Down'sizing' the wardrobe, part 1 - the plan

As you lose weight, you need to buy new clothes. Loose clothes make for a frumpy appearance, that look is not why we're getting in shape.

And if you're keeping an extra watchful eye on your wallet, you need to buy clothes with a plan. The goal is to look great with every pound and every size lost without jacking up the credit card bills.

How to plan the down'sizing' of your wardrobe:

1. Give yourself a budget. You don't want to loose weight and your credit rating.
   
2. Make your budget correspond to your weight loss. Attach the amount to spend on clothing budget to what you lost in weight. Here's how:
   
   - Think what you want/should/could spend on new clothes in a month.
   - Determine what you'd like to lose in a month.
   - Divide pounds into dollars and spend according to your loss.
   
   For example: In April, I could spend $40 in clothes. I wanted to lose 8 pounds that month. For every pound I lost I could spend $5.
   
3. Work with a plan. With our regular wardrobes, most of us can go 3 to 4 weeks without repeating an outfit at work. During the time you're losing weight, divide that in half. At first*, I was willing to repeat outfits at work every 2 weeks. So at any one time during my weight loss, I needed for work:
   
   - 8 nice tops
   - 2 casual Friday tops
   -1 jacket/blazer (that doubles as a dinner jacket)
   - 4 pairs of slacks
   - 1 pair of jeans
   
   Your needs will be different, but what's important is to write down what you need to wear.
   
4. Keep it simple. Only have in your closet what fits. Clothes that are too large can stay until they can be replaced. 'Too small' sizes find another home. It's easier to stay on your down'sizing' wardrobe plan if you can see in an instant what you got and where the gaping holes are.
   
5. Don't fight your budget. Once you've written down and bought or found the clothes you really need, make it easy to stick to your budget.
   
   Purchase a dozen IKEA hangers (or any other 'odd' looking ones). Ones that will stand out in the closet. These are the only hangers in my down'sizing' closet. I was able to hang all my clothes (except for pants) on the 12 hangers. If I bought something new, it needed a hanger. Something old had to go.
   
   So before buying anything new, I would stand in the dressing room and decide what piece of clothing would lose its hanger (go in the Goodwill bin or the 'too large' box). With only 12 items in my closet, it was easy to picture what my options were. If I wasn't willing to part with something then I knew the new item wasn't worth it. The budget was spared a hit.
   
   blogger note: I can't tell you how many times I would come back a month or so later, a size smaller, and try the same top on (of course in a smaller size). If it was a winner, it usually was marked down making it a double winner.
   
6. Have an exit strategy. If there are only 12 hangers and you buy a blouse, an old top needs to go. But where?
   
   Do you really want to save clothing that doesn't fit? Personally I decided to save only one size above where I was at that particular time. I don't want to make it easy to gain weight.
   
   So in my closet I have two bins, one 'Goodwill' and the other 'one size big.' If I buy something new, the old item freed from one of the 12 hangers gets put in either of the bins. Drop a size and everything in the 'one size big' bin gets put in the Goodwill bin.
   
   To make this exit strategy really work, make frequent Goodwill runs.
   
   Other posts in this series
   Down'sizing' introduction
   Part 2 - getting the most out of each size..
   Part 3, focus
   Part 4, what to buy
   
   *I realized I was the only one to notice how frequently I wore outfits, so I took the number of outfits down to 1.5 weeks. Keeping my budget the same, I was able to buy nicer clothes.