Clothes — A Daily Thread – Post 1

I’m going to start a new thing here on the old blog I’m calling “A Daily Thread”. Sometimes, my mind gets thinking deeply enough on a topic to warrant a series of posts on it, versus trying to stuff all of those things into a single post. I was thinking about how to best group such things together. Therefore, I’ve created a new category for these titled “thread”. That way, if you just want to see all of the posts grouped in this way, one can.

Not sure this is the right solution but let’s roll with it for now…

To start with, I’ll be making a few posts on a topic that’s been on my mind lately and that’s clothes. I tend to dwell on clothes a lot at this time of year. Something with the change of seasons. I begin to think a lot about what I have, what I need, what should be in my wardrobe closet and what should be in storage, etc.

One of my new year’s intentions for the past two years has been “No new clothes”. This is for many reasons… The minimalist in me knows I really don’t need much and have everything I do need. Clothes are a huge environmental issue. There are plenty of good ways to buy gently used clothing — even these days from the companies that produce/sell new (more on this at later time and other post). So, there really is no good reason I shouldn’t be able to stick to my intention.

That said, I have for the most part failed at this. For any number of reasons. Not the least of which is my own inability to resist the occasional purchase, especially when I can find a pretty good reason I may need it.

For instance, I’ve lost about 20 pounds in the last few months. Therefore, most of the jeans, chinos, and trousers in my closet were, quite literally, falling off of me. So, I did have a good reason to buy a new pair of jeans (on sale) and a new pair of chinos (at Costco) to actually have one of each that fit my new waist size.

My plan was to then pack away all of the jeans/trousers that no longer fit as part of my bi-annual wardrobe switch out of my spring/summer clothes to my fall/winter ones. In doing so, when I opened the box I store jeans that no longer fit, I discovered several pair within that, at the time I packed them, were too small for me. Now, three of those pair fit me just fine. So, I could have shopped my own closet all along and stayed true to my intention.

So, I learned a valuable lesson here… Shop myself first. I must force myself to remember to regularly look at what I already might have to meet my needs. The truth is, I likely have it already and, if I don’t, could still likely find/buy it without buying new.