Ask Angie (and others): One in, one out rule. But what goes out? - YouLookFab Forum

Category

General

Welcome! Read about what to wear and how to wear it on the YLF Blog. Join the YLF Forum to ask specific questions or just chat about fashion and personal style. Or check out the curated list of things we love in YLF Finds.

Outfits Ensembles Trends Advice

Ask Angie (and others): One in, one out rule. But what goes out?

Ornella

(website)

Veteran

As the title says - if you try to, or do, implement "one in, one out" rule when editing your wardrobe, how do you decide what goes out?

One obvious thing would be replacing worn out items or replacing items of lower quality by the more quality/luxury/versatile ones of the same kind (e.g. my H&M button down would go out if I'd find BB like the one Angie wears), but I'm thinking more about wardrobe additions of other kind.

E.g. you find nice new dress, but don't have other dresses to take out in order to make room for the new one, what goes?

Does removing "one" pair of shoes to make room for "one" new dress/skirt count?

To cut the long story short, what does "one in, one out" look like in your case?

General

23 replies

Latest reply was from Ornella

Deborah

Veteran

Ornella, very good question. I don't have an answer but I will eagerly await the responses. For me its usually 'another one in' lol.

Lynne

Veteran

If you had refined your wardrobe to a great working collection, you could substitute like for like. But IRL, most of us are still a long way off, and our closets are still evolving; the ideal closet 6 months ago isn't the same as now because your life and you, are different in small ways. I usually have one or two things I've been hanging on to, that, in the light of the new thing, suddenly seem more superfluous than they did before. So, in my case, it's not usually like for like. Unless, as you say, Ornella, it is an obvious replacement :).

Wait, what am I saying?! In your case, I take back all of the above Ornella! I think you should ask yourself the question, "what, in my closet, would Lynne most like to have next?". JK

JulieinMI

What Lynne said. I spent a lot of time editing my closet this summer. When I had everything organized and counted, I finally admitted to myself that I have way more than I need for my lifestyle. Even though my kids have moved out and it would be easy for me to start taking over one of their closets; I told myself that that was not allowed! This led me to the "one in, one out" rule. As I do still desire new things, especially all the nice ones I see here, it has made it easier for me to get rid of things that I have been hanging on to that I really know I will never wear. I do end of getting rid of things with the tags still on, but I hopefully am making better purchase decisions because of what I read here. If I purchase something new, I get rid of one of those borderline items, even if it's not the same type of item as the new one is.

Suz

(website)

Veteran

I will be eagerly reading replies to this. I'm still in the massive overhaul stage and need to buy quite a lot in the next months to replace the clothes that no longer fit, but the temptation this summer was to buy really inexpensive pieces just to fill huge gaps, and I fear I might succumb to the same problem this fall/winter. Meanwhile my GOAL is to build a small but perfectly functional wardrobe, so I need to pay attention to not just emptying the closet only to stuff it again with things that are less than perfect!

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

Blog post coming up this week and already written

Queen Mum

Veteran

I love how Angie is always thinking a step ahead of us Can't wait to read the blog post!

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

*chuckle*

Ornella, I am not THAT strict about the item categories, but it's a great principle to practice. I *cannot* handle clutter and a wardrobe bursting at the seams. My life feels a mess when that happens.

Anonymous

Angie reads our minds!

Queen Mum

Veteran

so Angie, does that mean that I can buy a new dress and throw away an old pair of pantyhose? Woo hoo!

Mo

(website)

Veteran

I have loosely been trying to follow this. But I have found that my items naturally settle at a certain number. For tops, I have almost exactly 15 of each sleeve type - tank, short, long. This wasn't on purpose, it's just where I'd culled to when I got to counting up my pieces one day. I try and replace like with like. When I got my Suzi Chin 'wedding attendee' dress, I got rid of the more dated floral one I'd worn to the last wedding. If the blue cord jacket from Crazyone fits, I will pass on my dark teal velvet blazer that's a tad big, etc. For me, there's not a lot of sense in the thinking that if I bring in a new skirt I have to ditch a pair of shoes to make the numbers the same. No one is counting but me! To me, the idea is to make you think about buying new in the sense of 'is it special enough that I want to get rid of it's predecessor hanging in my closet right now'?

