I am in the same boat with IronKurtin. I love eBay for the Eileen Fisher new or almost new silk jersey T shirts. I have more than 40 of them. I just bought four more for less than the regular price of one over the past month. To wear them all, it will take me more than one month. I am telling myself to stop but each time when I look at eBay, I see another one of those T shirts in another color that I do not have.
Perhaps not looking is the only solution.

Mo is pretty much always right!

Well... I don't have 40 Tshirts... 40 pairs of black boots, maybe! Someone have 40 pairs of jeans or 40 gray jackets and we can form a club?

I'm too late to this discussion! But if we are still discussing, I'm trying to sort out this one thing:

The "if I go to a wedding" dress Mo mentioned, that never ends up worn. Or a funeral. But I've had occasions come up where I didn't have anything, had to wear something unfab in the extreme and felt so bad, so I had a goal to find a great "all occasion" dress this summer. Ready in case, you know.

Well, I haven't found it...and no occasion has come up either. But if one did....grrr. Last minute shopping is even harder than regular shopping. If I haven't found something actively looking, how would I find it last minute?

Maybe if you are dealing with the too large wardrobe issue you really don't have such worries because you have things for all occasions? I was just wondering how you balance "being prepared" with not shopping ahead?

Boy do I "hear" you ! 2 years ago, I practically started my wardrobe from scratch. I would say 90% because of the added weight and body changes from my treatments. I made a list of the absolute necessities and need for utility. I developed a color scheme. I made lists. I analyzed what I really enjoyed wearing before. Yada, yada.

My wardrobe is the smallest since college ( 25 years ) and I STILL overshopped ! LOL ! Especially for Summer, which is our shortest season. Someone here pointed out that "transitional seasonal " dressing is her biggest "season"....that is huge for me too, though I didn't know it. So I have been culling for months. Just last night I finished my "summer" closet. I packed some things away and gave away a lot. In the end, I was still overwhelmed ! I hung up 15 summer dresses, 1 black knee length skirt ( summer weight ), 1 lightweight boyfriend jeans, 1 Gap linen pants, a few Caslon Ruched t shirts, 2 peplum summer tops, a couple of linen sweaters, one merino wool sweater, 3 vests, lightweight toppers ( 5 ), 2 pairs shorts and 7 lightweight tops. That doesn't seem like a lot but we only have ( at best ) another 6 weeks of real summer weather ( and I don't work outside the home ) . It is turning out to be too much ! With my dresses alone, I could just wear them 3 times each before it starts getting too chilly. That is insane for me.

I need to focus more on winter and the transitional "season". But not until I wear out some of my clothes. : )

OH and Suz's idea for a blog on this : YES !!!!!! PULEEEEEZZZZZEEEEE.

Coincidentally, Mocchi and I hung out together yesterday and we were talking about this very thing : when does the process of accumulation end ? How do we know that it is working enough to "end" and shift to maintain or experiment ?

I am very late to this discussion, but this is so me. Too many items and not enough time to wear them all. That's one main reason why DH gave me a closet challenge a while back. I was going in circles trying to figure out how much to own and purchase at any given point in time. And after 9 months, I still own too much, and I really don't wear nearly as much as I thought I would regardless of the season. I'm still amazed at how much excess I had and never truly realized it. Yes in the back of my head I knew I wore some things more than other things, but the amount of unworn items still amazes me.

I'm super late to the game and completely missed Mo's orignal post about this. So I just looked it up (http://youlookfab.com/welookfa.....th-numbers) and compared the actual numbers in my wardrobe to her theoretical numbers. My wardrobe has reached this size after a lot of trial and error, but without any strategizing to be similar to what Mo suggestion. Here's the comparison.

For warm weather:

• tops - Mo: 12, me: 13
• shorts - Mo: 6, me: 2
• skirts - Mo: 6, me: 6
• sweaters - Mo: 0, me: 4

• tops - Mo: 12, me: 13
• pants - Mo: 12, me: 7
• sweaters - Mo: 6, me: 6
• jackets - Mo: 6, me: 5
• coats - Mo: 6, me: 4

The key differences are: 1) I wear bottoms more between washes, and thus need fewer than Mo suggests, 2) I wear cardigans indoors in the summer when the AC is overkill (and even use some of my cold weather cardigans for this), and 3) I have too many dresses.

