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Never do this

7/22/2013

33 Comments

 
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. 

Picture
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.
33 Comments
Sarita Coren link
7/21/2013 08:33:52 pm

This is a wonderful post, Josie! I love the idea of taking time for "clothing awareness" and that includes counting the blessings of what you have, not what you could still be buying. Also, counting to 10 sounds like a very constructive way of building a wardrobe on useful, quality pieces. What a great way to escape from the trend treadmill and fast fashion too! Thanks for these ideas, Josie. You can bet I'll have them in mind next time I want to plunk down a few dollars on a cheap fix :-)

Reply
Josie link
7/21/2013 08:41:07 pm

Thank you so much for your comments & for sharing my post, Sarita! Big smiles over here knowing you're reading this post and nodding over there :-)

Reply
Rob link
7/21/2013 09:30:16 pm

I only think i have 10 shirts, pants/shorts.. phew so i am safe from this! lol

Reply
Josie Mills link
7/22/2013 03:55:19 am

You and Brad are funny, Rob. Thank you so much for visiting my site, reading, and commenting :-)

Reply
Brad Lynch link
7/21/2013 10:30:21 pm

Lol Rob...I'm in the same boat as you!

Reply
Josie link
7/22/2013 03:56:14 am

You and Rob crack me up. Thank you so much for visiting my site, reading, and commenting, Brad :-)

Reply
Christy Garrett @ Uplifting Famiilies link
7/21/2013 11:08:27 pm

I know that most American's have more clothes than anyone. In fact, I have clothes sitting in my closet that I haven't worn in years.

Reply
Josie link
7/22/2013 03:58:20 am

Thank you so much for visiting my site, reading, and commenting, Christy. It's a time commitment to go through your clothes, sort, put some old ones into circulation, donate others, but it can make the mornings go more smoothly once you do :-)

Reply
Tyler Kull
7/22/2013 12:54:40 am

incredible!

Reply
Josie
7/22/2013 03:59:17 am

I wonder which idea you're referring to, Tyler? Thank you so much for visiting my site, reading, and commenting!

Reply
Loretta link
7/22/2013 01:55:49 am

A good rule to follow is when you buy new clothes, if one goes into the closet, one goes out to charity! Helps maintain the space!

Reply
Josie
7/22/2013 04:01:20 am

Awesome rule, great space idea--thank you so much, Loretta! I love the sparsely populated closets you see in magazine photos & displayed at IKEA. Thank you so much for visiting my site, reading, and commenting!

Reply
Tina link
7/22/2013 06:03:38 am

Great advise!! I love the idea of counting your blessings!

Reply
Josie
7/22/2013 08:27:26 pm

Thank you so much for your comment, Tina! It's amazing how much we have to be grateful for.

Reply
Deborah link
7/22/2013 07:08:23 am

Great ideas in the post. I have stopped buying clothes and shoes just to buy them. And, I no longer buy something new every time I give something away. I find that I usually wear a small amount of my clothes on a regular basis anyway.

Reply
Josie
7/22/2013 08:31:31 pm

I think it's so true, Deborah, that we only wear a very small amount of our wardrobe most of the time. Thank you so much for your comment and for visiting my site!

Reply
Savannah-Lin Dofa link
7/22/2013 07:30:19 am

That is such awesome advice!.. I think I need to do that because I have a lot of clothes.. and I feel like I don't have enough.. pretty crazy..

Reply
Josie
7/22/2013 08:34:06 pm

Thank you so much for visiting my site, reading, and commenting, Savannah-Lin! There is this crazy feeling that we never have anything to wear even when we have so so many clothes--I feel it most days too.

Reply
Meli Horowitz link
7/22/2013 08:39:51 am

I'm not really a shopper to fortunately this doesn't apply to me. You had some great ideas and plan to pass them along.

Reply
Josie
7/22/2013 08:35:32 pm

Thank you so much for visiting, reading, and commenting, Meli. You are very kind to say you'll pass along the ideas.

Reply
Meli Horowitz link
7/25/2013 11:45:17 am

When I see something I feel will be helpful for others, I like to pass it along.

Dov Shapira link
7/22/2013 10:41:41 am

Very interesting idea.of friends getting together ans swapping clothing.

Reply
Josie
7/22/2013 08:37:17 pm

It's a cool new phenomena. I think it's better than thrift shopping since your friends probably have similar taste to you and may be close to the same size. Thank you so much for visiting my site, reading, and commenting, Dov!

Reply
Jim Striegel link
7/22/2013 11:10:36 am

I am not a big shopper either, but I'm sure my wife would like this!

Reply
Josie
7/22/2013 08:37:50 pm

Thanks so much, Jim!

Reply
Dionne F link
7/22/2013 01:09:02 pm

Great post. Not too sure about the sharing though. The only person my size is my daughter. And when she borrows, nothing comes back.! :/

Reply
Josie
7/22/2013 08:39:46 pm

So funny! I hear from some of my friends that daughters don't borrow, they take possession. But it is the highest form of flattery that she loves your things. Thank you so much for reading and commenting, Dionne!

Reply
Mike link
7/22/2013 01:29:14 pm

Truly outstanding tips.

Reply
Josie
7/22/2013 08:40:12 pm

Thank you so so much, Mike!

Reply
posemanikin link
7/22/2013 09:41:21 pm

Good advice. :)

I have found that keeping a very small closet (I don't own a dresser or store items in boxes) helps to keep my wardrobe focused. I have also made a habit of sorting through my wardrobe every 6 months or so. If I find items I haven't worn, I donate out. There are special occasion pieces I keep, of course; but I do try to keep a small wardrobe as it forces me to be super creative. I like that challenge.

...I think my husband has more clothes than I do! Hahaha. :)

Reply
Josie
7/22/2013 09:54:43 pm

You're the woman, Allie. It was the process of weeding out stuff that started me off on this post. I was swooning at how much I had. So cool to have a small closet (can't believe you have no dresser or back-up boxes!) in which you can actually see what you have! I have some "memory" clothing--I'm trying to keep a photo instead of the item, but it's hard to part with some stuff. Thank you so much for reading and commenting, dear!

Reply
Don Purdum link
7/22/2013 11:32:02 pm

Interesting concept. I have enough clothes for business to last me a week. That's it, honestly. I don't need or want a lot of choices when I look in the closet, lol...

Reply
Josie
7/25/2013 11:59:46 pm

That sounds just perfect, Don. Thank you so much for visiting my site and commenting!

Reply



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