Bijou I wish you comfort in a stepped-up loungewear game! Great point about people keeping really good jeans until they wear out. Although, every time people on the forum mention donating their low-rise jeans I think: I ought to go thrifting and try to find some low-rise jeans! Truth is I haaaaate thrifting for jeans though, so tedious.
FashIntern interesting idea about whether my lounge/pj/gear experience could help me figure out those harder to manage categories. My sense right now is that those other categories contain a lot of items that are hard to wear because I lack completer pieces (e.g., lots of blue shirts that I would get a lot more wear out of if I had a pair of gray jeans). But I need to ponder further...
lisa p well I'm sorry to have given you the sense of having "homework" but I do hope your closet sorting is productive! YES to sub-seasonal capsules!! I look forward to learning how you make this work in your new space.
Angie, yes, when I start to see it all as a jigsaw puzzle it CAN be fun! You are dead right about "you can't buy something that isn't there." It's frustrating, but there's nothing for it but patience. I have some great 3/4-sleeve tops to wear with my skirts, and I keep feeling like there ought to be an equivalent sleeveless version that would enable me to wear them in warmer weather. Haven't had luck yet. That's ok. Skirts will likely be a mild summer outfit formula for me this year. I can wear my sundresses, or shorts and lightweight popover tops, on the hottest days.
On the "patience" front, I had another realization the other day. I realized that because I have framed this "wardrobe-building" endeavor as a one-year process, I was feeling the pull of a sort of panic buying -- like I had better amass the most complete possible wardrobe before "time's up." No!!!! Wrong approach! I do believe that at the end of this year I will see marked improvements in the structure and function of my wardrobe. That was my goal. Not a "complete" wardrobe. It is often better to go slow anyway. Then I can try something out and find out if it is really the direction I want to go before committing to it. And sometimes I find out that I need fewer items in a category than I thought I did.
Sterling, your responses are always so generous. Thank you for your kind words. And thank you for your wisdom about the pleasure of good loungewear. I will definitely be putting your advice into practice.
