Use It Or Lose It: Stash

I've been keeping track of which of my clothes get worn and which don't. It felt so good to let go of unused clothing that I've decided to apply those same ideas to my stash. That's right. I'm going to clear out most of my yarn! As you can imagine, this was not an easy decision. I love all that yarn...or at least I did when I bought it. When I first plunged into all things knitting, I was a capricious shopper and quickly amassed an assortment of yarns. In time, I became more selective and only bought yarn for specific projects. The problem remained, though, that I could shop more quickly than I could knit. Even though I've used, sold, and given away a lot of it, I still have well over 16 miles of yarn left!

I find that I now mostly knit projects for which I've just bought yarn. That sequence of getting excited about a project, having the thrill of finding just the right yarn, and then quickly casting on--that's what is most likely going to result in a finished product that I like. I'm also more likely to enjoy the process itself because it's what I'm in the mood to knit, whether it's stockinette in the round or complex lace and cables. I've begun to see my stash as more a source of guilt than of inspiration, and that is not how it should be. Therefore, I'm giving myself one year to use it or lose it. This is not a moratorium on purchasing. But if I haven't cared enough about a yarn in my stash to cast on something with it by 8/31/13, I need to find it a better home.

To start things off, I returned 3 balls of Cascade Kid Seta Noir to my LYS today. This is gorgeous yarn! I picked these up with the intention of making a Color Affection, and I still think they'd be great. But the reality is that I've already made one Color Affection and stalled out on a second. The likelihood that I'll start--let alone finish--a third in a year is slim when I've got lots of other ideas swirling around.

Wish me luck, folks!

Use It or Lose It: Update

As you may (or may not) remember, I turned all my hangers around at the beginning of the year. The idea was that I'd have an easy way to mark which clothes were being used and which ones weren't. This has turned out to be very satisfying project. Even though I purge things regularly and had really assumed that I used almost everything in my closet within a reasonable length of time, it turned out that I didn't.

The beginning of this month marked the half-way point of my little project. I've gradually started to address the clothes that had not yet been worn. One by one, I tried them on. Turns out, a lot of the clothes that had not yet gotten picked simply didn't fit--sometimes not at all, and sometimes just not very well. I've gained a lot of weight since having kids, and while I'm working on toning up some things, I really have no aspiration of losing all of that weight again (I was underweight before). So it was time to let go of all those clothes. I also gave away a few things that I just don't like anymore, but the main issue was fit.

In case you're curious, my single largest category of clothes is tops (and I only counted the ones that live on hangers, not the ones that get folded). I eliminated 20% of my tops. Most were given away, but a few of the T-shirts were "demoted" to casual use (what I wear to do yardwork or sleep). The next largest category is the skirts. I gave away 20 of the original 61. That's 33%! I also gave away almost 25% of my dresses.

Through this process, I learned that even though I have a lot of jackets/blazers (we're talking work clothes, not outerwear), I hardly wear any. I've given away 1/6 of them, but I should probably do more. I'm going to wait till we get some cooler weather in the fall and winter before making a final decision. I also realized that I hardly ever wear pants, except for a couple pairs of jeans, so by the end of the year, I'll probably get rid of a lot of those, too.

At this point, I've worn most of the things that are still left in my closet. The only things that remain unworn are special-occasional items and cool-weather clothes. I plan to do another purge at the end of the year.

Besides creating more space in my closet, doing this project has helped me make broader use of my wardrobe. Especially at the beginning, I found myself purposefully reaching only for clothes with backwards hangers because I wanted to "save" them by putting them into rotation. I ended up with some new outfit combinations I probably would not have tried otherwise, and it was really fun!

I've also become more selective about my new purchases (yes, I'm gotten a lot of new things, but only a fraction of what I eliminated), going after things that I really *love*. Is anyone else trying this?

Use It or Lose It

Yesterday, I turned around all the hangers in my closet so that they face the wrong way. The plan is that after I wear an item and clean it, it'll get hung back on a hanger turned around the usual way. By this time next year, I'll know what hasn't been worn at all, and that'll help me decide which clothes need to go.


I don't have many things in my closet that have never been worn (I usually wear new things the same week I get them because I'm excited about them!). I purge my closets regularly, and for the most part, I'm not very sentimental about things I've bought for myself, so it's not like I never let clothes go. Still, I suspect that I underestimate how long it's been since I've worn something. This way I'll know for sure.

I'm thinking about doing something similar for the kids--maybe put a little highlighter tape on toys and have them remove it when they play with it. If I get really, really, really brave, I might just do that with my handknits too to see if there's something that I don't need to keep. That, though, will take much more thought.