Cleared out about half my wardrobe six weeks ago because most of it didn't fit or I never wore it. Now getting dressed takes twice as long and everything I kept feels slightly off, even things I used to like. I keep buying replacement pieces and returning them. Does this settle down or did I make a mistake?
Very normal. Also check you didn't accidentally cull a whole category. I once got rid of every mid-layer in one go and then spent two months confused about why nothing worked, when the answer was that I had shirts and coats and nothing in between.
This happened to me with shoes. Threw out three worn-out pairs at once and was left with only boots and sandals.
Take photos of the outfits that do work, even badly lit phone photos. On the mornings where nothing feels right you scroll the album instead of standing in front of the rail. Sounds silly, works.
The other possibility is that you kept things that fit the old you rather than the current you, and the cleanout just made them more visible. If a garment felt off before the cull it will feel worse now that it isn't hiding in a crowd.
@lena_arbogast · 2mo ago · 3 replies
It settles, usually around the two to three month mark. What's happening is that you removed the filler, the things you never wore were also the things that let you avoid deciding. Now every outfit is a real choice and choices are tiring.
The returning cycle is the part to stop, though. Give yourself a hard rule: nothing new for 30 days, and instead write down every morning what you actually reached for and what was missing. After a month you'll have a list of four or five real gaps instead of a vague feeling that everything is wrong.
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@newborn_noob · 2mo ago
The 'you removed the filler' thing is uncomfortably accurate. I definitely used to default to things I didn't like just because they were there.
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@lena_arbogast · 2mo ago
Everyone does. And the gaps that show up are almost never what people expect: it's usually something boring like 'a second pair of trousers that works with flats', not a statement piece.
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