Wardrobe Challenge

I've been going through my clothes, paring down.  Not necessarily because I'm concerned about my space (although my hubby might like to have more than just his jeans in our 'shared' closet), but because I have realized that I have a lot of clothes.  My 'a lot of clothes' may not be a lot of clothes to some, as this is certainly a relative term, but hear me out.

I work in an office from Monday through Friday.  It's a fairly casual office, but it is a work environment, and depending on my schedule and meetings, there are some days that require me to be 'dressier' than others.  Fridays are typically more casual, especially in the fall when you'll normally find me in a maroon shirt - many times it's my TAMU jersey, a departmental shirt, or some other A&M gear. So do the math with me here...that leaves me four days during the week for 'outfits'.  Continue with that math and I need 16 'outfits' for a month - not counting Friday 'spirit' days.

I bribed invited a friend to come over for dinner earlier this week and asked her to go through my closet with me and help me purge my clothes (again).  I was mainly concerned with my tops and jackets.

Here's my newsflash:  I am not a fashionista.

Stop laughing.

No really.  Stop.

Ok. Now that you've picked yourself up off the floor, I'll continue.

So I asked this fashion-forward friend of mine to help with what I was hoping would be a final purge of my closet.  She determined that a handful of my tops were not 'work' tops and forbade me from wearing them to work.  Ever again. Then she got me into this decade and tossed out a few more shirts and jackets.

I was expecting that, which is exactly why I asked this particular friend for her help.  We all need friends like this who we can trust to be brutally honest with us.  I love her.

So after this purge, my inventory of spring/summer/fall work tops (hey, I'm in Texas and my 'winter wardrobe' of long-sleeve tops doesn't really count in this mix since I only wear them for maybe a month - tops...everything else can be short sleeve, sleeveless, and dressy tanks) totals 22 items.  These are the tops, not the jackets and other accessories. Note: this count does not count tank tops, t-shirts, etc

If I factor in the Friday spirit day piece, and start my clothes on a rotation, this clothing count should take me over five weeks to fully wear.  Let me say that a different way to fully state my point and the reason why I initially thought (and kinda still do!) I had (have?) too many articles of clothing.  

I should be able to wear something different to work every day for over five weeks.  

If my clothes are on a rotation, I should only wear something ten times in a year (assuming weather conditions remain such that I can wear the same clothes year-round, which as we know is not the case).

Written in that manner, the amount of clothing I have still seems somewhat absurd to me.  And I've purged.  Really purged.  Is this still too much??

I still have a few articles of clothing to the side in my closet that I'm hoping to fit back into after I stop nursing, but there really aren't that many of them (less than a half dozen tops).  I also have some pre-pregnancy clothes that I'm not ready to admit defeat on quite yet.

I have realized that I'm in a clothing rut.  I tend to wear the same things over and over again (at least it feels that way to me).  Now that I've come to this clothing revelation, I'm going to experiment to be sure I'm wearing everything in my closet that I'm keeping.  And if I don't like it, don't feel comfortable in it, or don't feel confident while wearing it, it's gone.

Period.

And I'm going to photo journal it.  I'll try to post weekly on my wardrobe selection, so we'll see how that goes.

Wanna go on the challenge with me?