Closet Chronicles: The Strategy for Wearing More of What You Own

Crowded jeans/pants section of my closet

I wouldn't call myself a fashionista by any stretch of the imagination. My wardrobe generally consists of  jeans, t-shirts, flannel shirts and a few sweaters. Nothing fancy. Nothing overwhelming. And yet... my 5 foot stretch of closet rod is literally groaning with the weight of all my clothes. What the heck?

More perplexing is the fact that I end up wearing the same 2 or 3 t-shirts and pants, week after week. Why keep all these clothes if I just wear a few at a time? Why not... you know... rotate through them? And I have the best laid plans to do exactly that and... it all falls by the wayside. Why? Because sometimes my jeans don't fit well... they are too big... or too small. And so I am limited to the few that actually... fit. Sigh.

Tackling the Closet

So, the other week, I stood in front of my closet and decided to get organized. I tried on every single pair of jeans and pants and figured out which ones fit, and which ones don't. I also took aside my fleece-lined winter jeans and put them with the "do not fit" pile. Then I rummaged through all of the hangers and pulled out matching ones. These are for my jeans/pants that DO fit. The do NOT fit pile got different coloured hangers and got stuff in the back right-hand side of the closet. Now, I can identify them easily.

Backwards Rotation

Reversed hangers and normal hangers - 
Pull from the left... rehang on the right.

I then organized my jeans/pants and discovered that I actually had very few blue jeans that actually fit. So I mixed them in with the beige and black jeans... and the other pants and then hung everything up neatly. But with a twist. I put the hangers on the rod backwards. This is a trick I learned in the minimalism community. Every time I pull a pair of jeans/pants out of the closet, I will put them back with the hanger the right way. This way, after a year, or so, I will know which ones I actually wear!

Another trick... I am pulling jeans/pants from the left side and hanging them back on the right side, creating a bit of a conveyer belt system. Pull from the left... hang back on the right. Theoretically... I will easily cycle through my jeans/pants! Theoretically...

I did the same thing with my t-shirts (which hang in the closet) and flannel shirts. Since these are more on the left-hand side of the closet... I will pull from the right and hang back on the left (deeper into the closet).

How Much is Too Much?

I have to admit being a bit flummoxed by the number of items I had:

• Jeans/Pants that do NOT fit - 6
• Jeans/Pants that DO fit - 20
• T-shirts - 15
• Flannel Shirts - 10
• Hoodies/sweaters - 10
• Other shirts - 5

It's definitely not a ridiculous or excessive amount of clothes. Or... is it? Considering that our house was built in 1980 and that a 5 foot closet run was considered sufficient for two adults... me having a 5 foot closet rod all to myself would suggest that... in fact... this is a bit excessive. Although... if I watch any HGTV home reno shows and see all of the walk-in closets that seem to be de rigueur for new builds and renos these days... well... my tiny 5 foot span of closet rod is positively paltry in comparison! Compared with those dream closets, I have a piddly amount of clothes.

Glorious walk-in closet
(Image by Mike Gattorna from Pixabay)

But... if I got back to the 1950s and look at closets from back then... they are even smaller... a mere 3 feet or so of closet rod length for a married couple. Which makes me think that we are experiencing wardrobe-flation. Over the years... the number of clothes that are considered "normal" just goes up... and up and up.

And this despite the fact that the Pareto Principle is very much in force... we wear 20% of our clothes 80% of the time (2 or 3 t-shirts and a few pairs of jeans). It's true.

Fun Fact: The Average Woman owns 103 items of clothing but only wears 10% of them. (That does not... of course... include accessories, outer- or under garments).

And trying to cycle through 100% of my wardrobe is proving to be a bit of a "thing". It's not easy. Some days I don't want to wear slacks (too fancy for grocery shopping) and I just want a pair of jeans but... the Hanger-of-the-Day says that slacks it is. Ugh. I am at the mercy of my closet system. Sigh.

Oh... and then there are the "play" t-shirts (relegated to that category because of stains or holes). These are good for hiking and gardening but not for "going out". Then there are the shorts as well... I think I might be that "average" woman with 103 items of clothing!

