My aunt who's half of a power couple where she lives, who raised two daughters to adulthood (both still single, pampered pooches,) but still... Auntie is a class act, always was.

Once I made a half-joke about my daughter having too many clothes. And auntie came back with "A girl can never have too many clothes."

Well, I've pondered that off and on over the years.

Because truth be told, it *is* possible to have too many clothes IMHO.

Your take? ;-)

I don't think it's possible to have too many clothes. Or shoes. :-D

You're a woman after my auntie's heart. :)

Or model trains.

Not according to my wife.....but that is changing. ...she's donating most of her older clothing to charity.

It takes discipline to donate clothing. It's also freeing ie, of closet space, and to make room for new clothes. :D

Yes it does. When I lost a pile of weight a decade ago I donated all my really large size stuff to a young man with a disability who really needed a wardrobe upgrade. I was glad to be able to help out and it was freeing for sure.

That was a very nice thing to do.

Thank you. It was also a motivator to not gain the weight back as I hate buying new clothes.

I say you can have too many clothes. Some people have way more clothes than they actually wear. I know several people like this. I just don't get it.

Having grown up dirt poor in rural Idaho, I used to daydream about having new clothes to wear. While my classmates were wearing the latest fashions, I was designing my doll clothes from scraps, and making shirt dresses from my dad's and brothers overgrown shirts for me to wear.

One spring my mama promised me she was ordering me some catalog clothes I had wanted badly. I waited and waited for the package that never came. Realizing eventually that mom had lied to me in order to keep me from begging her for the cool outfits I'd been coveting and waiting to show up in my mailbox. I was maybe all of 10 or 11 at that time in my life.

A child who grows up with nothing learns to appreciate everything!

These days my barn is overflowing with good things. Now I need to scale back. Donating things takes some discipline, but as I've learned it also keeps me from acquiring more than I really need or have use for.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2017 06:57PM by Amyjo.

I agree. I have 3 pairs of jeans, a dozen T and golf shirts and I set of dress clothes. All I need.

It all started when my renal nurse told me, "You really need some new clothes, Sweetie. You say you aren't trying, but you're losing 10, 12, 14 pounds every few weeks. Those ol' jeans just don't fit any more.

I haven't even been trying. With my low back injury, I can't walk much. Oh, I can drive to the pharmacy (which is user-friendly, at the front of the store) pick up the package and go home. But if DH texted and said, "can you please get a half-gallon of milk? the cat is low?" I would have to say "no." The dairy is all the way at the back of the store and the extra weight of the half-gallon would cause me unspeakable pain. I could try, but would probably end up in a painful heap of the floor because my hips gave out. I don't like to use those things. I can stop, stand up, and reach from the right shelf - so I DO I REALLY have the right to use those gizmos???

And another thing. My 70th birthday will be toward the end of June. There isn't a whole lot you can do with an old broad, but they make you feel like a goddess, coming out of there. I have an appointment already. I just know what to get. I'm basic silver, but the young woman did some incredible things to it with high lights and low lights. I felt like Cleopatra when I stepped out. The look on my DH's face was priceless. And there is this sundress I have been looking at - beautiful blue, like my eyes, and this thing takes about 15 pounds off you. It's GORGEOUS. We can afford this. I wanted to go to Tahiti, but he can't speak French.)

We have been very happily married for 25 years. I want to make every day that remains to us as special as I can. He is the proverbial one in a million.

I mean, how many times in your life had you had the chance to have look at your 70-year-old self and say, "Oh, WOW!!Let's pack for Hawaii the second we get home!" I've never been there and it has always been a dream. . . .

Some of our children think we are being stupid; other cheer us on. I want to let him know that he is the most special guy out there! Advice?

Absolutely. The fashion industry is incredibly wasteful (not being self-righteous here - I definitely have much more than I need). I'm finally donating all my old church clothes, though.

I have more dressy clothes than I need.

