Closet Clean Out?

I have that problem where I have a full, full closet and nothing to wear. I also have a hideous number of NWT things hanging out in my closet. I know part of the problem is that I over buy for summer but I live in Maine where is is winter pretty much all year round so I have lots of pretty summer dresses that don't get much wear.

 I've always wondered what a normal size wardrobe and I wanted to make sure my wardrobe was normal. When I was a pre-teen I wanted to be sure to have just as many clothes as the cool kids. Now I am afraid that I have to many clothes and I am being wasteful. So I'd like to know what's normal interns of closet size for your average American woman. But, I think there is no normal sized wardrobe. It all depends on who you are, what you do, and where you live.

My Primary Closet

I recently stumbled upon "Food, Shelter, Clothing and Optimal Wardrobe Size" by the Vivienne Files which lead to me reading "What is a 'Normal-Sized' Wardrobe?" by Recovering Shopaholic and I was inspired to try to par down my wardrobe to better fit my lifestyle (and my available space). These helped me figure out a good sized closet for me. based on the seasons I experience (endless winter), the range of clothing I need (business formal to yoga class), and how often I want to wear each item each season.

Maine is cold most of the year, September-ish through April. We have a brief spring/summer season May through August but it can still get very chilly at night. I figure I should aim to wear each item in my closet between two and four times each season. When I have a job I spend most of the week in business wear and most of this needs to be more formal business wear.

The Closet in our Spare Room with Nice Clothes, Party Dresses,
and NWT Things I Haven't Worn Yet

I did some math based on these factors and I'd like to try to par down my cold weather wardrobe to 30 work outfits and 22 casual outfits. I have a really hard time finding cold weather clothes that I like. Winter clothes take up more space than summertime clothes because they are heavy and warm. I also wear lots of layers in the winter so I can go a while between washes. So I will assume I'll be okay with repeating outfits up to four times. Indeed, after a quick count, it looks like I've been doing okay with 19 wintertime work dresses.

One of Three or Four Tubs of Summer Clothes in the Basement

I am going to be more lenient with my warm weather wardrobe since I love shopping for summer.  I would like to aim for between 34 and 26 warm weather work outfits and between 26 and 19 casual outfits. I have no idea how many summer clothes I have. Right now most of my summer clothes are packed up in several large plastic tubs in our basement. I think most of my pruning work will be in this area. I'll update when I unpack my summer clothes next month.

My Too Full "Dresser" with Tee Shirts, &c.

I also struggle with what to do with "basics" like layering tanks, tee shirts, and underwear. I spent about 10 years collecting C & C layering tanks in every color. Now I don't need a rainbow of layering tanks because I am a boring lawyer. I also don't need the what seems like millions of tee shirts I have from high school and college. At the same time it seems like I never have enough long underwear, pajama pants, or sweatshirts for lounging in on the weekends.

What does your closet look like? Do you have any plans for downsizing it or strategies for keeping it from getting out of hand while still making sure you still have enough to wear?

House Tour Part II: Upstairs

Welcome to the second part of my house tour! Let's go upstairs.

This bookshelf  is one of the first things you see going up the stairs.
It has a lot of knickknacks and things I have no place for.

The Knickknacks on Top of the Desk

The Bathroom

We run a dehumidifier because our apartment gets horribly humid and my allergist said that to combat dust mites and mold (things I am allergic to) we should keep the humidity below 50%. I can run that dehumidifier all day and the humidity hardly ever gets below 50% and it is so loud! It was nice gift from my BIL. He found it and gave it to use for Christmas one year. In the summer we run it in the basement but in the winter it is too cold for it in the basement, the coils on the back freeze solid so we move it upstairs to the bathroom.

The Bathroom Sink, Clean

The Bathroom Linen Closet.
 It's been taken over by my cosmetics and lotion.

My Husband's Messy Desk

Going into the Office/Guest Bedroom
The flowers are above my desk are from by bouquet.

A Bookcase from College
Hubs' Childhood Desk

The Overflow Closet

My goal is to clean out my closet enough that my in season close fit in my bedroom closet and my out of season clothes fit in here. Right now my summer clothes are folded up in plastic tubs in the basement. And our spare closet is full of things of things that I might eBay, work shoes, purses, a filing cabinet, and my steamer. It is just a mess and it drives me crazy.

Looking at My Desk

The cork board has been amazing! I am so glad I put it by my desk. My sewing machine is sitting on my now full comic book drawer so I've got to sort through my comics and figure out what to do with the over flow.

There is just enough space on the floor for our air mattress so we have plenty of space for a house guest!

Another Bookcase Left Over from College

Into the Bedroom . . .

Looking In

I have hurt myself on that red chest so many times! Hubs got it from one of his grandfathers and he used to use it for storing toys. We use it as a linen chest now.

The chair left over from college, it was gift to Hubs from his ex-girlfirend. I put my Star Wars pillows on it and sometimes use it to air out my sweaters before putting them back in the closet. I usually don't wear shoes in my OOTDs because I hate wearing shoes in the house, especially in my bedroom and my only full length mirror is in our bedroom.

Looking into the Bedroom Closet
My green dirty clothes hamper from college has three sections for sorting Laundry.
The plastic bin has light weight sweaters that I usually don't wear during the depths of winter.

I don't wash all my clothes after every wear because washing your clothes wears them out faster and washing things when they're already pretty clean wastes water. So I hand up sweatshirts, shirts, and pants things that I've only worn once on the closet door at the end of the day. If they still look and smell clean I put them back in the closet on the "not dirty but not fresh from the washer clean" side of my closet. Please tell me I'm not the only one who does this. I don't want to be that filthy person who wears dirty clothes but especially in the winter when I wear long underwear under everything and don't sweat because I'm always shivering it doesn't quite make sense to wash all my layers after one wear.

The Top of the Closet

My closet drives me crazy. Hubs takes up about two feet of closet space and I take up the rest but it's to enough. Right now I'm in an awkward place wardrobe wise. I am unemployed but I want to be employed. So I can't get rid of my casual clothes because I wear them pretty much every day but I can't get rid of any work clothes and I'm not sure what kind of work clothes I will need for where I end up working. So all my suits and nice dresses are just taking up space and I can't find anything to wear since I'm not going to lounge around the house all business formal. Also, I forgot to pack up my shorts for the winter. I also feel like I can't get rid of clothes that don't fit because I plan on having a baby at some point and maybe after that the clothes that don't fit now will fit or they'll make good maternity wear.

I love my Star Wars Sheets! I need someone to get me some flannel ones.
The go crazy poster is from our wedding.

Our "dressers"

You may have noticed that we've kind of got a nautical theme going on in the bedroom with all my sail boat prints. My favorite is my "Summer on the Lake" print from Marshall Field's.

My Jewelry Storage
Both Jewelry Boxes were gifts from Relatives

The hand my necklaces hang on was a surprise from a college friend/roommate. Hubs got a package in the mail one day with no return address. Inside was a replica of a human hand. Later we found out that it was from our friend who we helped move to Chicago. Later he sent us a Styrofoam head that I now store hats on.

I forget to put deodorant on if I leave it in the bathroom. So it lives by my jewelry box.
Steg (a rare Beanie Baby) and Mrs. Steg.

So we have too much stuff and I need to figure out how to get rid of some of it before we move but it looks like I've got a couple of years to figure that out. One thing that I'm really curious about is how other people store their clothes and how many other people have. I guess if I have about as many clothes as other women then I probably don't need to ruthlessly edit my closet.

So my question for you: What do you guys do with your closet? How big is it? How do you keep it all organized? Do you swap out for seasons or do you keep all your clothes in your closet all the time?