I would like to sincerely thank everyone for the wonderful, interesting and sometimes hilarious responses to this thread. I’ve eagerly read each one :). For me, after reading the thread and playing in my closet for the past day, I know that approx 120 will be a good number of items. I’d actually like to repeat outfits a bit more.
I currently have 126 items. I’ve had a good sort through, try-on and cull of my woven tops. I now have the following:
-3 cropped woven statement tops for my high waisted bottoms only
-2 bright woven statement tops- best with jeans
-2 dark woven statement tops- best with jeans
-2 sleeveless woven tops that work really well under cute cardi’s with tailored work trousers
- 1 voluminous, ornate boho peasant blouse- best with jeans
- 1 long asymmetric avent garde shaped woven top- has a variety of uses, including with skirts
- 2 boxy shell top wovens- that work with a multitude of bottoms due to their plain boxy/shell shape

PLUS I’ve moved 2 delicate and special woven tops into my dressy capsule, to be worn with black skinnies as evening wear.

Will this still prove to be an excessive amount? Time will tell. I think it likely will be- as over summer I’ll wear dresses quite a bit as well as button- downs....not to mention t-shirts!

Thanks for following along with me on all my wardrobe triumphs and tribulations.
Wishing you all massive wardrobe happiness! Xoxo

Rachy, like the kids say, pics or it didn't happen...

Good job, Jussie.

Jenn - you are right. I thought I was ok (meaning I didn't need anything else ) until I actually counted. Now I want to barf. I have so many tops I don't wear (partly because of a job change that means I don't get to wear a lot of my "'regular" summer clothes now) and they need to go , now. Summer edit happening this week.

I have a large wardrobe. I'm afraid to count it. I do weed it out very frequently so that items that haven't worked can go to consignment/ thrift at a time that others will still like them.

I only feel guilty for the size of my wardrobe if something I like gets pushed to the back and I find it months later, having forgotten its very existence.

I've never counted and I don't think I want to. It would probably make me feel guilty and I try to avoid unnecessary guilt - I don't read fashion, fitness, or parenting magazines for the same reason. I'm sure I have way more than 150 items. Currently I have room for everything and I wear most of my clothes (there are a few sentimental and special occasion items that don't get worn much) so I don't feel overwhelmed.

I like posts about wardrobe size! Too much is ... when you feel that it's too much :). This is what happened to me some years ago - I felt overwhelmed, confused, forgot what I had, getting dressed was stressful, I had always a ton of laundry to do ... I counted my clothes. I had 150, if I remember well. I realized that I would be happier with less. To answer your question, at present I have approximately 80 pieces of clothing, included footwear. Number of woven blouses: 2. My goal is to reduce furthermore the number and increase the percentage of things that I really love. You have many things that you love! This is good.

I can tell most of the people with larger wardrobes aren’t enumerating their count here. That’s fine. I probably have a higher count than most. My goal isn’t to get rid of anything to reach a certain number, it’s to make sure I have enough space for what I have, can see it clearly and feel good about what’s in the closet. I like clothes and shoes, and for the most part feel in control of what I own.

Ah Lisap, you shouldn’t have counted. I never have—can’t be bothered—but I’ve no doubt the number is way higher than I think. I do have generous closet space, plus two dressers and two lowboys. I have a good handle on my beloved fall/winter wardrobe. Summer? No clue. Don’t care. Any edit would involve matches. Fortunately, I’m not at home, but at my childhood home in eastern NC, the original humidity hell where I grew up. Sky is oozing, earth is oozing, 100% humidity. Pantsless beneath fan.

To this day, my 95-year-old mother calls her children sissies because we like air conditioning. I proudly claim that moniker!

And yes jussie, I repeat clothes in our everlasting summer ALL the time.

BTW jussie, thanks for starting this marvelous thread. It’s been a fun, enlightening thread.

delurked, you wrote "I can tell most of the people with larger wardrobes aren’t enumerating their count here" -- I would add that people who ARE enumerating their counts have a wide variety of different rubrics for what their count includes. So, I wonder if we are "counting" categories that will lead to a number we are comfortable with! Clearly, a lot of us have feelings and moral sensibilities bound up in wardrobe numbers. I see your 40+ shoes, and raise you my 40+ cardigans!

SarahD8, this point about choosing what we count is exactly why I don't sweat the numbers too much. I know that if I count *everything* - four seasons worth of socks, underwear, clothes I hang on to for painting or cleaning the chicken coop, my decrepit bacpacking clothes that I only wear on the trail -- I can get up over 200 no problem.

These days, for tracking purposes, I only focus on the numbers in categories where I know I'm prone to overbuying. For me, that includes gear clothes, but does not include sleepwear, accessories, socks or underpinnings. Those latter categories are likely to shrink in size rather than grow. That is, my tendency is probably more towards undershopping than overshopping for those things. If I suddenly developed a sock addiction, or decided to branch out and try a bunch of new bras, then I would start counting and tracking wears for those.

