What I have been doing through my whole pregnancy (as both a way to unclutter and to keep from crying when staring into my closet at all those things that don’t fit) is boxing up clothes as I grow out of them. I’ve labeled them with sizes and whether they’re maternity or not.

I can flip through the clothes hanging in my closet right now and know that all of them fit me. The boxed up clothes are smallest sizes on the bottom and bigger on the way up, so as my weight transitions, I can unpack them one by one.

For those of you who mentioned weight problems with illness, I went through that with IBS (and occasionally still do). Instead of organizing my closet by colors or by pants, tanks, blouses, etc. I would organize them by small, medium, large (whether those are the “real” sizes doesn’t matter). Start at one end and put all your clothes that fit when your super bloated, then work your way down to the smallest on the other end.

I may be a little touchier about clothing sizes than others, but for emotional sanity, I always put the larger clothes on the end of the closet I see first when I look into it. When you have to dig into the back for “fat clothes,” it makes you feel bad. However, if you get to dig around for slim clothes, it’s a little bonus. Plus reaching straight in for those “fat clothes” takes away some of the self-imposed hatred of them.

Thank you for being willing to talk about your situation so that we can have this interesting conversation. I sincerely hope things get better for you soon.

There’s been some great advice so far that I can use myself, thanks for this interesting topic.

Most of my clothes are uni in different shades of brown up to beige and some black pieces for formal occasions. As I’m not that keen on accesoires but have to look formal at work I’m a big fan of jackets. Those are the colourful parts of my warderobe and I can wear most of them during two sizes without looking wrong in it.
I’ll follow this concept now more consequently and will throw out some pieces permanently and store clothes of those sizes, that are wrong for me at the moment.

@Sylvia – I don’t like storage under my bed – we are sweating during our sleep (usually 200ml per night) and in my opinion air circulation around my mattress is important to me.

I’ll look for more flexible clothing like wrap dresses in future – that’s a great idea!

And just one comment about women, weight and especially my weight:
8 years ago I had shedded all those extra pounds and reached the weight, that is ideal for me as I feel good at it. And I was strong and relaxed enough to stay there for 5 years. But the last years have been like a rollercoaster : illness of myself and loved ones, death and unpredictable changes at work took over all my emotions and energy. Whenever I tried to focus on myself again (and my health and weight) another bad news hit me. While others might drink alcohol or smoke or live on caffeine I eat in situations like that. I hope, that I’m now on my way “back to normal” both for my life and my weight.

(Please excuse any mistakes, as I’m from Germany an my English is not the best.)

What makes this work for me is that I attend clothing swaps seasonally, so I have motivation to sort through things on a regular basis. Whenever I am going to a clothing swap, I pull down the box and see if anything can be recycled, or anything swapped out from regular rotation.

She has found that it is best to keep favorite, timeless pieces along with some pajamas in several different sizes. The clothes store very easily in our old cedar chest in the back of her closet – like you would store out-of-season clothing.

She wants to be comfortable in her clothing so she’s not going to force herself into tight clothing or baggy clothing, so I completely support the fact that she has multiple-sized clothes.

I guess it goes without saying, I don’t care what is in “style”.

Craig, I’m sure you meant well but you don’t understand what women go through daily, monthly, etc. with swelling and weight.

Women can also be “overweight” (i.e. carrying excess body fat) without getting into “oversized” territory. I think it’s more important for women to be really conscious of how they feel and to choose a certain size at which they feel vigorous, healthy, fit, and capable.

Just as an example, the smallest I’ve been as an adult was a size 6. My photos look great from that time. But that was at the end of a nine-month period trying to get an ex out of my apartment and I’d been living on coffee. I was not healthy! Since my life calmed down I’ve been a steady size 8. If my 8s feel tight, it’s usually because I’ve had too much sugar in my diet, and I adjust accordingly.

Craig’s comment was tactless, and not 100% accurate, but what, when, and how you eat is crucial to overall health and not just to size/weight. How much you eat (how many calories) is a different measure and may not address nutritional issues. If most of your calories come from processed foods high in sugars, size/weight management will be much more difficult than if most of your calories come from natural foods. For one thing, you can generally eat a greater volume of natural foods for the same calorie load as a smaller volume of processed/manufactured foods.

Sorry, this is long, but so many people chimed in with similar comments that I thought it might be useful.

Not all shapes look good on everyone, nor do all colors. Having only things that are the best for my body type/coloring takes a lot of guesswork out of the morning. Black and white make me look close to death and dressed funny to boot. Navy and light pink or peach, now, that makes me look really good.

Maximize the impact/versatility of every piece of clothing you have by making sure it’s the right piece for you.

Ruth

If you feel you have extra in each size, then maybe get rid of that but since your pattern is constant over the years, getting rid of entire sizes sounds like a bad idea.

And ignore Craig’s comment.

It’s kind of nice to know that my money won’t go to waste, and that I’ll hopefully get more years of wear out of all these nice pieces that otherwise wouldn’t fit.

Petra, I’d say if you have a large enough closet, separate the closet by sizes so you know where every size is. (Maybe put each size on a different hanger so it’s visually easy to identify.) If not, keep the current size that fits in your closet, and put everything else into “storage.” (Whether in the garage, basement, storage room, etc.) That way you can swap out wardrobes easily.

As far as decluttering goes, keep only the simple things that go with everything. Solid tops, jeans, black pants, a suit or two and maybe a few other things. If you have an “ideal” weight in mind that you would like to get to (or stay at), I think keeping more of your wardrobe in that size would be a good idea. Of course, keep only the things you love and actually wear when you are at that size.

Good luck!