How to cull my wardrobe without regretting it?

[MoreDresses]

I need to cull some clothes. I have two double wardrobes, eight drawers and a chest of shoes and I wear approximately 6 outfits. I need a cull. But how?! Any advice, that isn't "does it bring me joy" would be appreciated. I don't want to regret my decisions but also I don't want to hang on to clothes I literally never wear or wear once in a blue moon!

I totally get reaching for the same 6 outfits!

what helped me was to be realistic about my lifestyle right now. Yes I used to go out for dinner and attend weddings and so needed dresses and heels but how often do I do that now? Very rarely. So I only kept one pair of heels and the rest went.

My weekends are spent kid-wrangling, mostly outdoors so I have multiple pairs of waterproof trousers and fleeces as I wear them most of the time. When buying new (to me) - I go for quality pieces that fit with what I already have so that I still feel reasonably put together and not scruffy. Same with active wear - I got rid of saggy leggings and asked for some decent stuff for my birthday - which washes well and goes with the other things in my wardrobe.

I keep my work wardrobe fairly separate and anything that feels too shabby for ‘smart’ wear goes into my work wear.

Write down your average week on paper and list the usual outfit you wear for each occasion. This should tell you how many versions of each item you reasonably need (taking laundry days/re wear etc into account).

Also @moredressesfor your colours - you can use chat gpt or other ai bot to analyse you and suggest a colour palette. Maybe not as accurate as sending £££ getting your colours done - but gives you a smaller set of clothes to choose from.

I’m interested in this, I have so many clothes, and nothing to wear. I’ve done a good job of getting rid of everything I don’t like or doesn’t fit, but now I’m left with everything I do like and that’s harder to get rid of. Just got summer things down and the same dilemma again.

my plan is to keep max 3 if each item. Realistically I will never need more than 3- wear one, wash one, spare one. So I write a list of items and my next step is to get every single item out from the cupboards and loft and drawers and sort it in to item groups, then choose the best 3. Sort them into outfits so I actually have things to wear not just items. And I need to get rid of the things that I keep because I want to wear them but I never ever do.

Thank you @Etherealcelestialbeing I'll give co pilot a go and see if it can tell me my colours!

Yeah makes sense about finding what I do most. I want to be able to wear my nicer clothes but my son demands so much time outside which involves mud and running, a lovely knitted dress won't wash in those situations.

I’m quite ruthless and operate a one in one out rule. When I need more of a cull I get rid of:
-anything that doesn’t fit
-anything I haven’t worn in more than a year
-anything looking very worn

This is very timely. Thanks for starting the thread @MoreDresses
I’ve been selling some stuff on Vinted. But I need to have a proper cull. The problem I have is that I always think ‘what if’? So I do find it quite hard to get rid of pieces. But my wardrobe it literally bursting, and I’ve just bought 4 new bits today 🫣
So I do need to have a clear out ASAP!

I have clothes that don't fit but that would be painful to get rid of. I have folded them up, vacuum sealed them and put them in the loft. As a late teen I wore a lot of my Mum's old clothes, so I am passing the opportunity to wear these forward.

I have really regretted a lot that I got rid of, and I also find my tastes change and circle back, so the tip of 'get rid of anything you haven't worn in a year' did not work for me.
On the other hand, I have never had to stay at home because I had nothing to wear. There is always something suitable, and currently there is just too much.

I did try re buying from Vinted, but I ended up with clothes in worse condition - excessively washed, faded colours, slightly saggy. All described as 'new' condition.

What I am now doing is;
be stricter about what fits and flatters
allow myself to keep some irreplaceable things even if I would not wear them currently - ie vintage items, or really unusual finds
make a real effort to put on the neglected clothes and think hard about why I didn't reach for them before.

@thedevilinablackdress , I never buy skirts, shorts or trousers with no pockets because they always got that treatment.

This morning I found a top, a skirt and two dresses I'd forgotten about. i've never worn them.

ive just done this recently as lost weight and some bits didn’t fit. I literally pulled everything out in sections, like all jeans and sweaters. Tried everything on and made a pile for keeping, one for Vinted and another for charity. Did it in sections like this over a few different days when I was in the mood.

Start with the season’s clothes and do it by category: smart dresses, casual dresses, smart trousers, jeans etc. For each category, pick your top favourites and put the rest in bin bags. You don’t have to get rid of them immediately, but if you haven’t looked in them for a month, then you can let them go. When it gets to September, have a look at autumn things.

Given the amount of storage you have, I would pick one wardrobe to empty out completely and then put your chosen favourites in there. It will make it much easier to see what you have and whether it really is enough.

I would be a bit flexible about this. You might want more than three t-shirts or casual summer dresses, but you probably only need two cocktail dresses at most,

I think this is the easiest idea, and it’s what I do. I will be doing it again soon.

Following!

This is good advice. Someone suggested to me doing it by category, so get out every pair of jeans you own, decide how many pairs of jeans that you really need/will wear, and get rid of the rest. I discovered that I had 13 pairs of sports leggings, who knew?

It's also a really good idea to keep in mind that your clothes have to fit comfortably in the space that you have!

Another tip I was told is to imagine that you spilt bleach on an item of clothing, how upset would you be?

It's not easy though. My worst habit is keeping things that I like the idea of wearing, but they don't fit well, are uncomfortable, or just not practical.

I find I have quite a few items - especially tops - that I really like, but I don’t have the right trousers, skirts, belts or other accessories to make a complete and stylish outfit.

So I’ve started looking at them and make a list of what I would need, and assess the chance of finding these at a reasonable cost. I am getting rid of any where I feel completing the outfit isn’t worth it.

I did a colour analysis on Meta AI

Edited for typo

I forced myself to wear everything once for at least one day before getting rid of it. There were a couple of items I decided to keep and have started wearing regularly (hardly ever wore them beforehand), but I got rid of all the others without any regret whatsoever because I hadn't enjoyed wearing them at all.

Shame you corrected it. Ne'er cast a clout...

I love my clothes but I’m a ruthless culler- this is what I do:
I pack things away by season, then when you see things best part of a year later you see them with fresh eyes. Go beyond is it a bit tired- do you never wear something because it’s a pain to iron? Are you always pulling a top down because it doesn’t sit right? Do you always feel a bit self conscious in that dress? That’s never going to change, so it’ll just keep sitting in your wardrobe with you avoiding it! No matter how much it cost, you might as well let it go.
Do you have more than 3 of any one item? Just keep your best 3- you’re never going to regret letting go of your 4th best navy t-shirt!
in a world with Vinted you don’t need to keep clothes ‘just in case’, unless something truly is bespoke and a one off most things are out there if you need to source them again. My feeling is that at the end of the day these aren’t precious family photographs, it is just fabric, and even having a massive cull you’ll still have tonnes of clothes to choose from! Is there a bit of ‘sunken cost fallacy’ creeping in perhaps?
Also, think about what you gain rather than what you feel you might lose- it’s lovely not losing things in your wardrobe, nor feeling overwhelmed, always being able to find the thing you’re looking for, having clothes that aren’t crumpled in your wardrobe, and it’s always a satisfying feeling to have a good clean out. And if it’s any help, in nearly 30 years of slightly over zealous culling of clothes I can only think of two things I regret getting rid of! And even then, like I said before, it is just clothes- it’s not the end of the world! Just start small, with T-shirts of a certain colour perhaps- a bit like the fly lady method for clothes.