Comment by bane | Hacker News Reader

Comment by bane | Hacker News Reader

I've done the same lifehack for many years now and it's been extraordinarily helpful. On Jan 1st or 2nd, I rotate all of my hangers so the hook is backwards on the bar (I do something similar for shoes, folded pants, etc.). The next Jan 1st or 2nd, any clothes that are still in that position are given away. It means I made it through 4 seasons, and 52 weeks of work, play, social functions, hiking, yard work, house maintenance, and other events and never needed to call on those clothes. So off they go.

The first year I did this I probably gave away about 60% of my wardrobe and never missed a single item I parted with -- a number of which still had the store tags on them. Even though this frees me up to purchase new clothes as I need them throughout the year without filling my closet up to the breaking point, I find that it puts a small routine in the back of my mind that makes me far more frugal with clothes and as a result I buy very little. If I really need some specialty clothing for something, it's usually a tuxedo or something I can probably rent or borrow.

It's sort of a zero effort, self-documenting, positional tracking system.

I do something similar. I just keep my closet organized by type of item (pants together, button down shirts together, etc). A stuff is worn/laundered, they go to the left. Stuff that rarely gets worn slowly moves to the right as worn items displace unworn.

Every few months, I look to the right and if I see things I never wore (and have no plans to wear), I donate them. Obv I don't do this with out of season items, but generally, work shirts are work shirts (if it's cold, I add a cardigan or blazer).

Unlike the blog author, I don't track underwear. First, all my undershirts are the same - I'd have to label them to differentiate. I tend to simply chuck them all in the "rags" bin once a year and replace en masse. And underpants last for ages, so I don't see the need to bother.

I should track shoes, just to see what happens. They're so specialized and seasonal, I haven't bothered. Chukkas for winter, loafers for 3 season wear, boat shoes for the worst of summer, etc.

I have way too much clothing even though I periodically give a bag or two away. The past nine months are obviously not typical but during normal times, I travel for maybe a third of the year and pack very lightly so I basically have a very compact set of travel specialty clothes. And most of the rest of the time I work from home. Plus I get a ton of swag given to me--t-shirts but also nice fleeces, jackets, etc. I do turn of it down but a lot I can't really do so and it is nice at the time. But how much can one realistically use.

Just about the only thing I buy these days is underwear, socks, replacement shoes, and the odd article of either travel or outdoor-related clothing.

I wore very little of my winter clothes last year. We had a baby and I was only back to work for a few weeks before I started working from home. I think my son wears more outfits than my wife and I combined durning a normal week. Have you found you had more to give away this year?

I've been doing this for a few years now so I don't usually have too much to give away these days.

This year of course was weird, but for various reasons turned out to not be hugely different in terms of old clothes with one exception -- slacks. So I'm currently going through a triage of slacks and wearing one per day for fit and to check for problems to find any to toss or give away.

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