How many clothes do you feel you need?

Unclutterer ForumsLiving SpacesClothing Closets

How many clothes do you feel you need?

(40 posts) (27 voices)

Started 1 year ago by themusiclivez
Latest reply from shebolt
RSS feed for this topic

Overall Rating: votes

Tags:

12 Next »

themusiclivez
Member

I may have posted about this in the past but am having trouble remembering. I am curious to know how many clothes you feel are necessary for YOU. I have been cutting back on my wardrobe and it feels great because I am getting more use out of the clothes that I actually DO like.

I had put on a couple of pounds and therefore got rid of a good amount of my pants. I still have a ton of work pants (like 12) - I don't need to buy any of those for a long time. I have two pairs of jeans and as silly as it sounds, it feels great to get such good use out of them!

I used to have around 30 pairs of shoes - now I am down to 15. I got rid of the ones that I had trouble walking in and all of the ones that were worn out. The funny thing? I know I could still do without at least another 5 or 6 pairs. Why did I buy so many in the past???

Posted 1 year ago #
jbeany
Member

Right now, it seems like too many, no matter how often I've purged in my closet. My sister gives me a lot of hand-me-downs, as her job makes having a wardrobe in touch with current trends a requirement. (I love hand-me-downs now, unlike having to wear her cast-offs when I was a kid!) I am currently going through a major change in life style, and will be working in a professional office for the first time in over a decade. I used to cull out the hand-me-downs that fit my dressed-down lifestyle, and donate all the professional wear. Now, with the new job coming soon, I'm saving the work clothes that are the most flattering. I realize I can't afford a whole office appropriate wardrobe from scratch on my budget, so I will need these clothes, but at the moment, they hang there, unused. I'm not thrilled with having so many things not currently in use, but I keep weeding out the casual part of my wardrobe instead.

Posted 1 year ago #
ValH
Member

I would say I need:
5 pairs of long pants (2 jeans, two trousers, and one nicer pair of black trousers).
5 pairs of shorts of capris (or any type)
10 button up work shirts (5 short sleeve and 5 long sleeve).
14 t-shirts (I wear them under my work shirts and on weekends).
1 Jacket
2 Sweatshirts
1 pair of sweatpants

While not all are truly necessary, that amount of cloths means I can go two weeks without doing the laundry and I would not want to cut it back so that I would have to wash my clothes more frequently. And it is difficult because I don't want to wear my work clothes when I am not working, so I essentially need two different sets of clothes.

That being said, I have more than that. I have closer to 20 T-shirts (although a lot of ones are specific science shirts that I wear in my class the day we are learning about that subject) and I have about 12 pairs of shoes, even though I only wear a couple regularly, and two more jackets than I need. But it is hard to cut back too much. If I see something that I really like and is a really good price it is hard to tell myself to not get it then and only replace something when it is worn out.

Posted 1 year ago #
lucy1965
Member

I need to add a few pieces. I don't own any button-down shirts, blouses or sweaters at the moment, my current pair of dress shoes is 15 years old and I need a pair of jeans without holes in them.

Posted 1 year ago #
chacha1
Member

How many clothes do I NEED - whoa. About 1/4 to 1/5 as many as I have.

For work, I "need" five bottoms and five tops per week, 2 pairs of shoes, and various underpinnings. I have at least three times this much in the way of work options.

For lounging around the house, I "need" 2-3 bottoms and tops. This is where I am closest to having uncluttered my clothes; I only have twice as much as I need. I don't wear shoes indoors.

For social dancing, I "need" only one dress and pair of shoes. I have at least a dozen dresses and as many sets of separates. I also have six pairs of dance shoes.

For competition & shows, I "need" one latin and one ballroom dress. I have at least three of each.

Worst of all, I have four or five pairs of dress shoes (not for dancing) that I almost never wear. Because when we go out we are either walking or dancing.

Oy.

I think the first thing I need to do is find one or two pairs of shoes that will really, truly work well for non-dancing outings and for work, and clear out all the stuff that only works for one application. No unitaskers!!

