If I could manage to be more committed to the one-in, one-out, and if I started to think more in terms of "pieces per season" (as opposed to $$--not because $$ doesn't matter, but because a goal is not expanding #'s of items, and total budger doesn't really address that). I think those are 2 of the best approaches for me.

It's not that important if it's 5 pieces or 10, and even the mantra "must be highest quality" doesn't help me--it's more, how do I want to focus, as in Mo's great post on "if only 3". So even if only 10--which 10, why, where are you going? What's being accomplished?

The purpose-driven wardrobe!

Yeah rae has a good point about the 'in and out of favor' things. I'm wearing some items of clothing regularly now that I didn't wear for about three years (gladiator sandals? I happened to have some. Baggier skinnies? Now with rolling they work again). But too many of these kinds of things for me means that I'm not going to find and rotate them in again even if they would work now.

Unfrumped - the purpose driven wardrobe! I love it!

Heehee Elizabeth you are so right--the problem is NOT ENOUGH SUMMER.

A few years back, our new house wasn't move-in ready when expected, so it was either tear apart the storage unit to find my summer clothes, or buy a replacement summer wardrobe. Guess which I did! Largely thrifted or on sale, but still.

The following year, I discovered YLF. And I had a lot of fun remixing the old and new (I lean to nautical stripes with an infusion of polkadots), celebrating the all-too-short warm season by wearing pretty much a new outfit each day (whereas in winter it's just variations on the black pants, white top, red sweater theme). Even so, I have more items than I could possibly wear in a single summer, unless I move or retire. I recently passed some still-nice items on to my sister, but I think it's time for further culling.

I love the idea of a Purpose Driven Wardrobe too, unfrumped! I have really enjoyed reading what you've all had to say on this subject. Yes, Mo is right. The numbers never lie.

I have a really, really bad track record with those "what it" items and purchases. First of all, I love to shop for them before the need arises. It makes me feel safe and secure to know that I have the perfect little black dress or Christmas holiday outfit tucked away. I get to thrift it or buy it off season, get a great deal, and then the best part--cross it off my list with a flourish.

But after buying and churning several LBD's and graduation/wedding/funeral outfits that were never quite right when I finally got a chance to wear them, I'm coming to the conclusion that I'd rather cobble together an outfit for these events from my core wardrobe. That's what I've ended up doing anyway. And if I need to shop for an item or two last minute, that might not be the worst thing in the world. Things are so casual around here, and I think have gotten more casual everywhere, that I don't need as much "special occasion" wear as I thought. Although I certainly wish I had a need for it. Only in my fantasy life.

It's times like this that I'm actually grateful that I have a hard time finding clothes that fit, because it makes it a lot harder for my closet to get too big!

I haven't read all the other responses, but what about just deciding what you wear *now* and then putting the rest aside, out of sight? Then when you feel your style change, or when you get bored, or when you have a special occasion, you can check your additional items. And it will maybe feel a bit like shopping, because you will perhaps have forgotten that you own some of the stuff.

I think you can maybe still wear all your items, just not *now*. I mean, your entire wardrobe won't turn over in a year's time. You have no time limit on when you can wear the stuff (unless it's very trendy, in which case it will date).

I do have to be careful, like Suz does, about buying too many items in a given category. I actually find that I tend to buy a lot of the easier-to-fit and easier-to-find items (i.e., bottoms), and I don't buy enough of the harder-to-fit items (i.e., tops). Don't know if this is a part of your equation or not.

I'm about a month shy of one year of participation in YLF and intensive wardrobe building. For the first time in almost a year, I'm looking ahead to a season (early fall) for which I have quite a few pieces already. I'm looking over my capsules from last fall and deciding on numbers-- this many tops for my fall work capsule, for example. The challenge is that I have more items in a few categories than my ideal number. Now it's time for the hard questions about how to define "good enough" and how much is enough. I keep seeing new, fab items in stores and on this blog. But if I already have what I need...

Yes, Mo is right!

Of course Mo is right; Mo is always right! In sewing circles there's an acronym: SABLE. It stands for Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy. I other words, even if you sewed every day for the next decade, you'd never use up all the fabric you had in your stash. It can be a sobering realization, but also a useful one since you can change your priorities from acquisition to prioritizing other things - sewing, or in this case, wearing your stuff.

