Wardrobe Management

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How Many Clothes are Enough?

Since the beginning of the year, I’ve reduced the size of my wardrobe by almost half, yet I still feel like I have too many clothes.  As I’ve progressed on my “Recovering Shopaholic” journey, I’ve frequently pondered the question, “How many clothes are enough?”

I’ve touched on this subject in a number of previous posts and even wrote more extensively about it in “What is a Normal-Sized Wardrobe?”  But my perspective has continued to evolve since writing that article back in February.  In today’s post, I avoid discussion of normal versus abnormal and instead look at the more individual subject of “enoughness.”

How much is enough?

Do you know many clothes are enough for you?

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Useful Links to Help You “Shop Your Closet”

Many of us are trying to pare down our wardrobes, shop less often, and add fewer pieces to our closets. However, we sometimes worry that in doing so, we might sacrifice style and not look as polished and put together as we’d like.

We often think we need to buy more in order to cultivate new looks and keep our style fresh.  While buying new pieces is one way to update our look, it’s not the only way.  There is a lot of possibility waiting to be unleashed inside our very own closets!  Today’s useful links post focuses on the practice of “shopping your closet” and how it can help us to save money, better use what we have, and amp up our style quotient.

Shop Your Closet

There is more possibility in your closet than you think!

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Decisions, Decisions… The Keep or Purge Question

Many women (and a lot of men…) have too many clothes in their closets. Even those who don’t struggle with overshopping generally have more garments, shoes, and accessories than they know what to do with, as they continue bringing new things in without moving old things out.

Closet Overwhelm

How do you decide what stays and what goes in your closet?

Having More Choices Isn’t Better or Easier

We often hang on to our clothes because we believe more choices will help us to dress better, but that’s simply not the case.  Too many clothes leads to too many choices, and the resulting overwhelming has us reaching for the same 20-30% of our pieces over and over again. Continue reading →

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Wardrobe “Benchwarmers” Past and Future

I’ve written several posts on the concept of “wardrobe benchwarmers,” my term for closet pieces that were worn only once or not at all during a given year (read more here).  Sadly, I had 146 wardrobe benchwarmers for 2012 (125 garments and 21 pairs of shoes), which was close to half of my wardrobe!  With my wardrobe benchwarmer project, I vowed to wear and evaluate all 146 benchwarmers this year and either integrate them into regular closet rotation or pass them on to someone else who might love and wear them.

Excellent Progress But…

I’ve made excellent progress on dealing with my wardrobe benchwarmers over the course of this year.  As of the end of August, I had consigned or donated roughly two-thirds of them and had worn and evaluated all but 17 of the remaining items.  I felt pretty proud of myself, but then something dawned on me…

I’ve been so focused on dealing with my 2012 benchwarmers that I didn’t stop to consider my potential 2013 benchwarmers!

Since there is only one quarter left in the year, I decided to take some time to look at my wardrobe benchwarmers past and, perhaps, future.  My fellow data nerds out there will love this post, as I include lots of numbers!  But I hope the more right-brained of the group will also stay tuned, as I include photos and useful insights about my wardrobe that can also be applied to managing your closet. Continue reading →

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How to Tell if a Piece is a Classic

The following is a guest post from Erin DePew (this is Erin’s second guest post – read her first one here).  Erin is a web developer and graphic designer who happens to love shoes almost as much as “hackathons.”  She also enjoys musing on minimalism, client-side scripting, and the pursuit of the perfect pumps.  

If you have an idea for a guest post on “Recovering Shopaholic,” please connect with me to share your thoughts.

Every woman knows that having a closet of classic pieces is the secret to a versatile wardrobe. Of course, actually finding classic pieces is a lot easier said than done. While top-ten lists and fashion blogs are a good place to start, it’s important to take the time to learn your own personal style and to find out what your classics are. Because at the end of the day, some of us are just never going to wear a white button-down.

Distinguishing Classic Pieces

Can you tell if a piece will stand the test of time?

Even if you know what your personal classics are, it can be overwhelming to wade through the myriad of options out there. Here are five simple ways to tell if a piece is a classic or a trend du jour. Continue reading →