The sun has set on yet another month, so it’s time for another accountability update.  In this post, I share what left my closet, what came in, and how I’m doing in terms of my clothing budget for the year. Also included are some stats on what I wore during August and an update on my “wardrobe benchwarmer” project.

You may remember that in my July benchwarmer update, I committed to making decisions on all 45 of the remaining “benchwarmers” in my wardrobe (for those who are new to this blog, a benchwarmer is something I wore only once or not at all during 2012).  Well, those decisions have been made and I reveal my verdicts below.

I’m Still a Shopaholic, But I’m Learning and Growing

There’s a lot to cover in this post, so it’s a long one!  The news is not all good, but the growth and learning continues.  Although I am still a shopaholic in many senses of the word, I’m definitely in a much better place than I was at the beginning of 2013.  While I still have a long way to go, I acknowledge the positive changes I’ve made and know I will continue to transform my relationship to  shopping and my wardrobe as the months progress.

Continue reading →

At the beginning of this year, I designated two new categories for the items in my closet, “wardrobe all-stars” and “wardrobe benchwarmers.”  Since I have been tracking how often I wear everything I own since the start of 2011, I had accumulated a lot of data about my clothing and shoes.  I learned that like most people, I wear some items a lot and other pieces rarely, if at all.  I decided to categorize all pieces that were worn at least eight times in a given year as “all-stars” and anything that I didn’t wear at all or only wore once as “benchwarmers.”

My Sad Statistics for 2011 and 2012

Sadly, I learned that in 2012, I only had 39 “all-stars” (26 garments and 13 pairs of shoes), which constituted roughly 12% of my wardrobe.  In contrast, I had 146 “benchwarmers” (125 garments and 21 pairs of shoes), a full 45% of what was in my closet!  That’s right; close to half of what I owned was only worn once at best last year.  Clearly, something had to change!  So I created what I termed “The Wardrobe Benchwarmer Project” in order to address the large proportion of my wardrobe that wasn’t seeing the light of day.

My January closet – the binder clips all designate “wardrobe benchwarmers.”

Continue reading →

About a month ago, I introduced my “Wardrobe Benchwarmer Project,” which is a catchy term for my efforts to wear and evaluate everything in my closet this year.  In 2012, I had 146 garments and shoes which were only worn once or not worn at all during the entire year!  I termed these items “wardrobe benchwarmers” (because they sat on the sidelines in my closet) and I was quite dismayed to learn that they constituted close to half of my wardrobe!

I love a good challenge and this year is all about challenge for me in terms of my wardrobe and shopping.  I’ve created compelling goals and strict rules for myself in order to overcome my destructive compulsive shopping habit, and I’ve also decided to address my “wardrobe benchwarmers” head on.  Each month, I will address one or more categories of benchwarmers, wear the items in question, and make definitive decisions as to whether they should remain in my wardrobe or be passed on for someone else to use and enjoy.

Continue reading →

We all have favorite items in our wardrobes, things that we regularly reach for when getting dressed each day.  In contrast, there are other pieces that languish in our closets and rarely see the light of day.  Most people only wear 20% of their clothing on a regular basis, while the rest of what they own is merely taking up valuable closet space and leading to a false sense of having a large wardrobe.

It is one thing to think we aren’t wearing most of what we have, but it’s quite another situation to know this empirically.  The wardrobe tracking that I’ve done over the past two years has shown me the cold, hard truth of what I do and don’t wear.

Wardrobe “All-Stars” and “Benchwarmers”

I’d like to introduce two terms which I will use regularly in future posts:  “wardrobe all-stars” and “wardrobe benchwarmers.”   For my purposes (and you can, of course, create your own parameters), I have defined a “wardrobe all-star” as an item that gets worn eight or more times per year.  I know this is a fairly conservative distinction, and I would eventually like to be wearing my closet favorites far more often than that.  But for someone with a wardrobe of over 300 pieces, I think it’s a good place to start.

Continue reading →