This is the new mantra of clothes shopping at my house.

After spending December 31st itemizing and getting to Goodwill everything we didn’t need, we still determined that between the two of us, we had way too many clothes.

Too many clothes isn’t in itself a bad thing. But when your closet is so small that you can’t find clothes that you even enjoy, it’s time to make an adjustment.

I’m pretty good about keeping up with my clothes pile. Every couple of months I go through T-shirts, or pants, or some other category of my clothes and get rid of stuff that is worn out or that I never wear.  Most recently it was the higher size I used to wear before I dropped 13 pounds. Now that I’m sitting comfortably at my lower size (not tight) and on my way to a size below that, I can safely get rid of the Size 14 pants. Yeah, I said it. That being said though, I’m 5 foot 10 inches. I would look sickly in a size 4.

My recent trip to the REI clearance sale enforced this policy. True to form, I picked up 3 items of clothing. The idea of getting rid of 6 items in my closet for those 3 items just wasn’t worth it. I kept 1 and put back the other two. I walked out of there with a super warm and soft North Face quarter zip sweater for $30 and spent $15 on some perfect gifts (at clearance prices) for my girlfriend’s birthday in April.

Per my agreement with myself, I got rid of 2 items from my closet. But man I love that new fuzzy sweater!

If you’re looking to institute this rule with your own family, I highly reccomend getting matching quality hangers (I got the wood ones at Ikea). And since they’re always in stock, I didn’t have to buy them all at once. I’d pick up a few packs, and next time I was there, I’d pick up a few more.

I have also organized the closet by color, and in my boyfriend’s case, long sleeve and short sleeve shirts. For somebody who’s never had this before, he really likes walking into it and feeling like he gets to shop in his own closet every day. All clothes are easily visible, and I’ve moved the short sleves to the back for the winter and put the long sleve’s in front. If you’ve got family members that are allergic to “change” or “rules”, just start doing it yourself. I can pretty much guarantee that they’ll like the changes so much, they’ll want to keep it going.