Shrinking your wardrobe, or how to get rid of stuff
This is supposed to be a continuation of this thread https://discord.com/channels/1116793467654381685/1433123215546515499 to discuss various approaches to getting rid of superfluous stuff/shrinking your wardrobe.
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What really helps imo is tracking how much you actually wear stuff and in which occasions, to get a better understanding of what you actually need/like/dislike, to better narrow down candidates for elimination.
One approach im currently taking is that im trying to narrow down what function an item has in my wardrobe, to then "fuse" multiple items with similar functions, either by reselling both of them for a mysterious third item, or by modifying one to perform both functions.
I found this doesn’t work for me super well because some pieces I just love but barely wear - mostly because they’re pretty situational
What does help is putting items im unsure about away and seeing if I forget about them
go through it 1-4 times a year, ask yourself earnestly for each piece if it's been worn in the last year and is gonna get worn in the next
if the answer is no then donate (not worth much money) or sell (worth something)
it can def be a skill that you need to develop. Just being able to look at an item and be like "yeah this isn't doing it for me anymore" and get rid of it. But it's worth it to be decisive about your wardrobe (and really everything you own tbh imo tbh), because it helps you get to a place you actually want to be instead of just settling
I'm prone to hanging onto things as potential DIY projects for later because that's a set of skills/set of related hobbies I'm (slowly) building. I am 100% at peace with the fact that I may not get to that project for 2+ years, I know myself lol. If there's something I'm not wearing because of color or fit or something needing repair, I evaluate if it would be a good DIY practice piece, use it to stuff my floor pillows in the meantime, and get around to it when I have some time off and the necessary tools. If, AFTER modification, it still doesn't work for me, then I donate/gift/sell. This means I hang onto more clothing than minimalists would recommend, but I have gotten around to some of these projects after a long time and those pieces have become beloved and frequently-worn after transformation, so it works for me. I'm not attempting minimalism, but I am attempting a sustainable relationship to clothing, and the best fabric to learn on is fabric I already own
Yeah, thinking of stuff as potential DIY subjects is something I also frequently do.
Yeah. Im also not team super-minimalism. I also have some stuff I wear rather infrequently and feel fine about that. But then there are pieces of clothing that kind of feel like half baked realizations of a concept.
For ecxample these two corduroy jackets thst both fail to scratch the itch that im after. The brown ome is simply the wrong hue, and the black one is too stuffy. The ideal version of this jacket would propably be a games blazer in black corduroy, which would render both of these obsolete. But I don't have the budget for it. So im thinking of dying the brown one black and getting rid of the black one.
"pieces of clothing that feel like half baked realizations of a concept" is an excellent way of putting it yeah, I have definitely experienced this
I have so many pieces like this - a vest I wanna put pockets and buttons on, a pair of pants that need seam repair, a pair of dissected overalls I wanna convert to pants, a pair of pants I vaguely wanna Frankenstein to another pair ...
And I keep buying things. Sigh.
one of my biggest hurdles with clothing as a hobby is the sunk cost fallacy, especially since I have such varied tastes this also makes it difficult to resell stuff 😭
i'm fortunate enough to live in an area with clothing swaps that help with things that aren't likely to resell for very much, but if i've been sitting on something for a considerable amount of time i'll just donate it - at some point the closet space is worth more than the anguish
yeah love a clothing swap or a giveaway. a couple of my best workhorse pieces have been from swaps. often if something is off on me but a cool piece, I'll pass it along to a friend or a family member it better suits (I keep notes of ppl's measurements and preferences so I can thrift for them), always with the statement that they are under no obligation to like it or keep it. if it was a bigger investment sometimes I'll take payment equal to what I paid for it but usually it's a gift or an asymmetrical trade (they host me or pay for dinner or help me clean my apartment, I give them pants/sweaters/jackets/etc). I get the smug dragonish pleasure of seeing my loved ones in cool clothes I picked out, they feel special bc I thought of them, and I make more room in my closet