How much clothing do you have?
I just read a great post over at Economies of Kale. She went through all her clothing and tallied up exactly how much she has of each type (similar to this guy, but not as extreme). It has inspired me to do the same :)
But first, here's some pictures of where I store my clothes. Almost all of my tops and sweaters are in this closet (the baskets up top are for sheets and out of season clothes):
In the spare bedroom's closet, I hang all the clothes that are too tempting for my cats - anything with dangly bits or lace edging, and long dresses. I keep jeans, shorts, hoodies, and pajamas in my dresser drawers (my husband and I share a dresser); socks and underwear are kept in my nightstand.
On to the tallies:
73 Tops
34 Bottoms
22 Outerwear
92 Other
Whoa, that's a lot of clothing! I honestly didn't think I had that much. My number of short sleeve shirts is super high, but that includes casual shirts, dressy shirts for work, and freebie shirts from volunteering that I wear to garden, clean, and exercise. The casual ones are worn in the winter too - as a base layer under sweaters or hoodies. Even after looking through them twice, I only found one shirt I'd be willing to part with (it's not included in the tally). I guess short sleeve shirts are my clothing weakness. ;) I also found a long sleeve shirt, a pair of sweatpants, and a weird set of earmuffs (they'd been tucked away and forgotten) to donate. Everything else is fine to stay - I wear it often enough to justify keeping.
Intrigued?
The average women owns 17 pairs of shoes, and buys 60 new pieces of clothing a year.
So how much clothing do you have? Let's pretend you're Goldilocks - do you have too much, too little, or just the right amount? :)
But first, here's some pictures of where I store my clothes. Almost all of my tops and sweaters are in this closet (the baskets up top are for sheets and out of season clothes):
On to the tallies:
73 Tops
- Tank tops: 9
- Short sleeve shirts: 28
- Long sleeve shirts: 13 (+1 jersey - I'll give you one guess as to which team)
- Sweaters: 17 (a popular Christmas gift)
- Hoodies: 5
34 Bottoms
- Jeans: 5
- Capris: 2
- Shorts: 5 (+1 skort that I should probably be embarrassed to admit that I wear)
- Skirts: 8
- Pants: 10
- Workout pants: 3 (shorts, capris, insulated pants)
22 Outerwear
- Coats: 3 (spring/fall, winter, rain)
- Hats: 2
- Scarves: 2
- Mittens/gloves: 2 pairs
- Shoes: 12 (+1 pair of slippers)
92 Other
- Dresses: 6
- Bras: 9 (and 1 sports bra)
- Underwear: 15
- Long johns/thermal underwear: 2
- Pajamas: 5
- Socks: 53 (I wish I was kidding. My mom, grandmother, and MIL buy me socks for Christmas every year and I can't wear them out fast enough. This past Christmas I quietly returned all sock presents.)
- Swimsuits: 1
Grand total: 221
Whoa, that's a lot of clothing! I honestly didn't think I had that much. My number of short sleeve shirts is super high, but that includes casual shirts, dressy shirts for work, and freebie shirts from volunteering that I wear to garden, clean, and exercise. The casual ones are worn in the winter too - as a base layer under sweaters or hoodies. Even after looking through them twice, I only found one shirt I'd be willing to part with (it's not included in the tally). I guess short sleeve shirts are my clothing weakness. ;) I also found a long sleeve shirt, a pair of sweatpants, and a weird set of earmuffs (they'd been tucked away and forgotten) to donate. Everything else is fine to stay - I wear it often enough to justify keeping.
Intrigued?
The average women owns 17 pairs of shoes, and buys 60 new pieces of clothing a year.
So how much clothing do you have? Let's pretend you're Goldilocks - do you have too much, too little, or just the right amount? :)
Ohhhh, I want to do this now! Well, I don't WANT to, but I need to. ;-) I'd say "wow, that's a lot!" but I have a feeling I'll come in around the same. And I've got undergarments I simply don't wear...too bad they still count, hee hee.
ReplyDeleteI know! I don't feel like I have a ton of clothes, but apparently I do!
DeleteEver since I heard Sherry only has one bra I've questioned how many I actually need. I could definitely get rid of some (I think I could live with 3), but if they're still in decent shape and fit, why bother? ;)
holy. that's a lot. I'm not with the average woman. including ski boots I haven't worn in a few years, I have 5 pairs of footwear. I'd be surprised if I bought as much as a dozen new items of clothes a year, including socks.
