Determine What You Actually Wear and Need

This is part of Stewie's Guide to Ruthlessly Declutter Your Clothes Today.

Early in my career as a software developer, I foolishly tried to stay super busy. I multitasked projects, joined committees, and sat on architecture review boards. All of this busyness felt good but destroyed my productivity.

In contrast, my coworker (I’ll call Tim) would completely disappear for two days to build a new feature. The rest of us said Tim was crazy for disappearing or “going rogue,” as we called it. He skipped so many meetings and wasn’t available to answer anybody’s questions. (Rude!)

But Tim shipped more code in two days than I did in two weeks.

Now, I’d like to tell you that I learned my lesson, focused on productivity, got a fat raise, etc. But I didn’t. Instead, I stayed “busy” and eventually found myself in the first wave of layoffs.

Looking back, I see an obvious lesson about being productive. But I see a second hidden lesson: if you don’t want to end up like everyone else, you must do the opposite of everyone else.

I’ve applied this idea to decluttering clothes. Conventional advice centers on what to discard. “Just declutter 1 item” is also popular advice. This is rubbish advice, and you should do the opposite: Figure out precisely what clothes you actually need. (Seriously, if your house burned down, what would you repurchase?)

Your decluttering journey begins with identifying what to keep. This becomes your baseline. (And if you’re like me, the number of items is surprisingly small.)

If making a list of what you need feels overwhelming, I have four questions to get you started:

  1. How often do you do laundry?
  2. What do you need for your day-to-day life?
  3. What about special events, exercising, gardening, camping, etc.?
  4. What about different seasons?

Let’s look at how Stewie answers these questions.

1. How often do you do laundry?

Weekly.

2. What do you need for your day-to-day life?

My career has no clothing requirements beyond “No naked Zoom calls.” I never need to dress up and rarely vary my attire.

Here are my essentials: 10 pairs of white socks, 10 pairs of underwear, 10 undershirts, 7 button-down short-sleeve shirts, 2 pairs of jeans, 1 black belt, 1 pair of sneakers, 1 flat cap, and 1 flannel jacket for when I work in the basement.

3. What about special events, exercising, gardening, camping, etc.?

I don’t participate in outdoorsy hobbies requiring specialized clothing. (For exercise, I ride a recumbent exercise bike.)

Here’s what I need for dressing up: 1 dress shirt, 2 ties, 1 black suit, 2 pairs of black socks, and 1 pair of black dress shoes.

4. What about different seasons?

Spring/Fall: 5 button-down long-sleeve shirts, 1 jacket with a hood.

Winter: 1 winter coat, 1 scarf, 1 knit hat, 1 pair of gloves, 1 neck gaiter, 1 set of thermal underwear, and 1 pair of snow pants.

Summer: 1 broad-brimmed hat, 1 swimsuit.

So that’s my list of essential clothing. (It’s a pretty short list, right?) If my house burned down, I’d repurchase these items over the next year.

But that’s me. Your needs may be wildly different. For example, my father-in-law wore a suit to work every day for 40 years. (He even wore stained dress shirts while gardening!) And my snowboarding friends own tons of winterwear.

Regardless of your situation, list out your needs. Write down the essential items that you need for your day-to-day existence.

This is where your decluttering journey begins.

Next steps…