooch on them. But I still have a bunch that just hang there. I also have lots of stuff like shorts and tank tops that were suitable for San Diego but I don't need as much here. I'm sure I could eliminate quite a bit in those areas! A few more dresses.

Next step will be to get this first lot off to the consignment store and donation station. Then I can rearrange and see what's left.

Queen Mum

Veteran

just a crazy random thought.. but what about boxing up the stuff that you don't wear much (like the button downs) and then every couple of weeks, "go shopping" in that box and choose one or two items and see if you can incorporate them into your wardrobe. Treat them as you would a new purchase... if they don't get worn within a few weeks out they go. This might help you to see which items you are drawn to and which ones you keep pushing to the bottom of the pile. It might also help you to think more clearly about those less often worn items as you can evaluate them one at a time as opposed to the whole lot of them becoming overwhelming to you.

BTW- i just went and measured and I have exactly 6 1/2 feet of hanging closet space. Everything I wear (with the exception of undies and such) hangs nicely and uncrowded. As a stay at home mom I feel that I have plenty of clothing and I would say that I wear 95% of it on a regular basis. I say that because I think I remember that you are also a SAHM so just wanted to hopefully encourage you that 7 feet is a do-able amount of closet space. If you work outside the home though, that might be a different story.

Anonymous

queenie - I am so happy to hear that you are feeling like 6-1/2 feet is plenty. I know LOGICALLY it is enough...but the exercise of weeding down to fit that space is driving me batty! I seriously have a huge inventory of clothing. I have several friends who's hobby is shopping and I often get swept up in the moment and collect lots of items over time.

Yes, I am a SAHM. A SAHM that does LOTS of volunteer work...church and two schools. So the MOTG formulas are what I am using as my guideline for what I am keeping. I need to be casual but pulled together. I'm finding those MOTG formulas will carry me through a complete day of carpooling, meetings and teaching art class. Yay!

Laura

(website)

Veteran

Ask yourself this question:

If someone grabbed this (dress, shirt, pair of jeans) off the hangar and took off running down the street with it, would I chase her to get it back?

Just kidding! Sort of ...

Anonymous

Laura - that's actually a GREAT question! I am totally going to use that test for the next purging round!

tarzy

Veteran

I really like Queenie's idea of boxing up some things but not completely getting rid of them yet! If you have some space in the house somewhere else for storage, maybe you can try that?

In my case, I'm also trying to use this as an opportunity to hone in on what my style actually is. I've been on YLF for over two years and I'm still discovering and refining my this! I guess it can be a loooong process

I envy you moving to a 3-season climate! I live in LA, but my style is so much more layering/3 season/rainy days. I dread the hot days of summer that will soon come ...

Donna

I love Laura's comment. It made me laugh, but also started me thinking about my wardrobe and which pieces I really love and would be willing to fight for.

Anonymous

Tarzy - I hear you...I, too, am wondering what my style is these days. But perhaps that discussion is too deep for my purposed right now Although it would certainly help with the culling process.

Donna - I was laughing about Laura's comment as well. Especially since I don't run. Perhaps the better question for ME would be "what items would I be willing to walk briskly after?"