I also started calculating how many times per year I've worn each item currently in my closet, and found that the average wears per year for each category. Here they are in order of most often worn to least often worn:

• coats - 64.5
• pants - 39.5
• shorts - 28.8
• cardigans - 26.4
• blazers - 18.1
• tops - 15.5
• skirts - 12.0
• dresses - 9.3

I think it's fascinating to see how Mo's theory actually matches really well to what I do in practice! The numbers also re-confirm that I have too many dresses and don't wear them often enough. It also helps justify spending a lot for the perfect shoes, coats, and pants, because I don't need many but I wear them A LOT.

Kate, I love seeing how your real life numbers stack up to the theoretical ones! Thanks for sharing that. I did realize after the fact that most people would repeat bottoms probably twice as much as they would tops, but if you are a real variety seeker you might want as many bottoms. I find solace in that I am not the only one with the 'too many dresses' issue. Seems near universal, except maybe for lyn*, tee hee!

Late to the game here, but just wanted to chime in to say how valuable this thread is. Mo is always right. I've been agonizing over what to do about my wardrobe, too. Actually, it could be considered several wardrobes of different clothing sizes, as I have an unfortunate habit of gaining and losing weight. I know from experience that if I cull everything at a certain size, I will, indeed, reach that size again. It's an expensive problem that takes up way too much space. There are only the things that currently fit in my closet, and I store the others, but the whole lot needs a certain amount of culling. I think I've finally arrived at a solution, thanks to YLF: I'm going to go through everything, especially what is currently too small, and keep only what I love. It's worth a shot.

This is such a funny thread. True, too. I've actually been keeping track of the clothes I've worn since last October, and by now there is at least one mark against many items. There are still some that have had no wear, though, and if I make it to the end of a full year without wearing them, they will go. (Although I'll make exceptions for evening dresses and belts). But yeah, I counted something like fifty or sixty tops last October -- how can I possibly wear that many? And the answer is, I don't.

Kate-- thank you for looking up and finding the original post--I tried and got distracted!

Once again I've been inspired to cull! I just returned from my closet where I purged:

4 pants
2 shirts
1 knit top
2 sweaters
2 shorts
1 jacket
3 clutches

I still need to work on shoes. I've already bought 2 pairs for fall and have 3 pairs of boots that I ordered. I think I have a problem with shoes

Wow, Kate, those are interesting numbers. I wish I was more disciplined about tracking wears, because I'd love to know what mine are per season. It really seems like you are doing quite well with your wardrobe, because everything except dresses is being worn at least 10 times per year, which seems great to me.

BethL, I have the same gaining and losing problem myself. I am too much of a cheapskate to give away stuff that I am probably likely to be able to fit again, whether it's currently too small or too big. At the moment I'm only keeping one size up and one size down but that still takes a lot of space. I do make the point to keep it separated from what fits me right now, which saves a lot of aggravation getting dressed in the morning.

Regarding the EF deals and such, I've learned that I just can't look at that sort of thing. Don't go to the discount store, unsubscribe from the online emails, delete all my ebay searches. Just because it's a good deal financially doesn't mean you have to be the one to take advantage of it. And just because it's a huge discount off original retail doesn't mean that you have to buy it, especially if you already have many of that type of item. (Preaching to myself here too!)

Okay IK, to backtrack a little, I think I have a problem with FOMO too. I often shop "all sales final" stores and while I can get seriously good quality items for cents on the dollar there. IKWYM about the fear that item will be gone if I leave the store and come back later! Once you get a taste for quality, it's hard to let these little gems slip through your fingers. Sometimes I tell myself that I can always resell it. I rarely recoup even my small cost, much less make any money on the deal.

In addition, I also (like you) revel in getting these types of items so cheaply because I will and do wear them for everyday, because I was able to buy them for so little money. I would never wear a $100 dress around the house to do laundry in, but I'm sure a few of my dresses retailed for that new. Because I got them all for under $20 I throw caution to the winds and remain blissfully carefree about bleach splashes and cooking splatters (and yes, I wear an apron too).

