(no subject)

[drdingbat]

Due to the magic and wonder of making my own rules (otherwise known as cheating), I'm actually coming in at under 100 pieces for my summer wardrobe now.

Here's the magic and wonder cheating part: I'm counting anything that gets worn in more than one season (underwear, bras, socks/tights, jeans, layering tops, etc) as half an item -- half in summer, half in winter. So the numbers that you see below for these items, indicated by a *, are half of the actual total.

So here's what I currently have for summer:

16.5 pairs of underwear*
7.5 bras*
14 socks/tights*
8.5 jeans*/shorts
9 pairs of pants
17 tops
6 layering tops*
4 skirts
6 pairs of shoes
4 dresses
2 sweatshirts*
1.5 pairs of comfy pants*

96 total

Here's some observations:

• I still have too much underwear. My next project is going to be wearing each pair of underwear and deciding whether to keep them or not. I know some pairs ride up, etc., and I can never remember which pairs they are until I'm wearing them. I'll wear them for a day and if I'm not totally thrilled with them, I'll toss them.
• I've weeded down to 15 bras total -- I'm kind of happy with that number because some of my bras are "summer" bras and some are better in winter. (Padding = warmth?) There's 7 bras I'd classify as "summer" and 8 as "winter", so that works for me.
  
• I still think I can -- and should -- eliminate some socks.
• I need more variety in my shoes, both in terms of color and style. After deciding to donate/sell approximately eleven pairs of shoes, the mono-styling of my remaining shoes has become extremely obvious -- I like shoes with a rounded and closed toe, and I like Mary Janes. (Actually, even some of the shoes I'm donating/selling are MJs as well.) Out of the 6 pairs of summer shoes, 4 of them are black. (Out of the 9 pairs I'm classifying as "winter" because they're "professional" shoes, 7 of them are black.)
  
• I tend to buy solid color tops, usually in black, brown or green. I mean, these are colors I look good in, which is why I tend to wear them -- but I really need some variety in style/color for my tops as well. Note to self: I look good in other colors too.
  
•  I've actually frequently thought I don't have enough summer tops. It's way easier to find flattering sweaters than it is to find flattering summer tops, so I tend not to shop for summer. After throwing away summer tops that I've had for over a decade (!) I'm down to only 17 tops. (Seriously, one of the shirts I'm giving to Goodwill is the shirt I was wearing when I had my picture taken for my graduate school ID card. It still fits, and is still in good shape, but it's 13 years old!!)
  

So ... summer's done, and it feels really good. The whole project is kind of arbitrary, but I think it helped me to set priorities and goals. Most of what I did was simply weeding through my clothes and eliminating anything that doesn't fit or that I don't wear regularly, but it's also forced me to think about WHY I wear what I wear, and if that's really the best thing for me. I'm in a simplification and purge phase right now, and this has been cathartic in quite a few ways.

As silly as it sounds, I feel as though one of the reasons I was keeping something like the 13 year old grad school clothes was because, in some way, I may have been trying to hold onto that "me" from back then. (If I can still fit into the clothes I had when I was 25, then I'm still 25, right?) But I'm not 25 anymore. (In fact, as of my birthday this year, I'm closer to 50 than I am to 25.) There's something refreshing to me right now about letting go of things.
Plus now I get to go shopping -- clearly, I need more clothes!