MNsara

Veteran

Or better yet - buy new dress and out goes ONE old sock?

So looking forward to Angie's blog post as I only have the '1-in,1-out" rule about 50% down IYKWIM

mamaKate

Veteran

Sure, a dress for a pair of shoes definitely counts in my book! The one criterion I use when deciding what to go is "what won't I miss? (once it's gone)" Good luck!

Polly (thunalata)

Veteran

Suz - I know exactly what you mean. In the last three years since finding YLF budget considerations (and lacking confidence in my abilities to choose clothes) have meant that I have bought cheaper items to fill gaps. I think each season I have had a plan and focused on a small number of for me important buys (well fitting jeans, tall black flat boots, winter coat for example) and for those I have focused on quality and fit. Additionally I have bought things that are either cheap or Angie recommendations (when I can find them, as I'm in the UK - of course they are always winners).

I have reached the point now where everything I have is at the very least ok so am definitely now only looking for really good quality and fit. As I get these I think it will be easier to be ruthless about purging the 'stop gap' buys.

And then move onto a 'one in one out' rule.

lyn*

(website)

Veteran

I generally am pretty ruthless with what goes out - it goes to the Closet of Purgatory and Out of Season Clothes. If it stays in there for awhile, then it goes to the Big Black Garbage Bag of Donations. I don't miss anything.

Ornella

(website)

Veteran

Angie, I never thought you'd apply the mentioned rule to the letter, but it's always good to know how you do certain wardrobe-related interventions
Btw, I am chuffed I have unintentionally guessed next week's post.

In the meantime, I might de-Lynne my wardrobe, just for fun.

Marley

Veteran

Can;t wait to read the blog post on this, as my practice over the years has been "one in" and "one in" and "one more in" and "just one more in" and "I know if I cram these hangers together I can get at least one more in!" NOT GOOD!

mamaKate

Veteran

Marley (and all) - One of my tricks to prevent closet overstuffing is to use really thick wooden hangers! Admittedly, though, the closet still gets stuffed, just with nominally fewer items.

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

You all crack me up.

Sveta

(website)

Veteran

Kim, if you get rid of old pantyhose when you get a new dress what would you throw away when you have to get a new pantyhose?:-)
Marley, you are so funny!
I think this is a good rule to follow when you have a fully functional wardrobe but not necessarily when you are building it up and have a lot of holes. I got rid of at least 70% of my fall/winter wardrobe last year and was building a new one so I did not follow this rule. However when your wardrobe is getting where you want it to be I see this rule as very useful.
I got rid of 4 pairs of shoes before going to NAS last weekend and planned to replace them with other 4. However when I bought 5 pairs there I just got rid of another one which was not uncomfortable as the first 4 but just not my style anymore. After that I did not feel much guilt about buying an extra pair!:-)
Angie. I would really want to be in that place where all your "one out" things go: I suspect they are all fab!:-)

Aida

Veteran

Hmm I don't really follow the one-in-one-out, but I do have a limited number of hangers, limited drawer space, limited floor/rack space for shoes, and I can only stack things so high on my knits shelf before I can't reach so my limit is based around those things I am very much looking forward to reading Angie's blog post though, I definitely need to be more strict with myself about letting go of those items that aren't 10s!

Anonymous

I have a certain number of hangers, shelf space and drawer space and use that as my guide for one-in-one-out. If I free up 2 hangers, I can replace with 2 new hanger-able items. Sometimes I try and work the system by cramming something that should be hanged in a drawer or shelf but that doesn't really work over the long term

Today I am finally getting to my closet purging (after 6 months of construction in the house) and actually able to downsize the number of hangers since I am getting rid of so many orphans. It's nice to be able to see everything that is there. And I need to keep the momentum going since I am feeling so ruthless.

Now I am faced with what to do with all my cast-offs! I have a pile for donation, repair, tailor and even a pile I am saving for my friend that wears the same size. I am going to take care of it all right now so I don't start filling up those hangers again!

Anonymous

Or maybe I should go have a cup of tea and wait for Angie's blog post so I can really, really be sure I'm doing it correctly!

Ornella

(website)

Veteran

May I suggest nice cup of tea