SO right about what we choose to count. I counted my wardrobe using the categories that runcarla said she used and came up with less than 70 items, which is quite different than the 120ish I get by my count. If I counted socks and underwear, the number would be even higher. Now, I mostly use the count to compare against myself year to year.

To me, counting wardrobe items is useful for two reasons:

1) To gauge whether the number of items I own is compatible with them actually getting used. There are only so many opportunities to get dressed. How many times do I want to be wearing an item each season/year/over its lifetime in my closet, and is my total number of items compatible with that? Basic arithmetic.

2) To reduce the stress of getting dressed by making sure I don't have too many items to keep track of. Like, if I can only hold in my mind 9 pairs of pants and I own 15, I'm going to forget about some of them when planning outfits and some will go unworn. (Which feeds back into the above point re: are they being used.)

But, all of that is making clear to me that my TOTAL wardrobe number, whatever categories it does or doesn't include, is actually much less useful than having a handle on the number of items in a category.

I went from a very small wardrobe (or at least it should have been small given all the outdated items) pre-YLF, to a pretty large one now. I think it is due in large part from hardly shopping at all from the time I was pregnant until DD turned 17 or 18. So in the last seven or eight years I have made up for all that lost shopping.

When I start to think I have too much for summer or winter, my non-dominant seasons, I remember when I travel to places hot or cold and that I don't like to do laundry while traveling. I need to have enough clothing to get me through AND after I return home I don't want to see, much less wear, those items for awhile.

It is one thing to buy for home, and another to plan for elsewhere. We've hardly had summer this year. . .

I have a rather large wardrobe. I have never counted but I am sure I have more than 200 pieces. But it works for me. I used to feel a bit guilty but not any more. It is easier for me to get dressed in the morning. Very often I need more than one outfit per day, sometimes even more. Also, my weight tends to fluctuate and I keep 2 sizes of clothing depending on my weight. Sometimes I duplicate favorite items in 2 different sizes so that I know I can wear the pieces I love regardless of my current weight. Of course, it is not uncommon that one ítem wears out sooner than its duplicate in the other size, but that's another thread.

My answer to this question is here:

https://youlookfab.com/2015/03.....-wardrobe/

This is a great topic. I have a moderately-sized wardrobe. If I got rid of everything I didn't love, I would get rid of a lot, but of course I do have to wear SOMEthing. Budget and shopping opportunity limitations make ditching all the 6/7 clothing at once not an option.

This is an interesting post and makes me excited about the late summer weed out I have planned. I did count once and then for about a year I really cared about the numbers. Now I care about what’s in there.

I keep all of clothing - for all 4 seasons - in my large bureau and small closet. (We have no other storage.) I have to be on top of what’s there so that everything will fit. I probably have a moderately sized wardrobe, which feels right —- except for the fact that I have at least 15 t-shirt like tops (both graphic tees and nicer tees) and about 6 work appropriate tops, only 2 of which I really love. I live in the t-shirts in the summer (often under a blazer) when I’m not wearing a dress so I’m not too concerned about them. But I cannot seem to find woven tops for work that I love. I got rid of those I’d rate 7 or lower but I still have only about 6, some of which are on the chopping block. This is a tough hole for me to fill.

So what wardrobe is too big? The one that causes you stress because of its size: too big to fit in your storage, too much to know what you have, too many things you don’t love. That’s how I’d define it.

Finally tonight I had to do a count. I actually have less than I thought!

I work full-time and smart casual through to business casual is acceptable attire depending on what I am doing. The weather in Wellington, New Zealand is pretty much the same 8 months of the year with a total of two particularly cold months and two warmer ones. It doesn’t snow. It is pretty windy on occasion though!

I didn’t count shoes, underwear or base garments, socks, sleepwear, exercise clothes.

So...

Sleeveless tops - 6

Short sleeved (including shirts)- 7

Long sleeve (including shirts) - 9

Wool jerseys - 7

Cardigans - 6

Sweatshirt - 1

Skirts - 13

Trousers/dress shorts - 3

Jeans - 5

Dresses - 29!

Jackets/Toppers/Blazers - 9

Coats and outerwear- 8

That comes to 103 items. I also counted a further 35 items that either need to be sold or passed on.

I actually thought it would be higher. I know from dressing myself that having few trousers is an issue, especially because I hate wearing stockings once the temperature starts to rise in spring. So trousers and a short sleeve top + sandals is a good option.

I tend to wear my dresses in summer and winter, same with the skirts. And I have a good mix of more formal and casual. I don’t need to add anything here unless I do Angie’s trick and send something on to a new home.

Tops - I am lacking a longer sleeved white blouse. I have a short sleeve one and a lovely light merino with a boat neck.