Posted 1 year ago #
Anita
Member

I do laundry once a week.

I'd say that, for my personal comfort, I NEED to have enough clothes that, regardless of what I do that week (work, dance, go on photo shoots, work out, sit around the house in my pj's, go hiking etc) or how much of it I do, I will have enough fresh clothes to keep me covered if I need to skip one laundry day for any reason.

Yes, this makes my "minimum" wardrobe quite large and diverse. But I'd rather have clothes that enable a flexible lifestyle than an easily manageable but limiting/boring wardrobe.

Posted 1 year ago #
themusiclivez
Member

I am glad to know that I am not alone in the "too many clothes" department. I really want to cut back and haven't purchased anything in the longest time. I'm using up/wearing out what I have first but it's taking so long! I can't believe how wasteful I was, buying all of these unnecessary clothes. When I had 30 pairs of shoes I didn't even think twice. Now that I am down to 15 I still feel it is too many - how didn't I think that when I was buying pairs #29 and #30??

Posted 1 year ago #
Jillian
Member

I actually unloaded about five or six hefty bags of clothes and shoes to the thrift store that my mother works at not too long ago because I had WAY too much also. I too had around thirty pairs of shoes, but since I've found a pair of insanely comfortable shoes (boat shoes to be exact) that go with everything I own, I've cut my shoe collection down to just those, a couple different pairs of heels, rain boots, running shoes, and shiny black 20-eye Doc Martens. I still have a lot of clothing, but I enjoy having variety, like Anita said. It feels good not having as much as I did, even if I do still have quite a bit. It works for my young, busy lifestyle. Congrats for shaving your wardrobe down. Here's hoping you can shave your shoes some more too. :}

Posted 1 year ago #
Jude2004
Member

I own 4 pairs of shoes. 1) Snow boots that I've had since the early 1980s. 2) A pair of hiking boots. 3) A pair of slightly dressier black shoes that I almost never wear. 4) A pair of walking shoes which I wear every day until they're worn out. Then I go buy another pair. I'm not into counting how many clothes I own, but I've never been fanatical about clothing. I *do* have my wedding dress because my mother made it and it's beautiful. Aside from her labor, it cost $50.00 in material. It's machine washable, so I've had no qualms lending it for plays, including a high school production of Fiddler on the Roof.

Posted 1 year ago #
trillie
Member

@themusiclivez: Wow, you cut your shoe collection in half -- impressive! :oD I have a hard time letting go of shoes (but then again, I usually fall in love with and buy expensive ones, so they don't accumulate too fast LOL). I often think that women like shoes and scarves so much because they'll fit no matter how much you currently weigh ;o)

I often think that I only wear a fraction of the clothes I own, and even though I did a big closet purge a few months ago I think there are still a lot of pieces that can go. Right now, my wardrobe (one shelf and one clothes rail, about 1m wide) and a dresser with 5 drawers are full, not stuffed, but full, and usually pick stuff from the top... so thanks for the nudge! Let me have a look at my clothes this week, I'll report back on what will be left over ;o)

Btw: If you click on your own nickname, you'll end up on your profile page, and at the bottom, there is a section called "Topics Started" where you'll find a link to your other threads :o) (Edit: Here it is, for the record!)

Posted 1 year ago #
themusiclivez
Member

trillie - Thank you! I thought I had started a similar thread before and now I know where to look for them in the future!

This may sound silly but I want to actually get to the point where I truly NEED to buy new clothes. I spent so many years accumulating that now I am at the point where I just want to use them up and need new items when I go to the store. If I buy anything new right now I will know that it isn't a necessity!

Posted 1 year ago #
Klyla
Member

I agree with Anita...enough clothes to do ANYTHING I like to do for a week. And I'll add...enough to go on a vacation to any climate I choose for at least a week.

I recently pared down a LOT but probably wouldn't die if I got rid of a few more items...who knew I had so many shoes?!

