How much clothing do you need?

[Cherryblossomgirll]

We're going to be moving house soon and I am desperate to edit. I have 2 X chests of drawers containing underwear, clothing and pyjamas and 2 X wardrobes of dresses, shirts and coats. This seems a bit excessive and I'd like to cut down.

Do you have a certain amount of dresses, tops etc to get you through each year?

I googled this recently which was interesting. Apparently the average person has around 100 items of clothing.

I think it depends on your lifestyle, do you need work clothes, how many formal events do you go to, do you have a dog, do you need a lot of exercise clothing etc

Do you use the things you have? That's the starting point, I think. I have quite a few clothes but also try to rotate them, and am pretty ruthless about selling/donating/getting rid of ones that I don't like or never wear. Some people like a capsule wardrobe but personally I'd find that very boring, and it sounds like you would too if you have that many clothes!

Maybe you could try something like looking at each piece, and if you can't remember wearing it and it isn't something very special that you definitely want to keep, getting rid of it to make room for something you love? Like a 2 out, 1 in policy until the amount is more manageable. I think sometimes if you have too many clothes you end up wearing fewer of them because the choice is overwhelming.

This is interesting! Is that including socks, pyjamas, etc? Off to count...

I feel like I've had a revelation currently being pregnant and having not wanted to spend a fortune on maternity wear. I've got a limited maternity wardrobe, and it's made life so much easier!

I currently rotate 2 pairs of jeans, 2 pairs of leggings, one skirt, one jumpsuit, half a dozen dresses and about a dozen tops including vests, T-shirts, blouses and jumpers.

I've already had a big clear out of the non-maternity stuff that I never wore, and hope to continue in the future with a 'quality over quantity' approach.

Love these answers. I think there's somewhere between where I am now and a capsule wardrobe I want to be but definitely easier said than done. I think I go through phases of wishing I just had a simple uniform to wear every day to wanting to mix things up a bit. Maybe the key is buying quality pieces and to keep editing as you go. My size fluctuates a lot too so that can be problematic!

I used to have loads and it was silly. I have so much less now that I no longer have to store out of season stuff to make room for seasonal stuff. I've also been selective. Getting dressed now is great, so much easier!