#58 - Wardrobe purge

I don't think of myself as a fashionista or even a girly-girl, so I am always appalled when I realize how many clothes I have.  Since I have recently been losing weight, my closet has been even more crammed than usual with 4 - yes, you read that right - sizes of clothes accumulating since the last time I even briefly looked through more than just the stuff on hangers by the door.  People seem to fall into the categories of "tosser" and "hoarder"; I am in the latter camp.

This goal was to motivate myself to get rid of some (at least 25) items that I no longer wear.  Over the last month, I have spent over 6 hours simply cycling through trying on clothes - one drawer or closet bar at a time - to see what fits.  I probably have twice my goal in the boxes to go to Goodwill (I stopped counting at the 25 mark), and I took out of the closet and dresser a number of things too worn to go in those boxes as well.  I still have far more clothes than I probably need.

However, doing this sort of purge when you are losing weight is more emotionally rewarding than the opposite - I thought I had one pair of jeans that I could currently fit into; I have seven.  Plus, it was good to reflect on the fact that I used to wear skirts and dresses fairly regularly to work.  I'm not sure why I stopped; I did get compliments when I wore them.  So, I moved some of those items towards the front where I would see them (and consequently wear them more often).  And, though I don't plan to wear it soon, it was fun to realize that there are items like my (graduate school era) interview suit that I can fit into again after 20 years.  Plus, I now have many extra hangers, so I won't need to spend time searching for empty ones each time that I do laundry.

I still am not quite finished, though I am counting the goal as done.  There are 10 items I'm calling "maybes" that I'm going to get a friend's opinion on to decide whether to keep.  And, I did not go through my t-shirt/sweatshirts that I wear around the house - perhaps later in the winter ...