The Great Laundry Sort

We have a lot of clothes. That is an understatement, by the way. We have way too many clothes. When we can go months without needing to wash clothes (provided that all the clothes were clean to start - usually doesn't even come close to happening) you know that it's time to start a major purge session.

The hard part for me is knowing what is a reasonable amount of clothing. I was discussing this with Katie the other day and it's hard. The limits she suggested (which are pretty major considering where we are coming from!) seem really unattainable, although I know that they are good limits. I don't think I'm ready to quite go there just yet, but I'm willing to get much closer to her limit than what I currently have.

So, to start: I am going to have all of my work shirts (four polos with embroidery on them, six polos without embroidery, my zip-up hoodie and my windjacket) and my work pants (khakis or slacks - I try not to wear tan khakis to work as they are trashed by the end of the day usually) all together in the front of my closet. I plan to have seven pairs of pants explicitly set aside for work.

Then there are the nice t-shirts I have. Ones that can be considered casual or dress casual. I want to keep seven of these. I'd actually like to keep about fourteen of them, but I'm really pushing myself on this.

I have a few really nice shirts. Ones that I could wear to job interviews, etc. They are definitely more of a business attire. I like to wear these paired up with other things when we are going out. I really dress them down and by doing this, they end up being very versatile pieces. I'd like to keep seven of these.

For regular jeans, I'd like to have seven pairs. Same with slacks (not for work) and skirts (if I have that many. But if I don't, I won't be keeping ones that I don't like just to have them, I'll only keep the best of the best)

I forgot to mention dresses. I don't know that I have any dresses that I really feel fondly enough about to keep, but if I come across them, I want to keep no more than four dresses.

I'd like to have seven bras left over after the purge and I'm thinking about a month's worth of undies. I admit it, I have lots of undies. And only having a month's worth of undies left over is a HUGE amount that I will be getting rid of. And for socks, I'd really like to have a month's worth here as well.

There are probably a few more "occasional" pieces that I will keep as well, but what you have just read is my goal for my closet/dresser purge.

I will let you know when the purge is finished how close I came to these goal limits and also how much I got rid of (and into which category the items went).

Okay, it's in print, it's on my blog...it will become reality. Yeep!