What's in a wardrobe?


I have too many articles of clothing. Not so many that won't fit in a standard sized closet and an average sized dresser but more than I certainly need, or rather, want. Currently most of my clothes are hung up in the closet of what is technically our son Ben's room, although he's never slept a night in there in his almost two years of existence outside of the womb. It's really more a large walk in closet for both of our clothes that also has a crib and rocking chair in it. At some point I'll need to combine my clothes with Christine's in the walk in closet in our bedroom but that won't be possible unless my wardrobe drastically changes.


As it stands, I have a TON of shirts in various forms, colors, and patterns. I have significantly less pairs of pants by comparison, but certainly more shorts than I really need. Here are some approximations:
- 1 pair of khakis
- 2 pairs of sweat pants
- 3 pairs of jeans
- 3 pairs of sleep pants
- 5 pairs dress pants
- 10 pairs of shorts
- 6 sports jerseys
- 10 polo shirts
- 20 hoodies/sweaters
- 20 dress shirts
- 30 t-shirts
- 35 casual button down shirts
- Bag full of ties....no idea of how many but at least 30.

Not counting the bags full of ties, underwear, socks, and white undershirts (I wear a white undershirt daily), I have around 150 pieces of clothing. That is just way too many and unless I'm making a concerted effort, only about 15% of them get worn on a regular basis. I'm sure this is true with most people but I've decided to recognize it and want to change it. I mean I could just start wearing more and more of my clothes but I don't like having to decide on what to wear or what matches well with what or try to remember how recently I wore something so I don't wear it again too soon. I think the better solution is to minimize my choices and find a style that works well in most of my daily situations, which brings me back to minimalism.

Minimalism has been on my mind for a couple of years now and I really want to start transitioning to a much simpler lifestyle. I've already started taking steps in other aspects of my life, mainly reducing my board game collection, but we've also done this with our book and movie collections in the past. I think my wardrobe is going to be the next part of my life that needs some major purging and re-configuring. Part of me wants to pull a Mark Zuckerberg and wear the same thing everyday. I'm not saying I'm choosing to do this for the same reasons many presidents and CEOs do, but the thought of removing a decision from my daily routine sounds wonderful.

There are many reasons why people choose to either wear the same thing everyday or, if you're not into a uniform, subscribe to the Capsule Wardrobe movement such as: less stress, less time wasted, less wasted energy, less expense, more peace, create an iconic look, fewer decisions, I could go on but you get the point. I'm focused on reducing my foot print and wasting less time, while the added bonuses of less expense and more peace are just icing on the cake.

Now I just need to figure out what I want my wardrobe to look like. Once that's been settled, I can start throwing out the well worn stuff and bagging up the rest of it to be donated so somebody else can get some love out of them.

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