This realization and Angie's fabulous advice about purchasing/dressing for your real life and not your fantasy life has made so much difference for me. I still make mistakes but I have a much more usable wardrobe than I used to.

Mo, I have 7 set searches on eBay for specific brands. Sometimes I look at other stuff, but mostly, it's those 7 searches.

I have had saved searches. Once I find an item, and the search pops back up I kind of chuckle, but I never bother to amend my list and just delete the email. Do you continue to buy the same things, season after season? Maybe it's a problem of not stopping at the ONE and then leaving the rest alone? There was talk over at the blog I mentioned about buying once. Getting the real item you want the first time, and closing the door on that search, not getting placeholders at cheaper cost, and still looking, etc.

EDIT: Laura, you crack me up! Can I frame that to show my BF when he's adamant that he's right?

Mo, I have my iphone set to search - it's not email, it's a saved search function on the app. It's hard for me to resist a $450 sweater listed for $30, even if I have a lot of other beautiful sweaters. Really I should just stop looking, but looking is so fun. I am weak.

Yes there are so many days in the year, and so many of them are filled with routine jobs around the house, or work, or ferrying children around.....I too have some pieces in my wardrobe I want to wear more but have rare opportunity to.

Nice top to wear out with jeans at night, tailored work dress, summer heels that can't be worn all day, I am talking to you!!

IK, I wonder if the way you frame it is part of your issue. If it's listed at $30, it's a $30 sweater, not a $450 one. At least, that's how I'd look at it.

Alexandra, that's true but in my mind not a negative. I only buy brands that have a very high level of quality, design, and craft. Having them be $30 makes it less scary to wear them than if I paid the retail price, and I certainly appreciate them all the more for it.

I like to think the problem isn't me, it's all the sellers who don't know what they have when they list an Inhabit cashmere cardigan jacket for $30!

IK, I think maybe you might be well positioned if you find that you have too much of a good thing in your closet and it's bothering you, to start reselling some of them. You have a narrow niche, the stuff is desirable and high quality and you are buying at extreme discount. But I've never done this myself, you'd have to tap the experts here.

I have been buying a whole lot less but spending more on things I ADORE - the Helmut Lang sweatshirt/jacket being a case in point. The more attached I get to these items, the less I feel the need to hang onto the chaff in my closet. It's a process...

Rabbit, I do! I consign and I sell on eBay. It's just time, and you never really make it back. I also give things away to friends, which can be super fun.

But really, I should realize there is no absence of awesome things to buy, and if I miss *this* one, there will be another later. It's always been true...

It IS a process, you're so right Una. And we change - our minds, our shapes, our weights, our activities, our locations. Not to mention some things do wear out (sometimes before their time and we tend to hang onto them for a while to reminds us that we need a replacement maybe).

I think the goal is to be "in control" of our daily wardrobes and having a lot of extras in sight every day can feel a bit out of control. I don't mind keeping an extra space of storage for a while at least - then after a year or two, I look again and consider purging.

I like clearlyclaire's point about cobbling together something rather than saving up the perfect thing. That would of course be for more infrequent events in one's life, as opposed to, opera capsule for regular attendance, or several formal gowns for one who attends gala fundraisers several times a year each year. I, too, have had the experience of keeping something on hand and then finding a year or so later it does not seem right after all. Perhaps that is due to not having the right items in the first place--not classic enough? But I'm not sure that's so.

It's almost coming full circle to saying that having things that are nearly right enough, that look great and work great in your current life, gets you farther along than having what seemed like a perfect outfit that you can't wear unless it's just the right occasion. That is kind of a new thought for me!

It might also mean pushing the envelope on some capsules--getting a few slightly more formal things for work, or slightly more dressy things for MOTG or smart casual, but wearing them regularly and then, voila, morph that into something more special.

And vice versa, using a fine black merino wool top in place of black velvet, and maybe a more relaxed (mentally, not sloppy dress) approach than, oh, I don't have the perfect thing to wear.

Aha! I think I see what your issue is. FOMO. Fear of Missing Out. If I don't get this awesome steal on this designer label I know I love, it may be gone tomorrow. I suffer, as well. But if eBay has taught us anything, it's that you can find that random item years after it's been long gone. It can just 'pop up' out of the blue.
And besides, didn't you already go through your stuff lamenting just how many white tops one can have??