My work attire is business casual. At most I may dress up once a week, sometimes more, for worship and special occasions.

I still like my dresses.

And separates. When I was growing up girls couldn't wear pants or slacks to school until that rule changed when I was in junior high. It was dresses or skirts only for the longest time.

It was a different era altogether. :)

Yes,it is Very possible.

For the moths in my bedroom told me so!!

Absolutely gutted and had to throw out loads.They unfortunately like big stockpiles of clothes as much as me.

Sounds like I've dodged a mothball or two ! ;)

I haven't faced down mothballs ... yet anyway. :)

Well, I have five big bags of clothers upstairs which are going to charity and I still have sweaters and shoes to sort, so, yeah, it is possible. I didnt even remember some of them.lol.

I enjoyed sewing some sweaters into bags, it took several to learn from. I got them from a thrift store, for weight, or cables, or texture, then utilized front and back as panels and sometimes arms as bag floor, collar as to. My favorite is a repurposed aryan cream cable wool somebody shrunk so it's dense thick wool tightly cable knit ; I kept the button panel making the bag. It's full of gloves and hangs in the hall making them accessible. The cable knit is beautiful. it's slung over a cast iron hook and I enjoy it.

Is there anything in one of your bags or closets which has great texture, weight yarn, silk fabric or unique trait that folded together could make a great handkerchief or sock sorter in a drawer? Love the pattern, love the fabric, appreciate it once more recycling it forward. If not you, then someone else may enjoy recycling repurposing instead of doing it yourself you have something else.

Very many beauties existed as sweaters become other forms/ an eyelash knit extra small sweater , very thick, very smooth, fun color - has become the very best knitting project yarn holder. With a pull top through the waist or bottom ribbing simply folded down and stitched became the place I drew the pull strings through. So using the excellent engineering existing already in the great fabric- it became such more fun for me, and a daily part of my life instead of a sweater.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2017 09:23PM by paintinginthewin.

I dont think so. Sorry.

If you have so many cloths you can't wear then all, you have too many.

Which sort of belies the mystery of a woman with a full closet who laments she has 'nothing to wear.'

:)

When I retired a couple of years ago, I donated to an organization that helps low income women find jobs, dress for job interviews and the like. It was an organization recommended to my by a non-mormon co worker and they were so appreciative to get the donation. As I went through my work clothes, I was amazed at how much I really had, both clothes and shoes!

I have tried to remember what I donated and, frankly, I can only recall two or three of the outfits out of about 30. So, yes, I agree, I had too many clothes, and it was very freeing to repurpose them in this way that I know helped other women.

I take the Mother Teresa approach to amount of clothes:

One to wash
One to wear
One to mend

Gatorman
Victorious day in Gainesville

I'm sure she wasn't talking about your jorts, Gatorman!

Well if someone else is taking care of you when you have a tumor I guess then it really doesn't matter if you have extra clean socks does it.

I I think mother Theresa had other people cooking or running the house. And people serving food, there might have been shared clothes that she could put on if she didn't wash her own.

Being in community matters it changes routines, and needs getting met. because of a fortunate glitch in size we share unisex outwear adventure outdoor gear since my husband can zip up parkas rain gear and we share! So unglamorous I know but it makes eccentric elective travel from hot Ca to cold Alaska so much more reasonable being sharing our out-of climate zone clothing gear.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2017 09:55PM by paintinginthewin.

Ha! Gatorman, I love it!

I don't know whether to put that sign in

my closet,
my laundry room
or my sewing room!

:D

truth: you don't need a lot of anything. so, yes. a person xan have too many clothing. there's no need

A woman can have too many clothes (closet crammed with apparel, but still having "nothing to wear"), but she can NEVER have enough shoes!

From 1985 until 1994, I worked in the shoe department of ZCMI, if any of you remember them from all those years ago. Owned by the morg and now long closed. The only remnant is the front façade that somehow got left when they rebuilt downtown.

