Decluttering - should small clothes stay or go?

[Waytoomanycoasters]

Help me out here Mumsnet, can't tell if this is a hill I should die on or if I'm kidding myself.

We are decluttering our house to move. I have a boxful (this size www.rapidracking.com/en/rra/heavy-duty-trunk-on-wheels-190-l-strata-a572563?srsltid=AfmBOopfzISGxf9rcdHpM486xANqwkqjuSvDBaKR-7a9JZ0n3WOJwrz0Eks) of clothes from pre-children which do not fit me, and also that I wouldn't wear right now anyway as there's business wear and I'm currently a SAHM. Family, friends and OH are all suggesting I get rid of them as they've been up there for 5 years and I should let it go.

But...my body now is a result of 2 pregnancies, a pandemic (oh yes the COVID pounds are still there!), a stint of depression after a bereavement and having next to no energy as our youngest has only started semi-reliably sleeping through the night a few weeks ago. I've been a zombie. Since she's been sleeping better my motivation for exercise and eating healthily is already coming back. I've started doing a little workout in the mornings, I've joined a weekly exercise class, started intermittent fasting. I feel so much better. Also we've said that next year when the little one goes to school that I'll go back to the office, so in my mind I'll be buying a whole new wardrobe next year either way...either because we got rid of it all and now I need new stuff, or because it still doesn't fit and I'll need clothes for work.

I've gone through and culled anything which is just not my style anymore, or anything where I really don't think I'd wear it again or fit into it. The box is what's left. It's all either one or two sizes smaller than I currently am. Which according to my DR is obese.

AIBU to keep the clothes? Also, in case it's helpful...I bloody hate shopping!

YABU - it's unlikely you'll get back to the same size, even if you do your body will have changed shape and fashions will have changed so just let it go

YANBU - keep the faith! 5 years isn't such a long time when you consider all the things that have been packed into it. If you keep at it with the diet and exercise you'll be so proud of yourself when things fit you again!

For the last 10 years, I've been moving my small summer clothes up and down from the loft in the vain hope that this'll be the year I'll diet into them. This summer I broke the cycle and gave them away. I haven't noticed they've gone (except for extra loft space).

I’d probably keep just the very best / most expensive to replace pieces and the ones you really like and think you’d struggle to find a nicer replacement for, and then re-evaluate in a year’s time when you have to either fit into them or accept you need to buy new and bigger. Office culture has changed a lot in the past five years: unless you’re a senior professional doing a lot of in-person client meetings etc, you’ll likely discover that opportunities to wear formal business clothes are much reduced from when you were last working, so keeping everything not worth it.

Just get rid off them. Organise a capsule wardrobe and get rid off anything you no longer wear or can't fit into.

This was my suggestion but haven't a single person IRL who thinks that's reasonable.

I have a number of dresses from the 1990s which I couldn't get into because of tight fitting bodies with side zips. About 5 years ago I managed to shift three quarters of a stone, and now I can and do wear them again.

Clothes to Slim Into boxes are sad. You will feel so much better if you let it go, and if/when you need new clothes you can get more. The chances of any of the clothes being at all suitable, or fashionable is low, and the benefit of decluttering is high. Do it!!!!

I would probably let them go, unless you love them. Styles change, even just sleeve length, waist height, shoulder fit, and things become unwearable even if you can fit into them no problem.

Just going back after maternity leave I was surprised how many things just looked...non-current.

I can't believe the box of clothes you don't fit into makes you feel great when you look at it. It is just punishment.

You will find even when you lose weight that your shape has changed and fashion has moved on even if you think the clothes are classic, and the clothes may fit but they will probably fit weird and look somehow odd. Start saving up to buy some new clothes instead. I bet you won't hate shopping for your newly slim frame.

If the clothes were expensive or nice fabric you could sell them instead of charity shop or whatever.

My mother is sincerely enjoying this thread 😂

I really won't enjoy shopping whenever it happens. I've been shopping when I was 9st and shopping when I was 15st. Am currently in the middle. It's no more fun regardless of which size hanger you're aiming for.

