My weight and real size doesn't really change that much. When I was in my 40s and going through menopause I went up a size or 2. However, in my closet I have clothes from size 0 to size 6 or maybe 8. I can take a size extra small and then a size medium. I am still the same size.

This is why I do not buy anything online.

My shoes are usually size 8 or 8.5 but even then I have some 9s in there.

My wardrobe is relatively new, so I only have what currently fits. My hope is to keep the wardrobe relatively small and adjust when I need to. Then again, the fluid fits help me a great deal!

Additionally, my weight has been pretty stable since the kids were born, assuming I walk daily. If I start to creep up, it is because I've stopped walking as much (probably weather related), and then I need to make the effort to bundle up and get out there. So far, my body responds pretty quickly to that type of intervention, plus the walks are good for my overall stress.

For me, it is practical and sensible to have a size range. My weight has been pretty stable for several years, but I am just shy of 5' tall - so a five-pound fluctuation can bump me up 1-2 dress sizes. Most of my clothes are 2-4/XS. My jean size is usually 26, but I have a couple of 27's, and one pair of 28's. I keep them because I love them, and because they do get worn!

If I find myself creeping up, I'm pretty good about re-gaining control over my weight. I up my exercise, and I make sure I am eating one salad-based meal/day, and keeping away from sweets, wine, and bread. The weight usually comes back down in 5-10 days, depending. Life happens, why beat yourself up over it?

I'm keeping sizes 4, 6, and 8, and S petite and M petite, because I'm on my third pregnancy in 6 years. I've decided not to do any closet editing until some time after this baby is born, because things fit so differently during phases of pregnancy and postpartum.

I have a wide range of sizes. My mother and I had to be weighed on a fish-weighing scale for the float plane flight, and we were both horrified as it put us both 10 pounds up. Maybe it's to make fisherman feel better about their big catch, but I'm sure no one else is pleased!

I went up a size this year. Many things still fit, but I had to replace most jeans. So I have two batches of jeans because it doesn't harm anything for me to hold onto them for a while. Now my jeans span four sizes. The smallest are mostly too small now, and the largest were bought for days when I feel like everything is too tight and nothing fits.

(For a while I kept having days like that and impulse-buying jeans at the consignment store so I should do some editing and make sure I actually love everything I ended up with.)

Sometimes I buy really oversized things for the look, also.

I've already commented here ....but I was thinking about this all weekend. Sigh. For those of us whose weight fluctuates naturally (i.e. not due to a poor diet or lack of exercise) common wisdom says to pack up the stuff that doesn't fit or make you feel good and only have the things you love in your closet. I "get" this, but putting away a big stash of too small clothing is not as easy as that. Put away for what? When you might be a smaller size again? That whole process still hangs over one's head like an admonishment. Giving it all away makes the most sense, I guess. Why do I resist doing it? I am the first one to give away or get rid of pieces I don't like or wear anymore, but the size thing is so fraught with emotion. I went through this all weekend trying to find a comfortable pair of shorts to wear from my collection - most older but some new bought this summer. I think it's time to get rid of every last item that doesn't make me feel good about myself. Please someone tell me that this changing size from day to day or week to week is from retaining fluids and other miseries of menopause. Because I'm about done with it, I tell ya.

Two very different camps here!

I don't weigh but I'm a fluctuator due to you name it -- hormones, [hopefully now-past serious health issues!], type of exercise, lack of exercise, different eating habits, salt, hot weather water retention, random WTF.

I wear lots of knits and stretch wovens but they aren't magic!

To try to keep myself sane-ish and physically comfortable I have clothes that look:

  • best when my body looks like shape "1" and are ok at "2"
  • sad and droopy when my body looks like "1"
  • best when my body is at shape "2", ok at "3" [I try to purchase and maintain the bulk of my clothes for this body shape + gravity combo]
  • best when my body looks like "3"

[However, please please don't get me started on spending on and managing the #$)#% "bra wardrobe."]

This year has been kind of a PITA for dressing.

First, ill/painful bloat then post-surgery = a good 5-6 months of overusing the "3" category capsule. Hello, storage for most of my items!

Then somehow thinking surgery gave me a pass to eat whatever, whenever under the guise of being kind to myself -- a phase that should have been much shorter-lived = decision point re buying clothes for a "4" category or dragging myself back on board the healthier choices wagon.

Two months after Crossroads Cryfest and at least more things fit, but several fall/winter items are likely off to consignment/donation due to fit issues. Not real happy about that prospect as it won't be a 1 out 1 in situation, but reality sometimes bites.

[And apparently I do have my limits when it comes to what I can deal with in my closet!]

@lisap - I so hear you. I actually packed up all my smaller size clothes and left them at my parents house so I wouldn't have too look at them. When I lost all the baby weight and wasn't so emotional about everything, then I went back and re-assessed.

Vix - I think I have unconsciously done the same thing - a few pieces in size '1', most of wardrobe in Size '2', and then some more things in size '3' as that's where I've been mostly over the past few years (aside from a few jubilant weeks in Size '1', which then I never fit into again for months or years.) I hear you - it's certainly not a recipe for a sane, minimalist wardrobe, though the blousier cuts of the last few years have been helping and, like you, I gravitate toward knits. It is what it is for those of us who fluctuate, I guess.

I thrift most of my wardrobe, and find that sizes vary a lot. In my closet right now is everything from a size 6 to a size 14. And it all fits.