Anyway, I discovered that I really liked shoes. ZCMI employees got a small discount and quite often there would be a buyer (from a shoe company) come in the store and let us buy a pair of shoes for $10 or $20.

By the time I left ZCMI in 1994, (to work for Citibank) I had way too many shoes. I was divorced in 1996 and moved into my apartment in downtown SLC with 47 pair of shoes, some never worn. I did donate several pair to the DI. Citibank closed the office here in 1998 out by the airport and I was offered a job in Las Vegas to work in basically the same department.

By 2007, Citibank was again closing offices all over the country and in this case they were sending our department of about 30 people to India and they closed the offices in Las Vegas. (The India thing didn’t work and they brought the department back, based in Jacksonville, FL about 9 months later). I got a nice severance there and then by June 2008, I was working for Zappos.com, the shoe retailer which was an experience.

They offered us 40% off everything they sold. My daughter and sons and their wives bought lots of shoes from the company, using my discount, mostly for grandkids but for them also. Zappos didn’t put any limits on the amount and you can imagine how many shoes family and friends of family got.

So then I left Las Vegas in 2015, and brought 25 +- pair of shoes with me, many of which are still in a storage box. I need to do something with them.

But yes, I can say truthfully, You Can Never Have too Many Shoes.

I knew a lady who worked in Lord & Taylor (cosmetics). She said, "We live on my husband's salary. All my pay here goes to shopping here--I just can't resist the discount!"

I like having new clothes occasionally because as a kid and young person I had to wear hand me downs and makeshift unattractive clothes from a skimpy closet. I can afford better now and indulge a bit occasionally to make up for my past.

I'm a man so my perspective is from a male point of view. But, in my opinion, yes it is possible for a woman to have too many clothes. However, it's not possible for a man to have too many tools.

I'm fascinated by the whole discount thing. I walked through the Sears clothing section on my way to tools, and scanned the area as I went up the escalator. Nearly everything had a red On Sale sign on it. How can everything be on sale, 50% off?

Anyway, most time my wife buys clothes, she tells me how much she saved. I am assuming prices are jacked up just to reduce them and make people think they are saving money. Which is why our kids are gone and every bedroom is now full of my wife's clothes and shoes.

I now realize if one shops sales, they will spend more in the long run than paying full price. And end up with a lot they don't need. So I avoid sales flyers.

BTW, nothing worse than a cheap pair of shoes, which often end up uncomfortable and not worn.

We are in a stage where clutter is a serious issue and having to get rid of stuff. All that stuff that was supposedly a good deal, is now discarded, or sold for pennies on the dollar. Not a great deal after all.

The marketers and psychologists that manipulate us are good. Consumerism is a religion. Try questioning someone on whether they really need something they got a good deal on and it can get pretty emotional.

I have things I don't really need, but I at least try to admit it. Got to get past the denial stage.

The answer is yes. My wife and I live in a home that's 117 years old (or young). We have a two decker 40" wide closet. She doesn't even fill her half, but always looks beautiful. Mixes and matches. She buys all her clothes, mine too, at second hand stores. Doesn't have to. It's a choice. Living simply is really peaceful...

Is it possible for a man to have too many wives?

Nope!

All my clothes were either made by my mother or were hand me downs. I wore A LOT of hand me downs. They were some of my favorite as they were not had sewn. Though I still have a few of the hand sewn dresses my mother made like my graduation dress. One Christmas, my mother found that a store in Ogden (Auerbach's?) had a clearance area and she bought us some dresses there. I LOVED them, though my sister got some I really wanted and had to beg to wear them.

I chose after high school to go work rather than finish college as I wanted to be able to BUY clothes, but I've never kept too terribly many clothes. If they didn't fit in my closet, I got rid of some. There are always those I buy that I never feel good in even if they are attractive. I used to force myself to wear them. I don't do that now. I give them to DI. My daughter throws out bags and bags of clothes at least once a year when she returns from Alaska.

