Closet Inventory

I thought I knew the depth of my closet, but boy was I wrong!  After my closet inventory, I was simply shocked at the sheer number of garments I had.  I knew I liked to shop (a lot), but I did not know how much my clothes had built up!  Just to give you a sense of what I am talking about, here are some numerical values to chew on.

I own:

92 shirts

15 promotional tee shirts

52 dresses (This includes many casual sun dresses but also quite some gowns and cocktail dresses)

58 pairs of pants (12 of which are jeans)

13 skirts

58 coats, jackets, and sweatshirts

FOR A GRAND TOTAL OF...... 288 garments (excluding undergarments and jammies)

This seems excessive now that I have put numbers to the contents of my closet.

Now, lets talk about where all these clothes are made.  I checked the tags and found that a majority of the garments I own were made in China.  A smaller majority, while still a significant amount, were made in Vietnam.  I also found a decent amount of clothes made in the USA to my surprise!  I shop a whole lot at TJMaxx and I found that a large majority of the garments purchased there were made in America!  The rest of my garments came in small numbers from Mexico, India, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Taiwan, Swaziland, and Honduras.  Interestingly, I own a few pieces of clothing from my vacations to Scotland, and I checked the tags to see where they were make, and I could not find a country's name anywhere!

       

Side note: I recently went into H&M with a friend because she needed a basic white tee shirt.  At the checkout, there was a large illuminated sign stating this: "Better cotton is better fashion.  As a part of our journey towards truly sustainable fashion, H&M has committed to using only sustainably sourced cotton by 2020.  Learn more about our action for a sustainable fashion future at hm.com/conscious."  This is interesting because as seen in the movie in class, H&M had no comment when put under fire about the unethical manufacturing they continue to do.  Many stores and brand can make it look like they are making strides toward being sustainable, but they leave out the whole picture that there are still ethical problems with their system.

Do I even need all of these garments?  It seems like I certainly do not wear all 288 of them.  I would say that I wear 75% of all of my dresses, being that that is my favorite article of clothing.  I certainly do not wear all 92 shirts I own.  I have a favorite few shirts that I wear much more often (like sleeveless dressy tanks that I usually put under cardigans), but overall, I would say I wear less than 50% of my shirts.  My pants are a sad story because I have my favorite pair, medium wash, skinny jeggings from American Eagle, (as I am sure everyone does) and I wear them way too much.  Then I have 4-5 other pairs I wear very often, and the other 50 or so pairs just sit in my dresser.  I do wear skirts a lot in the spring and summer, but that is only a few months out of the year, so they do not get as much use as they could.  And last, my coats, jackets, and sweatshirts... I would say that I loyally wear maybe 5 of my favorites (like my gray Columbia zip up) out of 58.

                          

Most of my wardrobe was bought new, around 75%.  About 20% of my wardrobe was received as gifts from friends and family.  The other 5% is a combination of promotional tee shirts and items bought used.

Doing this closet inventory really make me take a step back and look at the bigger picture.  I certainly do not need all the clothes that I have, and I would benefit greatly from a good closet clean-out.  I was simply astounded at the sheer number of garments I had.  This has definitely made me consider my consumption habits.  I now think before I walk into fast fashion stores.  I would love to make strides toward being an ethical consumer, but there are challenges before I get there.  I have to curb my countless shopping trips, and avoid buying clothes not made by underpaid, under aged children in poorly maintained factories under unfair working conditions.  In the long run, stepping away from fast fashion, and into clothes that are ethically made and have higher quality is a step in the right direction.  If every person who shops mainly in fast fashion stores makes the commitment to buy just a few less garments there, and a few more garments produced ethically, we could be on the road leading to ethical consumption.