132 Items of Clothing Gone!
Doesn’t it feel so liberating to toss or donate a bunch of stuff all at once? How about 132 pieces of clothing?
A few weeks ago, we went through our closets, drawers and shoe racks to pick out clothing that either doesn’t fit (and hopefully never will again) or we haven’t worn in the last 2 or more years.
For me, that included many shirts and pants from my (even) heavier days. I kept shirts and pants that were up to 2 sizes too big. I don’t know why I kept these clothes. Perhaps I was afraid I would gain 20 more pounds and need to get an all new wardrobe.
For Stacie, well, she kept things from back in high school. She takes care of her clothes, but honestly, so much of it is out of style and hasn’t been worn for years. Both of our clothes racks were pressed for space, and we just felt it was time to unburden ourselves with these relics of the past.
Here’s a brief rundown of the highlights of our donation:
Mike
- 13 dress shirts (the “shirt and tie” type)
- 21 polo shirts
- 2 suit coats
- 7 dress pants
- 9 pairs of shoes
- 15 ties (oh goodness, you should have seen some of the ugliness I wore around my neck!)
Stacie
- 14 sweaters (I can’t see a difference on the shelves. She loves her sweaters!)
- 9 casual blouses
- 10 pair of new socks
- 1 pair of shoes (aww, c’mon. Are you serious! Just a single pair?!?)
Stacie did inform me that this past weekend, while her friends were helping her pick out something to wear for our night out at Dave & Busters, they were commenting on even more of her clothes being a bit “dated”. Looks like we’ll have another set of clothes to go to Goodwill.
I’ve also accepted that most of my casual button-up shirts are still too big, and that I’ll need to go shopping for some replacements before giving these up.
What can you learn from this?
I should mention that when we donated, I took detailed photos of all the items (some of them posted in this article). I also classified and cataloged each item in a spreadsheet (e.g. dress shirts, shorts, casual shoes). Unfortunately, most charity agencies won’t take the time to match your donation with your item list, so they also won’t sign any forms you print out for tax purposes. They do issue receipts, and at our Goodwill, they just sign it without reading, so I wrote “132 items of clothing. Value $707”.
How did I value the clothing? I did a search online of common donation values, and took the lower end of the scale (usually). You seriously don’t want to bloat your values. Just make sure you can justify your valuations if you’re audited. If you wouldn’t pay close to that amount at a thrift store, then you need to lower your values.
How long should you keep clothes? Well, till they’re out of style (sorry, Jams aren’t coming back anytime soon) or there’s no way you would fit in them without some major shrinkage or expanding. You can keep saying “I’ll go get that altered”, but if you haven’t done so in 2 or more years, it’s probably not going to happen.
Is this an opportunity to go on a spending spree for more clothes? Absolutely not! Buy a piece of clothing when you need it, not simply to replace something you didn’t wear. If you gave away a suit that doesn’t fit, then wait until you need a suit again to buy one.
One last piece of advice: Sometimes you just have to go at it full-force to get it done. I’ve been pulling out some shirts and pants here and there for the last few months and putting them in a different closet, but it took a single day of both Stacie and I going through our closets and drawers to rid ourselves of the past.
Mike, good job clearing clutter out of your life. I bet you feel so much better! Are you going to shop at the same place to replace the shirts that are too big?
Brooke, most of my shirts are from lower priced stores like JCPenney and Sears. However, even their large shirts don’t fit me right, so I think I’m going to try some different places for shirts this time. I’m still hesitant to shop at pricier stores like Macy’s, but if it means I’m not wasting the shirts or my money, then I’ll shop there (buying on sale of course).
We just had to revamp my son’s pants collection. We went to Sear’s and nothing (I mean nothing) fit him right. We’re not picky or anything, but I can’t stand having his pants be completely bunched up at the bottom (it looked ridiculous – and not just to me!). I won’t buy clothes at Walmart, so we tried Target. Score! – and at about half the price. This was my first time buying new clothes for him (he was adopted two years ago and just hasn’t grown – until just hitting a huge growth spurt), so it was an eye-opener.
It feels great, doesn’t it! My wife and I did this about a month ago. I got rid of over 20 shirts (dress shirts and polo) and we got rid of about 2 boxes of clothing.
For valuation when donating, you can use the IRS guide, or there is a guide you can use that is within TurboTax. Great job on taking the photos and making the spreadsheet – my wife and I did the same. 😉
Nothing against Sears or JCPenney as I’m sure many of my readers, and definitely many of my family members, shop there and find perfectly good clothing to their liking. However, like you Brooke, I found that the clothes are bunchy in the front and feet, and are just made for a body shape very unlike mine.
Pants are THE thing I hate shopping for the most. I don’t mind shirts so much, but they never seem to fit the same way at home as they did in the store. One piece of advice is to have a friend come with you who, and this is important, ISN’T AFRAID TO SAY IT LOOKS BAD! I don’t recommend going clothes shopping by yourself unless you really know what you’re doing.
132 pieces! That’s nice. I’m in the process of clearing up my clothing as well. I feel like we’ve gotten rid of tons either to Goodwill or the dumpster for the shabby ones, but the clutter never subsides. It doesn’t help that people keep giving you more stuff too =(
We just did the same thing this weekend. We have a neighborhood community sale this coming weekend, so we were going through our closets to find stuff to get rid of.