She has learned that she doesn't need that many clothes living up in Alaska as she only takes a select few and has to wear black pants and white shirts for work anyway.

I just threw out a bunch of clothes just before Christmas. I think I have too many clothes and shoes.

Actually when I was a poor single mother, I wore my daughter's cast off shoes and since I am and was more overweight then, my son wore large sweatshirts and that is what I wore or the Kmart blue light special shirts my mother gave me as gifts. So now I think I over-buy, but all my clothes fit in one closet including those things like my wedding dress and my mother's wedding dress fit in there, too.

Mine were mostly hand made too, cl2 and I hated them with a passion. I was the only girl wearing homemade clothes. I had a few handmedowns when I was in Jr Hi too, but that was in the mid 70's and the handmedowns was stuff from the 50's and 60's. Not in style at all.

So in high school I only had 2 skirts and one dress ( all homemade) and 3 blouses (storebought) that I wore for both soph and jr years. Luckily I had a job after that and was able to buy some pants which were finally allowed for my sr year. We weren't poor, its just that my mother didn't want me to think too much of myself so she kept me "humble." LOL

I pretty much stuck with not having many clothes for a long time. It was when I finally figured out TSCC was not true that I was able to let go of the idea that it was sinful to have too much of anything. Now I have a lot more outfits but still not as many as some ladies I know.

And the hand-sewn clothes. We didn't have many clothes either. Most of my friends made their clothes. The one girl in our mutual class who was from a rich family had store bought clothes.

The hand me downs I got were from a family who also bought their clothes, so I loved it when I got those hand me downs. One of the dresses they gave me, I loved, and wore forever. There was a lace blouse they gave me, too. Those are the 2 things I remember. My older sister (by 17 months) refused to wear hand me downs as they came from a girl her age in the ward, so I got them.

I didn't have to wear clothes from thrift shops or from the 1950s or 1960s thankfully.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/2017 09:53AM by cl2.

My mother also made a lot of our clothes, which was actually pretty great, especially when prom and other event seasons took place and I could put my creative skills into designing a fashionable, but "modest" dress for school and dances and such. I love shopping for clothes, make-up, shoes, and learning how to make my own jewelry has been immensely satisfying. My biggest regret is not learning how to sew from my mother, because she made really good money from sewing wedding dresses and such and it really is a economic way to make clothes that fit you well.

I love clothes and aesthetics. I probably have more than a person needs, but I wear them all. I almost went into fashion design because I really do have a knack and talent for it. Because I am quite short and a "thick" woman, if I find something that fits and looks nice, I buy several pairs so I can rotate them. Sam's Club has been great for finding shorts and pants and capris that fit and are comfortable.

I still buy 2nd hand clothes and when we go to Utah, that is one of the best places to find clothes in my size.

As for having too many? Well, I do hang up the majority of my clothes and they broke the rod more than once, so you may be on to something. I did make a huge clothing donation recently to the Boys and Girls club, though.

I hate moths.

I own 3 pairs of shoes. I have 3 pair of jeans and two pair of shorts. I own about 12 shirts and 10 nightgowns. No dresses; no pantyhose and no heals. I own two coats and two sweaters. Oh, and two bathing suits.

I hate shopping, so . . .

Clothes?

My dear mom was a clothes horse and dad could afford to indulge her shopping excesses. Ours was a fairly wealthy ward and mom and several other wives tried to outdo each other on Sundays or so it seemed.

Yes, it is possible for a woman to have too many clothes, just as it is possible for a man to have too many clothes. (Not sure why OP's cliche targets only women?)

I once had a male friend that I used to help out as a maid of sorts. He had, easily, over a hundred boxer briefs, and just as many pairs of socks and t-shirts. This guy rarely did his laundry, so, of course, like an idiot, I would help out....what a nightmare! Seriously, to hoard underwear, I swear, there must be something mentally and emotionally wrong with him.

