I’m guilty of buying more summer dresses than I need. I’m a textbook case of not buying for the life I have - I spend a week a year at the beach, plus other time here and there, but I always want to buy beach clothes.

I just went through and purged a few dresses. Other summer clothes are easier, because if they are too casual I can just make them casualwear until they fall apart. Dresses are tougher. So I am aiming to pass on a few. I think I have not been picky enough about what I keep in the past, and I’m looking to make more sophisticated choices.

I am only subjecting you to my usually terrible photos of the ones I’m not sure about. ( excuse the wrinkles as I don’t have a great storage system and am a terrible folder anyway.)

1. This is a Boden dress I used to love. There was a laundry incident last year and some of my clothes shrunk. (Including my one romper. Sigh.) I can’t recall if this was always the length of this dress, or if it was a victim of that shrinking. Probably the latter. I like the dress except for the length right now. There is only about enough material to make it half an inch longer. I think I’d want more than that.

2. I think the shape doesn’t do much for me? This is a Boden dress too, but unlike the first one, I was never sure I loved it. One of the downsides of shopping Boden is that you have to be very sure you should keep something. I am better about it now.

3. Cat photo bomb!

4. J Crew dress. Is this too twee? I used to favor this dress shape a lot. I still have a couple of other dresses of this shape that I want to keep, but had to purge another one that is now too small. I could justify keeping this. That said, The zippper also sticks, and not because it’s too tight. Makes it hard to put on. That’s another reason for passing it on, but I do like it otherwise. I lean towards keeping this honestly.