Thanks for posting this thread! I was a very good student and did my homework, so I was waiting impatiently to post.:)
My challenge was to go through *all* my closet and take an inventory. I am very pleased to report that I have successfully completed this task. As I had mentioned, I had already started to this a few weeks ago, but I realized that there were mainly there groups of clothes that I still had to attend to. The first was a forgotten bag of what I presumed was mostly winter clothes. I was also still undecided about some of the items already in rotation (whether I want to keep them or not), and I had completely neglected my loungewear.
Happily, I completed the remaining portion this weekend bit by bit.
- All summer loungewear has been carefully checked, evaluated and if need be discarded.
- I pulled out a bag (my holding zone, if you will) from the far corner of my closet. It included some jeans and pants, and a couple of dresses, all from pre-pregnancy. These items have been carefully evaluated. I returned 2 summer dresses back into the bag to pack them up with summer clothes. I realized that I now fit into 2 pairs of jeans, and 2 winter weight dresses. They are still in good condition, and I still like them. So they earned their right to a precious spot in my closet. Finally, I decided gave away 2 pairs of casual pants, and one dress.
- Finally, there were a few items that I was undecided about in the last purge, so I said goodbye to them this time around.
As a result, I am the happy owner of a brand new, shiny excel spreadsheet with my wardrobe items (does not include loungewear, special capsules, layering camis and such - just the actual weekday and weekend clothes).
As a result of this exercise, I discovered something fascinating! For the last two years, I had been operating with a relatively smaller wardrobe, due to pregnancy, and its aftermath. So I assumed that my actual wardrobe size had considerably shrunk. I have however, come to find out that there are approximately 100 items of clothing in my closet - pretty much the exact same number as two years ago, before pregnancy! So I guess that's my number!
I was also able to crunch some numbers:
- About 1/5 of all my clothes are from Mango! There is a store very close to my house, and I am able to go there at very quiet hours throughout the week, so I am usually able to catch good stuff on sale. I also know the brand well, and can judge easily what will and will not fit me. So it's easy for me to shop there, especially when I am short on time.
- About 30% of my clothes are either black or gray. Another 10% is navy. I like my neutrals.
- The only patterns in closet are florals and stripes. This is kind of surprising, bec-ause I think I love animal prints. I must be getting more conservative.
Final thoughts:
I realized that I receive a lot of clothing (both as gift and as new-with-tag hand me downs), particularly from my sister and my mother-in-law. There are the items that bother me the most in my closet. Once in a while, there will be something really great. But 9 times out of 10, they will be things that are either not in line with my taste, or not really suitable for my lifestyle. I don't wear them, but I can't bring myself to get rid of them either (out of guilt?), so they will sit there unworn, and bother me. I should really think about this more and decide how to move away from this situation.
Thanks for reading. Ok, now off to read others' progress on their challenges.