Recently, I worked my butt off, literally, and am now back to my ideal weight - 130 pounds / size 6 -
so I emptied out my closet and now have so few clothes that DH comments that he never sees any of my stuff in the laundry basket. Like Gatorman - one to wash, one to wear, one to mend. :)

I had a deal with a company that sent me quite cheap underwear every other month for years. It was quite nice because I hate shopping, but in the end I had to cancel the subscription because I now have boxers and briefs to last me for the rest of my life. It's way less than 100 of them though. The problem with socks though is how often just one of the pair goes missing or is broken or worn out or whatever so you end up with lots of non-matching socks. I've got too few pair of socks, maybe ten pairs, and too many lonely socks. A friend of mine has a brilliant solution, she only buys one kind of socks, so any of her socks will match up perfectly with any other.

There's a phenomenon involved with losing socks in the washing machine and dryer. Something akin to a cosmic Black Hole that devours them when we aren't looking.

Those unmatched socks I've taken to describing as "mateless wonders." I'm sure there are lots of practical uses for them, but mine invariably end up in the landfill.

:)

They are full. He never throws any clothes away. He has T-shirts from the 1970s. He has 2 large dressers full of T-shirts. He has quite a few pairs of shoes, too. He does throw out shoes.

He even admits he is partially a hoarder. Another reason I can't live with him. He takes up all the space in his house, which is a large home. The two bedrooms he keeps for his kids, who live out of state, are clean other than the dressers are full.

All his shirts are some shade of blue or gray as he is color blind and he worries about things matching. I don't have a clue how he decides what to wear every day.

(I think it is rather interesting that both my gay ex and my boyfriend are both color blind.)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/2017 09:48AM by cl2.

For me, having too many clothes would mean not having the space to store them properly. If you have more clothes than you have closet space, then you've got too many clothes.

I definitely don't fall into that category. I have two pairs of shoes, both are pairs of running shoes. I have a week day pair of pants and a weekend pair of pants. I have two t-shirts and enough tops to get me through the work week. Oh and a few fancier tops, just in case I need them.

That's it.

I worked for a very wealthy family one summer between high school and college, in Westchester, NY. The house was on estate grounds, and palatial. It was extraordinary. There were 4-5 large bedrooms in addition to my quarters. Each bedroom of the house had a large closet, including my room. Each of those closets was packed to the gills with the matriarch's clothing. Her husband had one closet for his suits, it was the coat closet downstairs.

They were grandparents who hired me to take care of their grandchildren that summer while their DIL was convalescing from post-surgery.

Her house was immaculate unless you peeked into the basement. Then it was like a scene out of Hoarders. Floor to ceiling boxes and overflow of things they'd collected over the years. :)

I'm very familiar with that phenomenon and prepared to believe in the black hole or sock eating monster theory. But also, if you use semi-public machines, like most people do where I live, you occasionally also find new 'mateless wonders' in your laundry every now and then. Obviously in the wrong size, god forbid that the washing machine or dryer would ever regurgitate any socks in my size, even though I have a perfectly average foot size.

I'd like to be able to streamline my wardrobe, but have never been able to accomplish that objective of doing more with less.

I like simplicity. It's my addiction to shopping and pretty, nice things that keeps me from realizing that goal.

One of my tips for controlling the 'volume' of things I accumulate is to give away something for each piece I acquire. Give or take a few. That helps.

Another thing I focus on these days is "quality" over "quantity." I like fine fabrics and textiles that are well constructed. And cost. If it isn't a "value find," I go elsewhere.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/2017 09:32AM by Amyjo.

You're talking funny talk.

It is possible for a woman to have too many clothes, up until she has nothing to wear!

Yes _ and no - and YES.

I think people can spend their money on anything they want to. Even "excessive" inventories of clothes.

If, however, you have closets full of stuff you never wear, you might want to re-think what you're spending your money on. Investing the money you spent on clothes you never wear into a stock index fund would have been a lot smarter. :)

A practical woman yes, a full blown queen, no.