Oh my lord, do I ever have FOMO! Now that it has a name, I can strangle it to death!

Things like the NAS are tempting but force me to think a season ahead. Even though we have cooler summers than most places in Bay Area, it isn't exactly woolens season. So sorting though closet today. I was thinking about somehow sorting through and putting just the things I absolutely LOVE together. Those are really my core wardrobe anyway. If I then got rid of nealry everything else, how much space and items would I have left? I would have no "maybe" items. But I am just not ready for that.

I did figure out that I have completely reversed course from a few years ago - I used to have all work wear in the closet and barely anything for days off or after work activities. Now I think I love and have more casual than work.
Changing dress codes has wreaked havoc with my wardrobe.

The HUNT. IK, can you turn off those notifications? Allow yourself to search for the 7 favorites when you have some leisure time. Not deprivation but planned hunting.

Christieanne, I have the set searches precisely to prevent freeform searching. Searching on eBay is like falling down a rabbit hole otherwise.

Yep Mo is right

I'm trying to transfer FOMO to life rather than bargains i.e. clothes or anything I won't use & love. How many clothes, bargains or otherwise, do I buy that I don't have time to wear? What does their cost add up to? What could I do with that money. Where could I go? How much fun could I have? It really has been sobering for me.

Maybe we all need to dress like we're in a rock show? You know, seven changes in the space of a short time. That way, everything would get worn.

But seriously, I'm still trying to figure out how I (like to) dress so I can figure out how many button shirts and how many Ts I need. I think I've got the hot and cold weather capsules under control and I don't think I overbuy for my moderate climate. . .but the rest? Am I supposed to love, love, love my casual T-shirts?

I have a terrible case of FOMO!!!

Why not love your T-shirts?
Life is too short to feel meh.

DonnaF - You jest, but I like to do that when I can, twice daily (or more) costume changes! (it really cuts down on wear and tear and washing too). Honestly if I 'dressed for the life I lead' it would be pointless to buy anything other than a new pair of jeans and sneakers each year. I work in a dusty studio that has its own capsule of grubby but comfortable clothes and that's pretty much it.

But I want to have fun with fashion, and go on lunch dates, and occasionally go somewhere spiffy for drinks, I want to up my game browsing at the mall or shopping for groceries. So I wear those 'better' clothes, but not all day.

Suz's recent weekend theater trip is a perfect example of that to my mind -- more clothes than strictly necessary maybe but if fun and fabness is the goal, just the right amount imo. I love having a great experience wearing something great. Then I come home and take it off and put on a ratty t-shirt and dig up potatoes.

Actually I have a ratty t-shirt capsule that I have culled down. Only souvenir/memento tees are allowed now. I use and wear concert and event related tees, but if it doesn't have a good memory associated with it, out it goes.

rabbit, you are so right! I burst out laughing when I read DonnaF's comment; I was thinking: WHOA. I AM A ROCK STAR!!!

And yeah, that's it. It was more than I needed, strictly speaking, but in a way, not more than I needed. I wanted to dress up for dinner, I wanted to have outfits that covered me in air conditioning and rain, and I wanted to have a heck of a lot of fun with my new stuff.

Now, YOUR weekend away, rabbit, was the opposite kind of brilliance, and it was so fab I could hardly stand it! You looked sensational! And you also had lots of changes of look. Even with only a few pieces.

I have packed that way in the past as well -- I usually do (although I never look half as fab as you did.) It's also a fun challenge and I like it. But sometimes it's fun just to change things up and wear different stuff.

I agree, Mo is right. I'm in this weird space right now where I'm thinking ahead to fall, mostly because of NAS but also because of a job change starting in September, but also seeing sales of summer stuff. I'm in a buying frame of mind but around me there's only summer stuff to buy. Not only do I feel like I have enough summer stuff, we've been having a cooler than usual summer. Tonight I was out with my daughter and husband and we were checking out sale stuff for her. I realized we overbuy for her - often my husband is more guilty of this. We usually buy on sale the year before but we've turned a corner where she has her own taste (she's 4) and is particular about what she wants to wear each day so half or more of the stuff we've bought her the past year, she doesn't wear. She still has plenty! So now I'm trying to apply what I'm learning here to her wardrobe. What does she really like? What kind of tops and bottoms? What type (or not) of embellishments, colours, shoe styles? What does she REALLY need and wear? No more overbuying!