Back in January 2020, I took an inventory of my wardrobe. I had never actually counted how many items were in my closet before and it was interesting exercise.
The Wardrobe Inventory
Here were my tallies:
Pants (including jeans) – 12
Shorts – 1
Skirts – 18
Dresses – 17
Jumpsuits – 3
Tops (includes T-shirts) – 50
Sweaters (pullovers) – 9
Sweats (including sweatshirts, sweatpants, hoodies) – 6
Coats & Jackets – 17
Layering Items (cardigans, shrugs, blazer-like items, dusters) – 10
Suit – 1
Shoes – 25
TOTAL Number of Items in My Wardrobe – 169
This total doesn’t include workout clothes, outdoor-specific clothing (like hiking pants), pajamas, and “home clothes,” which are slightly ratty clothes or other demoted clothing that I only wear at home.
What the Numbers Told Me
Counting items and seeing that total next to each category really gave me a sense of how unbalanced my wardrobe felt in some areas. Some things that popped out at me:
- I have a shorts shortage, though I knew this already since I only owned 1 pair. It’s not an item that I wear much here in San Francisco where the temperature seems to hover around 64 degrees. But I could stand to use another pair for heat wave days and visiting other places.
- The number of skirts, 18, feels high relative to how often I wear them. 3 are fancier special occasion-type skirts. Another 3 are wool or wool blends, which I haven’t worn since I worked an office job. (One of them I bought after my office job, so I’ve never worn it out. It still has the tags on it.) Still, that leaves a dozen skirts, mostly knee length, which I also don’t wear that much. Again, I blame the weather here. Knee-length skirts are not practical for being out and about in San Francisco where temperatures drop rapidly when the fog rolls in. This just leads to emergency tights buying.
- The number of tops I own also surprised me. I knew I was it was a problem when I lost count taking inventory in this category. 50 seems like a lot. While 20 of them are T-shirts or more casual tank tops, that still leaves 30 tops, which is plenty. This section could definitely use a good culling. And if I want another top, I should think hard about what purpose it serves before adding it to my collection.
- I’m proud of the number of shoes I own, 25, because just a couple years ago, I owned twice as many.
Now, this total — 169 — is where I was in January 2020 after 3 years of slowing down my shopping and whittling down my wardrobe. I used to own much, much more, though how much exactly I can’t say. It wasn’t until 2019 that I started to keep track of how many items were coming in and out of my closet. (I reported the numbers every month in my diary posts.)
Over the course of 2019, I subtracted 47 items from my closet, but also added 24, so I know that at the beginning of 2019, I owned 192 items. I most certainly owned more than 200 items prior to that. Seeing that I’ve listed roughly 200 items in my Poshmark closet from my own personal collection means that I’ve had close to 400 items, though not all of them at one time.
Some of the 25 pairs of my shoes that have survived rounds of culling. Read my reviews of some of them: Allbirds Wool Loungers, dr. Liza Leopard Print Flats, Everlane Form Sandal, Everlane V Heel, Hopp Studio Wedges, Allbirds Tree Breezers.
Pandemic Considerations
Continuing to downsize my wardrobe was already on my mind — and then the pandemic hit. This past year I’ve worn only a small percentage of my wardrobe regularly as I sheltered in place. Roughly, that number is 30 to 40 items, or about 20 to 25%. I didn’t touch any of my jeans except for 1 pair. I never wore skirts out since my trips out of the home were mostly groceries and supplies runs. Sure, I played dress up at home because I enjoyed putting together looks and find it fun. But in my day-to-day, comfort was queen. Sweatpants ruled.
While we might be returning to a more normal life later this year, living in the pandemic has underscored how much of my wardrobe I don’t need. Pre-pandemic, I was already leaning towards looser clothes. The pandemic has only confirmed that I should KonMari items that fit on the tighter side. Some things I just don’t want anymore. (Looking at you, hard jeans!)
In 2020, I subtracted 14 items, but added 18 to my wardrobe, so I started off 2021 with 173 items. This year I plan to go through each section of my wardrobe, especially the categories with high numbers, and scrutinize each piece. (I don’t have a specific goal number in mind, but I plan to get that number down.) While I’ve already been doing this somewhat regularly for the past few years ever since I started paying attention to my consumption in 2017, every time I do another sweep, I get a little more strict about what to keep. No doubt the pandemic has made me even more picky.
Now that I’ve counted the number of clothing items I own, I’m so curious what other people’s numbers look like. Have you ever taken an inventory? What did it reveal? And has the pandemic changed your feelings towards your wardrobe?