But... for now... I am going to give my rotating, hanging backwards closet system a try. Ideally... if there are any hangers that are still on the rod backwards in a year... those items can go. We'll see about that!

In the News - Disposable Clothes

As I write this on 25 March, most clothing stores are closed due to Covid19. As are most thrift stores. I think our Value Village might still be open... nope, just checked and it is closed. I guess clothing and fashion aren't really essential to daily living!

This means we are all going to have live with whatever we have in our closets and dressers which is likely quite a bit. After all, most of us wear 20% of our clothes 80% of the time, leaving a whole 80% of our closet with very little to do. Without the option for buying the latest spring fashions... our closets might get some fresh air and new life as we start actually wearing what we already own.

I'm not a fashionista by any means. I haven't bought new clothes (except underwear and socks) for years. All of my clothing comes from thrift stores, usually Value Village because they have the best selection. I'm also a jeans and t-shirt kind of gal... I don't need anything fancy. So, I've always been a bit perplexed by the fashion industry and the latest spring/fall fashions. The only time it impinges on me is when pants flare out to bell bottoms or got ultra skinny. Although, nowadays, I can usually find some pair of thrift jeans that work and are just standard, plain old jeans.

I came across this news article the other month... about how Metro Vancouver throws away 20,000 tonnes of clothes each year. That's a lot of clothing. And that is just the clothing that actually goes to the landfill... not to thrift stores where it might get a second or third life. Although a lot of clothing that doesn't sell at thrift stores ends up being shipped to third world countries where it might get sold at a market or... end up cluttering up their landfills.

Part of the problem lies in the fact that Fast Fashion is not designed to be Sturdy Fashion. Spring/Fall fashions are meant to be worn for one season and then cast aside for the next fashion season. Which means manufacturers do not make them to last.

Make Do and Mend

On top of that, clothing manufacturing can be a highly toxic industry and use enormous amounts of water. So the more fast fashion that is produced... and then discarded... the higher the demand... and the more pollution we generate. Yes, "we". With our demands for new clothing, we fuel the supply chain that creates the toxins and drains the water supply. If you're interested in learning more about the unsustainability of the fashion industry... have a look at this BBC article. It covers the whole gamut quite nicely.

The other problem lies in the fact that we, as a society, have generally lost the impetus to Make Do and Mend. It's been decades since I mended a sock... or patched a hole in a pair of jeans.

When I was growing up, my Mom, who had trained as a seamstress, was forever darning socks and patching our clothing. Heck, she even made our clothing! We had boxes of Simplicity, Butterick and McCall's patterns and got to go to school dressed in red, purple or lime green polyester pant suits... oooh.

Butterick pattern

She sewed, she crocheted, she hand-knitted and she even had a Knittax knitting machine. Mom grew up during the Depression and the War in Europe and... she learned how to mend and make do. It might be something that we could learn from today.

For myself, if my t-shirts get stained or develop a hole, they get demoted to play clothes and then to garden t-shirts. Right now... I have a lot of garden t-shirts available!

As for jeans... my current garden jeans have a massive hole in the knee and I am already eyeing my closet to see which pair of jeans will volunteer to become the new garden jeans. For right now though, I will eek out as much wear from the current torn garden jeans as I can...

What else can we do?

• Mend and Make Do - if you've got a sewing machine... you're in the money!
• Get more life out of our clothes - wear them carefully - use aprons when cooking or wear a garden t-shirt while cooking (I can't tell you how many of my t-shirts have cooking oils splatters...)
• Clothing Swap - this might not work so well in the Year of the Virus but... at other times... swap clothes with friend who are the same size
• Wear what we Have - that out-of-fashion pair of pants might be perfectly fine when all else fails...

I'm going to hazard a guess that we are all going to get a crash course in minimalism and learn what the really important things are. Fast Fashion isn't going to be one of those things. Besides... the fashion industries are too busy rejigging production lines to make Personal Protection Equipment (masks, gowns, scrubs)...