Here’s another great old post of Angie’s: https://youlookfab.com/2015/03.....-wardrobe/
I noticed one of the comments says “I like having a smaller wardrobe- it’s like a puzzle when I add a new item to try to make it work in as many different ways as possible”..... this idea really appeals to me! I think having a slightly smaller (albeit still medium sized) wardrobe will focus me better to do this rather than having a higgeldy-pigeldy approach to creating outfits. I hope to think more in terms of outfit capsules rather than an exponential amount of possible options.
Great thread, and my apologies for not replying personally to each person.

I haven't counted, but I suspect from the pile of washing waiting to be done (for some considerable time*!) that I have too many clothes! I wash the stuff I wear regularly, but have found that a lot of the more winter-orientated stuff has not been washed/worn in almost a year if not longer. For instance, my fleece pyjama sets have not been worn in a couple of summers, so I could probably get rid of the majority of them and not replace them.

I really need to do a proper weeding of the washing pile, and donate a lot of it! I think I have several longline chunky cardigans in there, which I haven't worn in a couple of years since I tend to wear hoodies now rather than cardigans for warmth.

*Sadly, weather and time act against me when doing washing, as we don't have a drier so I line-dry everything and even in the heatwave we've just had I didn't manage to do a huge amount of washing because I worked extra shifts. Hopefully, if the thunderstorms go away I can get several loads done this week!

You all make interesting points and I enjoyed reading the comments...

Organization makes me happy, and I have really enjoyed keeping track of my wardrobe and counting wears etc for the last year and a half. I think because my life with an interesting/stressful job and two little boys, I like having perfect control over this one thing!

I get stressed from having too many clothes to choose from. I like choosing which of my two pair of sandals to wear in the morning. Having 5 choices is just too much.

And of course I don't like having stuff that doesn't feel quite right, or stuff that just doesn't go with the rest of the wardrobe. I had a pair of red cords that I really liked, but I had the worst time finding tops to wear with them. I let them go and felt so much happier.

Following YLF helped me figure this out, and I feel content with my current wardrobe. For 4 seasons- mostly extreme summer and winter- I have 117 items including clothes, shoes, and outerwear, but not including gear (exercise/camping), underclothes, or accessories (plenty of scarves). Not minimal exactly, but I think I am more of a curator than a hoarder. I use bins to store off-season clothes and shoes, so looking in the closet is not overwhelming and just puts a smile on my face in the morning.

So, after reading all of this yesterday I cleaned out my big "holding drawer" and bagged up more items to be donated - just one bag this time. This is probably the third time I've cleared things out over the past few years. I still didn't count officially but did a quick overview and I probably have about 170 items of "real" clothing (not work out gear, accessories, coats, etc.). Many of those items still don't get worn all that often, so going forward I don't plan to add too many more items, but may replace some for better, more wearable every day items. Thankfully after being on YLF all this time, I've learned enough about my personal tastes and needs (finally) that I'm not making as too many bad purchases these days. Like many others here I also enjoy a well organized closet that isn't stuffed too full.

I must admit though recently we've had some fires in the region and that makes me realize that none of my clothing is really that important. One evening in particular we thought we may need to evacuate and what did I pack? Two pair of shorts and a couple of tees - that was kind of an eye opener. I was much more concerned about packing my passport, a few paperwork things so I could still work, and a bottle of wine. lol

This is the spreadsheet with my numbers, hope it is self explanatory. It took me a while to fine tune the numbers. And I am still not able to stick to it 100%.

Archie, how did you come up with your max amounts? I’m always so curious about how people think about this stuff.

Someone mentioned collectors and curators upthread...I think a lot of us are both. So there is a real push-pull!

@SarahDB - I have split my whole wardrobe in 8 capsules. 4 capsules for spring/summer and 4 for fall/winter with different levels of dressines, 1 casual, 2 business casual and 1 dressy. Each capsule has 7 tops, 3 toppers, 5 bottoms, 1 dress, 2 outerwear winter, 1 outerwear summer, 4 pairs of shoes
2 handbags, 2 scarves. So for example for tops I have come up that I need 7x8=56 tops. Then I have arbitrary diveded them into different top categories - I love sweaters the best so 36 sweaters, 10 tees, 5 shirts and 5 blouses.

Archie this is very interesting. I like this approach. Since I retired I have discovered that I want to wear very different clothes for at home vs outside the home and the latter is different than what I used to wear to work. Also I seem to have different seasonal style personas. I think approaching these as completely separate capsules will be helpful. I will have to think about each of the capsule numbers. Your will be good starting points for my polished casual capsules I think. Thanks for posting.

Anchie, thanks! That's a really interesting approach and I can appreciate the logic of it. I have less need for clothing of different registers of formality since I work from home but I am intrigued to see if I can apply some of your approach to my own wardrobe. So, you have 2 "business casual" capsules for fall/winter and 2 more for spring/summer -- what distinguishes the 2 for the same season? Are they built around different colors, slightly different styles, different outfit formulas?