What do you do when you've bought way too many clothes?

 

I love how I looked when this picture was taken years ago.  It was a period where I was exploring my feminine side, as well as making many clothing mistakes which enabled people to "clock" me.  Now, I have developed a reasonable self-confidence, but have an overflowing closet to show for it.

Going through my closets tends to be a disruptive experience.  Tossing things I never wear into donation bags isn't the problem.  Instead, it'd the feeling that I might just wear these garments again (or for the first time) in the future.  There are dresses in my closet that I haven't worn yet thanks to Universal Standard's mystery boxes, as well as dresses in the closet which no longer excite me.  So, pruning my closet is the only logical thing I can do.

A similar thing has to be done with my undies and my bras.  The difference is that whatever I no longer want to wear has to go into the trash bin.  Yet, this isn't as hard as it could be.  Whenever I find something on the verge of wearing out, I toss it.  Given that I've been buying a better grade of undies than I originally bought in the stores, my old drawer of "unmentionables" is getting a refreshment as well.

Years ago, I complained that my late wife was a clothes horse.  Well, the only difference between us in this area is that I can afford to keep myself in a refreshed wardrobe at will....   

Managing the contents of my closet

 

I'm one of those transgender women who love wearing dresses.  If I were born in a later generation, I'd likely want to wear different garments, as the cisgender women of my generation made their transition into preferring trouser-like garments years after I grew up.  In short, I modeled my clothing preferences on that of my mother, and I may always gravitate to those garments.

Unlike my mother, I enjoy wearing clothing with simple lines and strong colors.  Although I will wear patterns, I am more into solids - in either gender presentation. Although I have more patterned tops for when I present as male, it's only because these are the only tops available in my size. When presenting as a female, I prefer to let my costume jewelry do some of the talking. But I try never to over do it with  jewelry.

Over the years, I have bought way too many items of women's clothing, and I have had to purge some of these garments as they have gone out of style and no longer fit my needs.  Luckily, some charities have been beneficiaries of my purchases.  Today, I am gradually removing the cheaper garments from my closet, those garments which wore out quickly and were not meant to last.  In short, I'm trying to remove "fast fashion" from my wardrobe.

Shifting towards more sustainable fashion requires work.  Yes, I will continue to occasionally buy lower priced garments which I know will last a year or two. But I will not do this as often as I used to do it. (A gal's got to spruce up her wardrobe occasionally, doesn't she?)  The big question becomes: When I eventually get around to losing some weight, will my taste in women's clothing change and what will happen to my wardrobe when that happens?

Going through my overflowing closets

 

Recently, I've had the excuse to start going through my closets, donating all the clothes and shoes I no longer use to a local charity.  So far, I've filled 4 donation bags, and I am likely to fill at least one more before I'm done.  Yet, this is only the tip of the iceberg - I have other things to clear up in this apartment as well.

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When I had a steady girlfriend, I tried to keep the place neat enough for someone to come over and spend a weekend.  She'd tell you that I was far from perfect in this regard.  But when she broke up with me and the pandemic started, I let my place go to hell.  And I'm gradually clearing my place up from a full year (and more) that I stopped caring about much.

My closets were not just overflowing with clothes.  They were overflowing with other things as well, such as old electronics (and associated supplies) that I figured I might use again.  These days, I no longer record much on CD-Roms. Yet, I have a supply of blank CD's, DVD's and associated cases that I haven't touched in years.  My newest computer didn't even come with a CD/DVD drive - it assumed that everyone uses memory sticks.  Even now, after a cleanup has started, I have more things to get rid of than to keep.

The storage area in my basement is even worse.  There is stuff in it that I haven't touched since my wife was alive.  And I have to get around to cleaning this area out, so that I have room to store the things I do use.  Not only do I have the bulk of my Vinyl (33 1/3 rpm) record collection downstairs, but I have 2 never assembled cabinets for this collection stored there as well.  (Do you know of anyone who might take this collection off my hands?)

The Swedish have a word for what I want to do with my apartment and storage area:  Döstädning.  This word refers to the Swedish practice of "death cleaning."  No, this process is not morbid in nature.  Instead, it is a process of removing the clutter from one's life, so that one can live the rest of it more productively. It also has the side benefit of making it easier for one's heirs to settle out one's estate when that time comes.

One person I know has to go through this process as she had to move out of her place sometime in the next month.  I have a choice.  Do it now, or let things fester until I am no longer able to do the cleaning by myself.  And then it will be much, much harder for me to deal with.  So, now is the right time to work on this project when I have the time to do so.