But would seem I am being unreasonable based on the majority replies. Booooo!!!

Neither.
Get rid of the clothes but keep the faith.
Keep some money aside for a new wardrobe when you lose weight.
Let that be your motivation rather than clothes that have been in the loft for five years already.

If you think you would still wear the clothes to work if they would fit I would keep them until you start work. It’s only another year. Just make sure you really would wear them. I realised I had kept things that were washed out and although I might have carried on wearing them, I wouldn’t restart after a break.

Just saw you hate shopping... Even so ... clothes from the loft - No.
But keep the faith and keep going.

One size smaller is nothing, it's a bit of non-bloat and some compression pants, I'd keep them. Especially as you're already on track with losing weight (go you!)

My weight yo yos, if I ditched my wardrobe every time I gained or lost a size I'd have spent tens of thousands, and contributed god knows how much to landfill and crappy fashion trade practices.

You've got exactly one year and one week to fit into the clothes. If they don't fit once you're back in the office you'll have your answer!

I guess then you're going to have to choose between which is worse: shopping or moving a box around that reminds you of your failed attempts to lose weight every time you look at it (and probably shopping anyway when you inevitably don't like any of the clothes in it any more).

I'm not a shopping fan either but I am currently very fat and it's much less bad in the thin part of the yoyo.

I guess the issue here is I see no problem moving the box. They're already packed! 😇 But in the spirit of decluttering as the items inside are not in use and have not been used in over a year (the parameters for decluttering) then the box should go.

Annoyingly I made the rule and am now being held to it 😂

Get rid. Really.

Are you thinking of practicalities?
To avoid shopping once you can wear them again?
Or are you thinking of identity?
Surely you have changed int he last 5 years so your style is not the same?

Lose the weight and the clothes.

At best, they will fit but are dated. Office wear has changed significantly over the last 5 years. So unless you were very forward thinking in your dress sence, you'll likely look like you've just woken up from a coma if you start wearing it again.

Don't look - what's in the box?!

If you can name 4 things and why you want to keep them, keep it.

I have been a size 6/8 three times in my life. Aged 19 pre DC. Age 30-42 after three DC. Age 52 post menopause. Still that size now Age 55. In between I've been up to a size 14. My small clothes have been up and down from the loft like a fiddlers elbow. Because the weight and size I am depends my diet and excercise not my age or life stage. If you're happy at your current size and have no wish to return to smaller get rid. If you think one say you'd prefer to lose weight, hang on.

I've given myself a year under your circumstances. Then everything goes. Clothes don't always store well.

Keep them! Getting rid of old smaller clothes is like admitting to yourself you'll never be that size again. There's absolutely no reason you can't be, and if you do choose to lose the weight you'll be glad you don't need to spend on a whole new wardrobe again. There's nothing nicer than trying on your old clothes and realising not only do they fit now, they're baggy!

What an unhealthy mindset.

OP - get rid of the clothes. When you go back to work, you will want different clothes. As people have said, work culture has changed and people (even in finance and law) wear more casual clothes now. You can always buy off Vinted if you don’t want to waste money.

That would have been a good game but I've already been through the box! I did use 'i didn't even know I had this!!' as a reason to cull though so what's left is all stuff I either really love or just very random things like a pair of Christmas PJ's 😂 my friendship group all have a matching set and we have a video call around Christmas wearing them. Only the last few years I've had mine open as the buttons don't do up. Or the black business dress from Hobbs. Took me a bloody age to save for it. It's a classic cut, perfect for work and sombre occasions. It's just 2 sizes smaller than current me.

Been some sage advice on this thread. Thank you. Am going to go through it again and try to be even more ruthless. Just trying to avoid that moment where I go to wear something and realise I chucked it, which has happened multiple times over the years already! Usually very ruthless with stuff, just this time it feels so tantalisingly close to be able to say 'I don't want this any more because it's not my style' rather than the primary reason being the size of my body!