Accountability

by

A Year Later: January-March 2015 Purchase Update

Anyone who has been reading this blog for a while knows that I publish monthly accountability updates. These posts (see the most recent one here) include what came into and left my closet in a given month -and why, as well as how I’m doing with my clothing budget and item limit for the year.  It has been very helpful for me to do these updates, as they help me to stay honest and on track with my wardrobe and shopping goals. I will publish my February accountability update next week, but today I would like to introduce a new series that I will feature on the blog.

In past years, I have periodically reviewed my purchases to analyze which ones worked, which ones didn’t, and why (see examples here, here, and here).   Although these posts were helpful, sometimes I did them too soon after the time period I was reviewing, so I was not yet sure whether certain buys were good or ill-advised.   I can now look back at these purchase reviews and see that many of the assessments I made at the time were wrong.

Good or bad purchase

How do you feel about the items you bought a year ago?

Continue reading →

by

January 2016 Accountability Update

It’s time for my first accountability update of 2016!  For those who are new to the blog, these monthly reports are where I share what came into and left my closet, what I wore, and how I did with my shopping budget and item limit.  Sharing what I bought, what I culled, and how much I spent helps me to stay honest and on track with my wardrobe and shopping goals.

In future months, I’m also going to include an update on how I’m doing with my theme for the year, “balance,” but this time around I will dedicate a separate post to that topic, to be published later this week. Since I will be packing so much into these monthly updates, the format is going to change somewhat over previous years.  I will go into less detail in each section and in most instances will give more general summaries on what I bought and what I purged rather than doing an itemized account.

Telling the Truth Continue reading →

by

Wardrobe and Shopping Goals for 2016

I have mostly completed my wrap-up posts for 2015.  The only other post in that category I will be doing is a purchase analysis of everything I bought last year (see January through June review here), which I hope to share with you next week.  In my all-star, benchwarmer, and LIWI updates (part one | part two), I outlined a number of goals for my wardrobe and shopping for this year.   In today’s post, I consolidate all of those objectives, refine a few of them, and add a couple of new ones that I hadn’t previously mentioned.

2016 wardrobe and shopping goals

Budget

I am going to stick to the same clothing budget as I had last year, $2500 for the entire year.  It worked well for me to reduce my budget from 2014 to 2015 and I may reduce it further next year. But since I am still working on revamping my wardrobe after having refined my style over the past year and a half, I think that sticking to the same budget is my best approach for 2016.

Continue reading →

by

2015 By the Numbers: Wardrobe Benchwarmers and More Statistics

Earlier this week, I shared the good news portion of my 2015 wardrobe review, my closet “all-stars.”  I appreciate all of the wonderful and detailed comments I received on that post.  Some of you asked such great questions and made such insightful points that I now have several ideas for future posts. I really do get some of my best post ideas from readers.

Before I delve into the flip side of my wardrobe numbers for last year, the “benchwarmers,” I would like to share some more statistics about my 2015 closet tracking that I probably should have included in my last post.

2015 wardrobe benchwarmers Continue reading →

by

2015 By the Numbers: The Wardrobe “All-Stars”

I am devoting a large proportion of my January posts to wrapping up last year.   It’s now time to take a look at some more statistics, this time my wardrobe “all-stars” for 2015.  I have now been tracking my wardrobe for five years!   Ever since the beginning of 2011, I’ve recorded how often I’ve worn the clothing and shoes in my closet.   I mostly only track “out and about” clothing, but I’ve started tracking at least some of my at-home wardrobe as well.  There is now more crossover between the two areas, as I’ve started wearing more of my “regular” clothes at home, especially the tops.

2015 wardrobe all-stars

Each year, I’ve aimed to improve upon my stats from the previous year.   Seeing that 2012’s numbers were just as abysmal as those from 2011 was what prompted me to start this blog in January 2013.  In my initial goals for the blog, I set 8 times per year as my desired frequency of wear for most wardrobe items (with formal and special occasion wear as exceptions). I knew I wouldn’t reach that target overnight, so I aimed for 25% in the first year of the blog and 33% the second year.  I ended up wearing 20% of my wardrobe at least 8 times during 2013 and slightly less than that (17%) in 2014.

Continue reading →