One thing that helped me the last time I did a major wardrobe purge was to sit down with a piece of pen and paper and attempt to write down every piece of clothing that I owned--without checking my closet.

The items that I couldn't even remember that I owned went on a presumptive "to donate" list. If I really loved them, I would still keep them, of course. But the things that I couldn't remember were often the things that I didn't really love that much.

I just wanted to say this forum is full of amazing, giving, kind women... There are so many wonderful suggestions for us all to glean something from here. Hoping you can try a few with a renewed attitude and maybe have some fun with it!!!

Wow! Even more ideas! TraceyLiz is so right: I am so grateful for all the ideas and such kind support. Thank you. You know, there are more (and better, more creative, more thoughtful) suggestions in this thread alone than there are in a book I read a while back on the subject. This is making me want to catalogue all the suggestions I have found here and elsewhere, to help others. (Diane, I will definitely look up that Dress Assistant app!)

It is so incredibly useful and motivating to hear others' suggestions: they inevitably spark many more ideas. Put it this way -- Suz's interest in my library (which BTW contains more books than a beautiful library I visited that was in a book of the great private libraries of the world, though mine of course has only a very small number of antique first editions and is crammed into a much small area than that spacious beauty -- I don't keep much fiction though -- once it's read it's donated unless exceptionally good) somehow clicked me into gear WRT my wardrobe by bringing my thinking/motivation into line with my very organised, rational thinking about my library (I have been thinking about dramatically reducing its size because I never want to pack and unpack that many books ever again, even with the bar code reader I used to ensure I'd know which box any given recentish book was in to make it easier to get them all back in the correct areas again post move) and I don't find it in the slightest bit difficult in connection with my books, to reduce, ruthlessly, so really, this is making it suddenly feel easy to do this WRT my wardrobe too. At any rate, THANK YOU everyone! I feel inspired and motivated!

I love this thread. Thanks for posting your story. I recently downsized my wardrobe by 50% over about 4 months and I can tell you that it's worth the effort to get to whatever wardrobe size feels right for you.

One tip, which may have been mentioned, is the power of the holding zone. If you have any doubts about an item, even if you can't articulate why, just put it in a separate closet. I used a plastic storage container. I find that "out of sight, out of mind" worked for me. After having it in the holding zone for a few weeks or months, I no longer felt bad about acknowledging I made a mistake and donating the items. I also knew that I didn't reach for it for months so I truly wouldn't miss it.

I'm still trying to hone in on what the right wardrobe size is for me. I'm at about 120 items including shoes but not including tees and camisoles. I feel like this is a good size for me but I'm constantly reevaluating whether I want more or less.

Best of luck on your process!

Thanks, Suja. I love the holding zone idea. I agree: it definitely helps (me, at least) to put the things I am not totally sure about in a holding zone. I've given myself a year. Anything that has remained in the holding zone for a year will go. In fact, releasing myself from the "everything must go NOW" thing has made me actually want to get rid of 'everything' rather than putting it in a holding zone. Isn't psychology amusing?!

Thanks so much for the inspiration!

Sarah

Checking back on this thread I see you asked how I'm cataloging my wardrobe. I'm using a Google Doc Spreadsheet. It's working for me so far.