a lot of clothes, nothing to wear--need to simplify!

[mamaley]

i'm working to simplify my home and i'm starting in our closets. i own a lot, am not in love with much of it, but always justify keeping things by saying that i could use it for something. i would like to own just enough to where my small closet and my 2 dresser drawers are not overflowing. i keep a lot of my clothes in laundry baskets and on the floor. or, should i keep it all and get more storage? but then that wouldn't be simplifying, would it?
how do i go about doing this? how much do you own?

[momto l&a]

I have way to many clothes also I love to have a large varity to wear and I get all my clothes cheeply so I dont feel bad in that respect but it sure does take alot of room to store.

There is a lady on Mothering who has just one closet of clothes for her family plus of course dressers for the things that dont hang.She is organized and really knows how to simplify.

[Midnight Mom]

I have way more than I need. I hardly ever get rid of clothes. I need to simplify too. Maybe this will get me motivated.

I think if I'm looking at my winter clothes and I have not worn something for the past two winters, ditch it. Same goes for every season and shoes too. I keep shoes that I never wear anymore. why, why, why do I do this???

[MamaMonica]

If you go through and find what clothes you love and just keep those, you might find the number isn't so high. Also- if you find yourself wearing about 4 things- just keep those!

Pack the summer stuff away in winter (and vice versa), but keep it down to what you'll actually wear.

If you don't wear it regularily, ask yourself why and use the info. to decide if you wan to keep it or free up the space and the time it takes to maintain them.

Good luck simplifying! It's very freeing.

[plum]

ugh. i have way too many clothes and i don't like most of them. i fit my pre-preggo stuff now but i don't have an interest in wearing it. i have been doing laundry for three days to wash it all. i'm planning on having a rummage sale when it gets warmer.

i found a hanro camisole in my underwear stuff. i looked it up online: those things start at $48 dollars! why do i have this? why did i buy it? it doesn't do me any good anyway since my are now too big.

i hear you on the simplifying. i have found clothes that i know for a fact dh only wore once.

[LdyBluNH@aol]

the only caveat i'd make to the "if you dont wear it regularly" is that you need to have one outfit for a funeral and/or nice dinner

just in case

if its the same outfit that's fine LOL but you have to have one thing that is nice (which is presuming that you live in jeans and tees like i do)

some folks just wear nice anyways but i've never met any with preschoolers that do that ; )

[momto l&a]

I found this to be helpful.

Not a feng shui person but I like the "we wear 20% of our clothes 80 % of the time."

[anythingelse]

take out everything that does not fit, that has a stain or rip and give it away to charity, then go back in and get rid of anything you have not worn in the last three years.

Look through what is left, if you live in climate with seasonal clothing, pull out the winter to box away for next winter. sort what is left into outfits to hang together, if you have tops with no bottoms or vice versa, get rid of them

check each outfit to make sure you have shoes that go with

pitch the shoes that don't go with anything

I do this 2x a year and it makes life much easier, I also hang things in order of how I wear them so I am not wearing the same thing over and over - I grab an outfit from the left side of my closet and then hang clean stuff at the end of the line on the right. If I take a pass on an outfit repeatedly ( cause of weather or bloating) or they are my glitter jeans from contempo and we are going to Church or can't make myself wear it after all, I try to mix match again I try to shop about four times a year and I also get rid of special occasion items after wearing them a couple times cause I like to have something new.

[pie]

I worked in vintage clothing for years. I am kind of a packrat with clothes. I have TWO closets full of coats and jackets of mine, dh's and ds's. mostly mine. I need to dig out.

[fyrflymommy]

Originally posted by momto l&a
I found this to be helpful.

the link doesn't work

[turquoise]

Originally posted by fyrflymommy
the link doesn't work

dahdahDAH! The linking queen enters the thread:

http://www.care2.com/channels/solutions/bms/1152

:LOL

Cool site!

[ajsmom]

I used to get stains from ds on my shirts so everything was getting trashed. Now I wear lots of white knit tops that I can bleach if I have to. I hate bleach but if oxyclean doesn't do it I spray a water/cleach solution on the stain to minimize bleach smell.

When I find clothes I like I now buy another the same so one is always clean. I seem to own a lot of khaki shorts. They get stained too but having more than one allows me to catch the stain and get it into soak and pop the other pair on me so I don't have to start from scratch on dressing.

My problem is putting clothes on then needing to put cooler stuff on later if the fog burns off and it warms up.

I don't have winter clothes to put away but I have no space to put them away, whew!

I have two dresses I haven't worn in at least a year. One fancy too tight dress I can't let go of and my wedding dress from 1984! Some of the things we keep...

[momto l&a]

Thanks turquoise!

[alsoSarah]

T
Hey, ajsmom, what ratio of bleach to water do you use? My favorite T-shirt of ds' has a stain that I completely overlooked.... now it has been washed and dried on the hottest setting.

I was thinking about dabbing some bleachy water on the stain with a cotton swab, or something....

(Happily the stain is on the white, background-y part, not the colored print.)

Thanks for your help,
alsoSarah

[ajsmom]

I think it was 50/50. It's bleachy but then when I was it with other white things I vinegar rinse so it doesn't smell bleachy. I use a spray bottle and sometimes get right on top of the stain so it doesn't spread.

When my colored shirts got stained I used to tye-dye them!

[alsoSarah]

Thanks so much!