Never do this

Never count up how many pieces of clothing you have.
 
                    You'll get bored in an instant. 

                    You'll never want to buy anything ever again. 

                    You'll reach a figure equal to a plane flight to Europe (or to the moon). It's bad enough calculating the cost 
                      of your clothing donation for tax purposes. 

                    You may wonder if you're being manipulated by the fashion industry.

                    You'll wonder how you ever accumulated so much & how you ever shared a bedroom closet with       
                       your sister.  

But if you do...

1. Only count to 10. 
Jennifer Scott on her blog The Daily Connoisseur and in her book Lessons from Madame Chic: 20 Stylish Secrets I Learned While Living in Paris suggests that we reduce our wardrobes to just 10 items & a few extras like t-shirts. 
Jennifer Scott gives several benefits of The 10 Item Wardrobe here.

"[The 10 Item Wardrobe is] an exercise in liberating yourself from an overly cluttered wardrobe. 
The goal here is to get your clothing down to a capsule collection of high quality clothes. (The less you shop, the more high quality clothes you can afford over time)." 
--Jennifer L. Scott, author of The Daily Connoisseur and Lessons from Madame Chic

Had you heard of the 10 Item Wardrobe before? What do you think of it?

2. Only count to 1.
You may want to consider purchasing just one high quality, multi-purpose piece per season. 

3. Count on your friends.
Friends everywhere are hosting "clothing swaps." Friends get together, drink wine, and exchange clothes. 

Friends enjoy wine & exchange clothes at a clothing swap

4. Freeze!
I know two women who are in the midst of a clothing-buying freeze until January. Here one friend describes her reasons for the freeze: 
"The last freeze helped me to reassess my wardrobe, wear things I hadn't in awhile, and when I was done, I really shopped less. A lot of the addictive desire of it went away! I spent my time on other things like reading and pottery. When the freeze was over, I really started to focus on quality instead of quantity. I realized it might be worth the extra few bucks to buy something that doesn't fade and stretch out." 

      "My friend is doing the freeze because she realized she has 115 pairs of shoes."

5. Count your blessings. 
We are exceptionally fortunate to have so much while many people around the world have so little. 

Which of these ideas would you be willing to do or which most appeals to you? I really hope you'll comment on this post. 

                                                             

                                                                         Many thanks to Rachel for ideas & support she contributed to this post.