A while ago I realized I had a few simultaneous things going on with my clothes.
I had too many. I had taken my have enough clothes and things to go a while without doing laundry, to a place where, now I could do laundry, well, let's just say I could spend a good day just doing laundry and still find some things out and about that probably should have been in those loads, and I don't generally dedicate a whole day to laundry.
I didn't really know, as a result what I really had.
And that meant I was hanging on to things that were okay, because I couldn't remember if I had anything else like it. When one can only locate one plan skirt that fits okay but not great, one still probably occasionally needs a skirt.
So, and inventory and a purge and some serious laundering were in order. I realized this and carried on as before, doing a load here and there, but not really making a big dent and sighing as I passed though my closet.
And then I decided to try one of the subscription clothes boxes things. (I used Stitch Fix. I know people who've used others successfully. There are pros, cons, and personal taste involved in all of them.) I figured part of the problem was that when I would realize that I needed long sleeve shirts or non-patterned skirts, I would go look, get discouraged, buy something cheap that also wasn't quite right, and then often that would fall apart quickly.
So, the deal I made with myself, was that for every box, I had to get rid of a whole bag of clothes. (I had theoretically been operating on a one in one out rule for a while, but more drastic measures were needed.) And if I kept all the pieces, two bags. So, the closet is still a pit that needs addressing, but I can see signs of improvement, and fortunately, I've really likes some of the pieces I've been sent, so it makes it easier to look around and say, okay, let's get rid of some of this. So hopefully as we get further into the year, the closet will continue to become a little less ridiculous.
