Reduce by 50%? Starting With Sweaters

For the past several years, October has usually meant rotating my footwear and sharing an update on those numbers. This time around, I’m skipping the shoe stats and counting something I’d never counted before: sweaters.

And apparently, the counting was overdue. Would you be surprised if I said I started with 39 cardigans? When I mentioned that number to my daughter, her reaction was one of disbelief: “Can you even really wear 39 cardigans?” I must admit, that was a fair question.

Until I counted them, I had never really thought of my cardigans as a number. They were simply the items in one section of my closet. Some lightweight, some heavier. Some cropped, some longer. Some basic, some more interesting. Some worn often and others less so.

Honestly, it looked like a lot, but when you say it out loud, 39 is kind of an astonishing number.

Besides my footwear, I hadn’t counted any other items in my wardrobe before. Unlike my shoes, though, I did not create an Excel inventory. I wanted a starting number, not a new administrative task.

The whole exercise grew out of an idea I’ve been kicking around for a while: what would happen if I tried reducing different areas of my wardrobe by 50%? Not because I believe 50% is some magical number. And not because I believe that everyone should own half as much as they do now.

Mostly, I wanted a number big enough to make me look at what I own a little more critically. This post is the first in what I’m hoping will become an ongoing series doing exactly that, one category at a time. I randomly decided to kick it off with sweaters, probably because I’m eagerly anticipating cooler weather.

Starting With Sweaters

In this go-around, I divided my sweaters into two groups: cardigans and pullovers, with the second group also including some heavier long-sleeved tops. I started with 39 cardigans and 21 pullovers and heavier long-sleeved tops, for a total of 60 pieces in this category.

Before deciding what to keep and what to let go of, I tried to look beyond the usual questions of fit, condition, and whether I still liked the style. I also considered things like:

• What was my plan for wearing this when I bought it?
• Is it a quality item?
• Do I have something similar that I prefer?
• Would I buy it again today?
• Is this giving me another choice, or just another version of the same choice?
• Perhaps the most useful question of all: can I realistically wear all of this?

That last question turned out to be more complicated than I expected.

What I Got Rid Of

One thing became obvious while I was going through the pullovers. I had several sweaters with stand-up necklines or turtlenecks, yet I couldn’t remember the last time I had chosen to wear one. It wasn’t that they no longer fit or that there was anything wrong with them. I simply no longer find this type of neckline comfortable. It made me realize that something can still fit, be in good condition, and suit my general style, but no longer align with the way I actually want to dress.

As for the cardigans, the reasons were more varied. A few were near duplicates, a couple never really suited me no matter how much I liked them, and the rest were pieces I just couldn’t see myself wearing.

When I was done, I tabulated the results and found that I had culled 10 cardigans and 8 pullovers or heavier tops. On the surface, that sounds pretty respectable. Eighteen pieces out of 60 meant I had removed 30% of what I started with. Not 50%, but not nothing either.

Then the math got a little less impressive because I hadn’t yet included new purchases.

There were four cardigans and three pullovers that I’d bought recently, ‘cuz if nothing else, I’m a shopper. So while 18 pieces had left, seven newer pieces had entered the picture. My final numbers were: 33 cardigans and 16 pullovers/heavier tops for 49 in total. That meant my actual net reduction was closer to 18%.

So much for reducing by 50%. But this is perhaps also where the experiment started getting more telling.

Does Buying Something New Cancel Out Decluttering?

At first glance, maybe. If seven new pieces come in while 18 go out, the total reduction is obviously smaller. But I’m not sure that the math tells the whole story.

If something new is replacing a weaker version of something I already own, or filling a gap, or simply becoming something I reach for more often, then the purchase may still improve the wardrobe even if it softens the final reduction percentage.

That raises a question I suspect will come up again in this series: Is success really about owning less, or is it about owning better? I’m not ready to answer that yet, but I already know that simply subtracting one number from another may be too simplistic.

How Much Is Actually Too Much?

Back to my daughter’s question, “Can you even really wear 39 cardigans?” The obvious answer is yes. I could physically wear all 39 eventually.

But that is not really what she meant. The better question might be whether 39 cardigans serve 39 different purposes, or whether some are simply repeats of something I already like better. That is where “too much” starts getting slippery.

If I wear cardigans often, live in a climate where layering makes sense, and genuinely use a wide range of them, then 39 might not be as outrageous as it sounds. On the other hand, if I consistently reach for the same 12 and ignore the rest, that tells a different story. And this is exactly the nuance I want this series to explore. Too much is not always a fact.

Sometimes it is a number.

Sometimes it is repetition.

Sometimes it is storage.

Sometimes it is maintenance.

Sometimes it is simply owning more than I can realistically use before something goes out of style, deteriorates, or gets forgotten.

From The Moodboard To The Closet

For this outfit, I went back to two of the patterns that showed up on my October moodboard: argyle and plaid. The black argyle cardigan is layered over a simple white top and paired with a black-and-white plaid skirt. I liked the idea of mixing the two patterns while keeping the color palette mostly black and white. The high-top sneakers keep the outfit casual and give the skirt a little less of a “dressed up” feel.

And, somewhat inconveniently for this post about reducing my sweaters, the cardigan is one of the recent additions to my closet. It’s obviously not just another black cardigan, and while I do have another argyle, it’s in a completely different colorway. So even though I was trying to reduce the number of sweaters I have, I’d argue that this one was different enough from what I already owned to justify its purchase. Of course, there are others who would disagree. Comme ci, comme ça.

Was 50% Ever Really the Point?

Apparently not. At least not this time. I could have forced myself to get rid of more sweaters just to hit the number, but that would have defeated the purpose. The 50% goal did make me look harder, though.

Which raises another question: what should the goal of a purge actually be?

There are plenty of methods for decluttering. A recent Good Housekeeping article about the “30 Bags in 30 Days” challenge also mentioned approaches such as one-in/one-out and sorting items into keep, donate, trash, and sell categories. What struck me most wasn’t that one method was necessarily better than another, but that having some sort of framework gives you a place to start.

For me, 50% was the framework. But should the goal be fewer items? More room? Fewer repeats? A wardrobe that better reflects what I actually wear now? In reality, it’s probably some combination of all of those.

And once you set a goal, how strictly should you adhere to it if the process starts telling you something different?

That may be the real value of choosing a number in the first place. Eighteen of the original 60 pieces did not make the cut. Forty-two did. And perhaps that tells me something too.

Maybe I genuinely use and enjoy more sweaters than I expected. Maybe some of what looked like repetition actually serves a purpose. Maybe some categories will be easier to reduce than others. And maybe this series is going to be less about proving I own too much and more about figuring out what “enough” looks like for me.

For sweaters, at least, the answer was not 50%. Not even close.

What tells you that you have too many of something? Would you ever try cutting your wardrobe by 50%?

Stay well and let’s keep in touch! Subscribe, follow, friend, pin … all options are available. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

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Photo credit: MMPerez

Note: This is an unsponsored post; however, some or all of the links to clothing items may be associated with an affiliate program, where I earn a small commission for each purchase at no additional cost to you.