Since my recent purge, I'm going to try to stick to the "one in, one out" rule.

Posted 1 year ago #
lazycow
Member

Enough underwear for at least a week. Jeans, cords, going out pants, a few skirts, roll neck thin jumpers, a couple of jackets, winter coat, a couple of dresses, t shirts, 4-5 long sleeved tops, track pants, knee high boots, 1 pr runners, summer sandals/shoes. Hmmm, I have all of those, and at least several more of each item, though I've pared down my shoe collection (including thongs and ugg boots) from around 16 to 11.

Posted 1 year ago #
Olga
Member

Wonderful subject , is very hard for me to let go of shoes that I used to wear, but now because of health problems I'm only able to walk in well padded sneakers, it drives me nuts not wearing nice sandals and ballet shoes, so what to do ,on one side I hope to get better, but at 67 is very easy to choose comfort over fashion.
Sorry about the rambling.

Posted 1 year ago #
SunshineR
Member

@Olga: there are some very pretty shoes out there...I understand about not feeling well...I have been through years where all I could wear were New Balance running shoes, or thick flip-flops. You might be just like me and prefer to try on the shoes in person. One girl whom I know wears Crocs. They have some new styles if you don't care for clogs.

Posted 1 year ago #
bandicoot
Member

i wear birkenstocks all the time and i have been through phases of having too many pairs.
i've narrowed it down though and i've got ten pairs.
i can only get a pair now if i get rid of a pair.

clothes, hmmm, i have a kind of uniform of linen/cotton/silk.
i've got about a dozen or fourteen shirts in three different styles.
i've got about a dozen trousers in three different styles.
these clothes do me for travel, meetings, trips to town, dinner parties, restaurants....any occasion that requires more than my work clothes.
i wear them to shreds and then get more made in the same patterns by the same tailor i've had for the last 15 years.

my work is very hard on clothes and i have a drawer full of revolting old t shirts and yoga pants, everything in stretch cotton/lycra......and i use these as lounging pyjamas, work clothes and exercise gear as needed.

our climate is suitable for it, so we wear sarongs a lot around the house....i have five and my husband has three and they get a lot of wear.

then various underpinnings (love that word!) and socks (we stick to black or white cotton) that probably need a good sorting out again.

our climate doesn't vary much through the year.....we basically get a hot wet season and a dry season which is a bit colder.....so the same clothes do us year round mostly.

i do have a bag of wonderful large scraps of linen/silk/cotton from past clothing and i keep thinking about a quilt.
maybe in a few years when there are enough.

Posted 1 year ago #
foilhead1
Member

Olga, I, too, am stuck wearing Merrels, I do love them, and they are coming out with more styls, but comfort is imporant to me now. I would love to find a pair of comfortable boots to wear with skirts. I own 6 pair of Merril mules.

Posted 1 year ago #
Zora
Member

How strange to read these posts. You're all so rich. I have enough clothes for 1 week, if I'm careful. 4 pair of long pants (salwars), 3 tunics (kameez), 4 shorts, 8 T-shirts, 8 pair of underpants, 4 bras, and one pair of shoes that are on the verge of falling apart. Oh, and 5 nightgowns. And a collection of handwoven saris that I love but never wear.

Of course, I sew the salwar-kameez and shorts for myself, so I can sew up more when I have time. Right now I'm finishing up old soft-furnishings projects. Decluttering my projects.

Because of the shoes, I can't go anywhere at all dressy. In fact, I feel embarrassed to go out in them at all. But I live in the US, where there is no real social safety net, and I'm old, crippled, and poor.

Posted 1 year ago #
bandicoot
Member

zora, please email me: patti.flynn AT gmail.com

Posted 1 year ago #
foilhead1
Member

Wow Zora has put things in perspective. If I had to sew my own basic clothing, I would have fewer of them for sure. Thanks for sharing, Zora!!!

Posted 1 year ago #

12 Next »

Reply »

You must log in to post. If you do not already have an account, you can register here.