Jennifer - I know what you mean about dresses vs separates. Dresses really simplify things and being able to sew them yourself removes most of the reasons not to go that way.

Wende - I think I may be a little understocked in Just Get Dressed clothes too, but my problem occurs during the transitional seasons. In summer and winter, I generally get stocked up on what I need, but somehow fall and especially spring are more challenging for me (probably because the clearance seasons are less intense).

And how nice for you that you have some opportunities to dress up!

1. Just Get Dressed (telecommuter time!): 7x week, figuring that’s also the weekend fall-back position. I’m under-stocked here, particularly with the change in climate.

2. Smart Casual (dinner out, church, better shopping): 3x week. I’m overstocked here but not getting rid of things, as telecommuting arrangement could fall through and send me back into the job market. Also, my estimate may be wrong: the Twin Cities are a LOT more formal than Arizona. Men still wear jackets and ties to work.

3. Business Formal (conferences, high-end dinner, non-telecommute): 0.25x month. Good thing I never got around to restocking here!

4. Dressy (charity events, corporate parties, opera): 0.25x-0.5x month. Some clothing items overlap with Smart Casual or Business Formal.

5. Exercise: 3x week, but I only need one outfit.

1. Just Get Dressed. This is the daily life of a SAHM–how I dress at home. 6 x/wk
2. Smart Casual. This is to go shopping, date nights, appointments, Bible study, etc 2x/wk.
3. Sundays. This is for church. 1x/wk.
4. Fitness. Even though I run 3x/wk, I don’t need many pieces of clothing. 3x/wk.
5. Social. 1x/year at most. Only updated when an event is on the horizon.

This way I saw where my true needs were (primarily in the Smart Casual area). And, I could let my “Just Get Dressed” clothes go a little longer before buying, because they mostly stay at home.

I also came up with a template for each one. I’m going to go w/dresses for 2 & 3 because they are one piece. Separates are starting to drive me batty (The Smart Casual skirt only has one top that goes with it this week and I wore it yesterday when I was Just Getting Dressed…)

I’m liking shortish dresses with leggings for #2 and hope to add a couple this fall. Actually they’re sitting in fabric form on my sewing table and I’m waiting for some little mice to come sew them up in the night.

The last one I finally got rid of a few years ago, and I really wish I could find one very similar to replace it, was a beautiful sage green classic suit with a collarless jacket. The problem with it was, while my size hadn’t changed, my “eye” had. Simply put, the jacket was huge! What had looked exactly right in years past, now made me look like a little girl playing dress up! lol

Oh well!

For example, many women who used to have office jobs, and have had kids, and won’t be going back to work for 5 years, hang on to their suits and office attire thinking that they’ll need it again one day, when in fact, by the time they go back to work it’ll be out of date probably won’t fit any more anyway and they’ll have to buy new clothes (plus the office might not be so suity anymore as times change). So my advice is to work out your lifestyle, get rid of anything that no longer fits into your lifestyle, as wardrobe space is real estate, and real estate is expensive. A cleared out wardrobe lets you see what you really have, then you can work on the segments of the pie that are lacking in your wardrobe.

So if you’jre 50% time at work, then you wardrobe needs to be 50% work clothes ….

Simple, but effective.