Unfrumped, I'm interested in exploring having nicer than average collection of clothes that will also work for the kind of "events" that I go to, like a casual baptism (at someone's backyard pool) a casual graduation (often a bar-b-que), a casual funeral (where the deceased's widower wears jeans and a flannel shirt), a casual wedding (I once saw jeans and leggings...as pants), jury duty (only the attorneys were dressed as nicely as I was--barely) and now my 30th HS reunion, which is being held in a sports bar. Can you see why I don't really need a full-on special occasion capsule? When I really dress up like I think I should for these things, I end up looking/feeling awkward because I draw attention to myself, which is not the goal. Toto, we are not on the east coast anymore! (End of derailment.)

MO IS RIGHT! I DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH DRESSES!!!!

LOL Lyn.

Wiping water off keyboard...

This thread is so amazing. Thanks for starting it, IK.

It sent me off an a read of Recovering Shopaholic. And in particular, one post was interesting, about closet personalities:http://recoveringshopaholic.co.....lity-type/ which she borrowed from Bridget Raes. I feel as if there are probably other personality types not in that list (there must be! I didn't find myself - although I did find my former self, LOL). But it's a good place to start.

Because my former self was a "devaluist" I have some of the opposite tendencies and had to work hard to learn to enjoy shopping at all -- I truly hated it and had no idea how to do it. The whole idea of having set searches or getting email notices and such is still basically foreign to me -- I do subscribe to some since joining YLF but I have them filtered through my junk mail, which means I have to actually go LOOKING for them -- meaning, basically, I don't. Of course I do hear about sales and such at YLF. <insert blushing face>

Anyway...I was building from the ground up. Now I've reached a point where I feel it is almost "too much." I don't know how much I expect or want to wear a given item in each year (or over its lifetime) but I do know that I want it to be more than a couple of times! So in the next year I'm going to force myself to track. I'm really not a numbers girl, but I guess it's time to bite the bullet. Especially after my recent June shopping splurge and my additional NAS explorations.

I don't think I fit in with any of the personality types - I was doing some thinking today and wonder if I like to buy things because I think it will help me "be someone else".

There is a lot of psychology involved in clothes; too bad it got shot down as a Grand Rounds topic last year. Grr.

Just chiming in to raise my hand and say I have FOMO also...

...I don't have 40 of one particular thing yet, but I have 24 pairs of jeans...and counting...

Great thread IK. Thanks for starting it.
I keep shopping for the same thing, over and over. Right now it is sleevless cream tops. I'll let you know when I get to 40 Each one is a little different, but in the end, they are all sleevless cream tops. I also get stuck on a look I see on pinterest or somewhere and keep buying components of it long after the look is dated. I need to buy purposefully, not so mindlessly. This would cut down greatly on returns, which I'm sure Anthropologie and Nordies would appreciate.
Someone mentioned getting what you want, paying the price required to get it, and stop trying to buy cheaper imitations that just don't work. That is what I need to strive for.
Seeing other's strategies for shopping and wardrobe management is very helpful. I know I have some very bad habits that I need to address. Plenty of food for thought, here.

Those 5 personalities are fasinating, though I do thinks it's problematic that they can all be symptoms of bigger issues. Don't some people have happy closets? Or maybe we're all at least a bit flawed, and thus so are our closets.

I definitely used to be a Devaluist, which did reflect my priorities more broadly. When I did shop it was Pauper style, since when I did shop (rarely) I focused on buying as cheaply as possible (true to my Devaluist nature).

Now I would say that I'm a Strategist (not on the list) because my closet is carefully planned, tracked, and organized. This is also reflective how I operate more generally. Though both in my closet and in life, I put in that work ahead of time so that I can act fast and even a bit impulsively in the moment and have everything work out well. I dedicate a lot of time to picking and refining my wardrobe so that when I wake up late, have a last-minute invite, or do several very different activities in the same day, I can put myself together quickly and confidently, and feel great when I'm out and about.