ReplyDeletewonder how much clothes I have? some never unpacked from a move a couple years ago. I should do that count for curiosity some time.
Yeah I definitely don't buy 60 new pieces of clothing every year! If I had to guess, I'd say 10 a year, not including gifts. Maybe it's something I should keep track of just to see.
DeleteOy! I definitely have too much - even though I've hardly bought anything in the past 5 years except for bike clothes. I tend to wear things into the ground - literally until the fabric itself starts to disintegrate. My problem is that I still have a lot of professional wear and "nice" stuff that I don't really have opportunity to use these days. I'm slowly paring it back to a smaller number, and keeping only the things I really love, but it still mostly just sits there unused.
ReplyDeleteLately I've gotten inspired by Kristen over at The Frugal Girl. She's really into modifying clothing, and I've discovered that I can actually take old giant T-shirts (of which I have many) and modify them so they're fitted and actually look like something I might wear. Anyhow, I'm trying to "use up" what I have before going out to buy anything new.
I'm also trying to get rid of the things that are just hopeless and that I know I'll never wear. I'm currently agonizing over a pair of capri pants. They're cute and they fit well, it's just that they're made from this ultra thin, sheer cotton fabric so whatever kind of underwear you wear it's clearly visible - maybe that's in style, but it just makes me uncomfortable so I never wear them. Any ideas?
The professional wear is a big problem for me too. I feel like I need double the amount of clothing because I want casual outfits for home and dressy outfits for work.
DeleteOoh, I have plenty of huge shirts that I'd love to modify! I'll have to check out Kristen's site.
I guess the best solution for the capris would be to sew in a lining so they're not sheer, but I don't have the patience or skills to do that! Could you wear them as a cover-up to the beach or pool? Then it wouldn't matter as much that they're see through. Or maybe if you wore a very long top?
I read this and thought "eh, I probably don't have this many clothes" because A) I hate shopping and B) I am cheap and wear my clothes to tatters.
ReplyDeleteBut then, I packed up my closet to move. And filled up a box that is like 4 feet by 2 feet by 2 feet. With just my clothes. And that didn't even include the clothing that, oh, I am actually going to WEAR for the next 3 weeks. Egads.
I didn't think I had that much clothing before I started counting - putting it all together in one place was eye-opening.
DeleteAnd I loved that you used egads! ;)
I think that I probably have way more than that and I don't wear most of it. I recently became a stay at home mom and now I wear shorts and tshirts for most of the year with the exception of some yoga pants in the cold winter months. I don't wear most of the clothes now. I sold a bunch that I thought could make some money and the rest are sitting in the closet. I know that I should get rid of them but I know that I will need some of them if I go back to work in the next few years. Maybe I need to go through them and get rid of little bit more :) thanks for the post!!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I would love to get rid of all my professional clothing (except I actually need it for work . .) so that would be a tough choice for me if I decided to stay home. I'd say keep going through your clothes, you'll probably find some more things that could be donated/sold every time you do.
DeleteThis would be fun to do! I love your closet, it is so neat and clean. Mine is always a mess because its easy to close the closet doors and ignore it. I would be interested to see how many clothing items I have.
ReplyDeleteThank you! My closet is one of the few areas in my house that's almost always neat.
DeleteI love your closet, too! I have done this exercise but I didn't post the amount of underwear I have...I do own more than 50 pairs of socks, though! Like you I keep getting them as gifts! My tally is at:
ReplyDeletehttp://anexactinglife.com/2013/04/27/year-long-wardrobe-project-complete/
haha, I love hearing I'm not alone on the sock front! :)
DeleteI have more socks that I was willing to publish (but I did!). You certainly do have a lot of short sleeved shirts, I noted that out loud before I got to your conclusion!! Socks do in fact wear out, and then I've recently darned them, and back to full strength! My weakness is probably basics - singlets for under summer and winter stuff, and long sleeved tees as a basic for winter. Overall, I'm happy with how much I have, but I do sometimes think I don't have stuff suited to certain occasions, but I can't clearly identify what's missing.
ReplyDeleteI feel the same - I'm happy with what I have. And although I was shocked by my grand total, there wasn't much I was willing to part with. Everything's in decent shape, I wear almost everything regularly and some things, like long johns, I only wear once or twice a year but I'd never completely eliminate because then it'd go down to ten below and I'd be sorry! haha I have a similar weakness for basic tees and wear them year round - alone in summer, underneath in winter. They're so comfy too :)
Delete