Junior School: Whatever parents bought me including hand-me-downs.
Junior High: Plaid casual shirts with t-shirt inside with various pants. Eventually wore coat 24/7.
School-High (early): Blue or black pants and blue t-shirts
School-High (late): Khakis and t-shirts with baseball cap on 24/7. Track pants showed up really late.
College (early): Khakis, t-shirts, baseball cap 24/7.
College (late): Loose fit and loose boot-cut jeans, no head wear. "Military" style cotton-ish jackets.
First Post-College Job: Expensive-er, somewhat formal wear. Fitted button-ups, sport-ish jackets.
Same Job, Years Later: Two pairs of jeans and a mix of five t-shirts or casual button-ups.
Current: One pair of jeans, five t-shirts or button-ups.
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| Wardrobe Habits |
The takeaway from the list?
From early to late, it looks like I didn't care about what I wore, started caring and experimenting a bit, hit the "grown-up" stage, and then stopped caring again. Alternatively, I tried a bunch of things and just decided to wear what made me happy and comfortable. That, fortunately or unfortunately, consists of very few items now. My entire wardrobe, outerwear included, fits on a single clothes rack that is about 2.5' long. Up until recently though, it filled more than twice the space with most of it never seeing the light of day.
Regrets
I don't really regret trying different things, but I couldn't help but be annoyed at the amount of stuff I had accumulated through the years. Many of the items were probably worn a few times and stuffed in the back of the closet. Some others were worn for a few months before I swore to never wear them again.
The purge
My last purge happened some time around the end of high school. Recently, it came time to clear out my packed Ikea ANEBODA wardrobe. Some attempts were made at hawking my wares on classified sites. Alas, there was very little interest -- two shirts got some queries but buyers flaked out on me. Altogether, probably one suit and two winter jackets sold in total. Ebay popped up as an idea too, but I'd have lost money after shipping costs.
Plan E consisted of donating all the stuff I didn't want to a local charity. I really wanted to give most of it to a charity, but they decided to be very flaky and not pick up my stuff on arranged dates more than once. So, they were hauled to a local thrift store -- Plan F.
The terror
My memory is disturbingly good. So good that I could remember lining up at the cashier to pay for many of the items as I was essentially throwing out. Many of these articles of clothing were almost $100 when bought new. And not only did no one want them for $5 a pop from me, I was packing them into black garbage bags. They did go to a thrift store, but it almost felt like throwing stuff in the trash -- hope the store has more success selling the stuff so it doesn't end up in a landfill, or at least let it go to a developing country. Regardless, this was definitely money out the window. And the money was burned at the cashier's desk each time, not when the trash bags were tied up years later.
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