The wife and I suffer from some sort of disease — we’re both pack rats. We filled 9 30 gallon trash bags with stuff that needed thrown out — 2 of them was stuff that needed shredding (boxes of checks for non-existent accounts, etc).
We filled 5 30 gallon bags with old clothes (still in very good shape but either out of style or me being out of shape 🙂 ).
I didn’t catalog what we had to donate, so I’ll probably just do a low end estimate on our taxes next year. There were lots of jeans, sweaters, sweatshirts and a few formal dresses and suits.
It’s amazing how liberating it is.
It’s a task that no one will know you did by walking into your house, but it still feels really good to be rid of old junk.
Now, I just need to figure out how to get rid of this old spare tire…
@Mike – that is so true about the clothes. I wonder if manufacturers make different clothes to send to different merchandisers.
I remember reading an article several years back about how higher-priced jeans make their sizes artificially smaller than regular so that people want to purchase them (i.e. the girl feels skinnier if she’s wearing a 5 instead of a 7 or whatever, even if it’s actually a 7). It was so strange to me that the 8s at Sears were so much different than the 8s at Target.
One big problem I have when shopping for pants is finding ones that fit. They have to actually fit right and then I don’t want to look too sexy in my work ones. It’s frustrating, because womens’ pants either don’t fit or are designed to make us sex objects. Essentially. Sometimes I find a pair that’s good enough, but the shopping part isn’t fun.
Clever Dude,
Don’t fear Macy’s! It is my favorite store and I am super cheap! You just have to work their sales, not be afraid of the clearance rack, and use the sale coupons. I get great quality stuff for low, low prices all the time.
Wow! 132 items! That’s awesome! I seriously need to declutter our closets, too. I’ve been putting it off way too long.
And I have to agree with Dee. Don’t be afraid of Macy’s ! It’s all about working the clearance sales!
My wife has been pressing me to do this for years…
I think you’ve inspired me to actually give this a go this coming weekend. Like Stacie, I still have a few favorites from HS that I’m wearing 13yrs later on my “lazy Saturdays” and such.
On a side note, we’ve always taken whatever’s left at the next garage sale and just dumped it at Goodwill w/o making any kind of deduction notes. (taking the standard max of $300 or $500 that the IRS lets you deduct for the year w/o receipts) I think it’s about time we break that habit too.
Thanks for the inspiration! 😀
From Goodwill then back to Goodwill! That’s my policy. Most of my clothes come from Goodwill or the local hospice thrift store. I look for good labels, good styles. good cloth. My two new and classy-looking coats for fall/winter purchased last week cost me $5.00 each, less the 20% off coupon Goodwill gave me when I handed in some bags of stuff. One coat had a cleaner’s on it; the other was dusty and dirty and I took it to the cleaners. Even buying from Sears involves money–and after a wearing, the clothes are “used.” Often those purchases turn out to be a “mistake” and I take them to the thrift store. Pants and shoes that fit me are hard to. I usually end up buying them new. But thrift tops and skirts for a couple of dollars are fine.
Excellent work!
Somebody mentioned that their shabby clothes went into the dumpster. I got in touch with the recycling coordinator in my town and she told me that the Salvation Army sells shabby clothes to textile recyclers. I called the SA to confirm, and they denied it. Back to my recycling coordinator and she said, don’t call them, just bag the clothes, label the bag and put it in the drop box. They tell the public that they don’t have a use for clean worn clothing but they do.
I get most of my clothes at Salvation Army on their 50% off days (those are every Wednesday around here). For kids – Old Navy has terrific end-of-season sales!
First off, congratulations on 1) Clearing clutter from your life, 2) making a charitable contribution instead of the easier alternative of simplying discarding all items into your trash, and 3) RECORDING your donation so you could save taxes!
My only question is that your value of only $707 for 132 items seems low. How did you come up with the precise value of $707? Why not $700 or $500 or $1000?
Did you use the Goodwill’s website values? http://www.goodwillsew.com/page.asp?dbID=295
Or did you use the higher Salvation Army website to determine your values? http://www.salvationarmysouth.org/valueguide.htm
Maybe next time you should donate to the Salvation Army. It’s worth more to them and to you as a larger tax deduction.
Did you use It’s Deductible(tm) from Intuit? http://turbotax.intuit.com/tax_products/learn_itsdeductible.jhtml
Just curious. What was your method?
CPA Mike: I used Goodwill’s prices. I donated to Goodwill as it is in a more convenient location and I’m familiar with their dropoff procedures. I’ll check out Salvation Army next time.
I did keep it on the low end for valuation as I didn’t want to raise any red flags. I also heard that an even number raises more red flags as the IRS would think you just put a random amount. Eh, it’s a crapshoot either way.
Thanks for the links though!
I was _joking_ about giving to Salvation Army for the higher valuations!
You can use the SA’s values regardless of where you donate, unless the donee gives you values.
Kudos, Clever Dude. You are an inspiration that I need. I want so badly to get rid of my excess stuff that I just started a blog called ‘Stuff’ to follow my decluttering. I think I will set myself a challenge to get rid of 132 items of clothing by the end of the week. Thanks.
Way to go!!!!!
Great article, great inspiration! We buy our clothing at yard sales in fancy neighborhoods. I like gently (or never) used desinger clothing, natural fabrics, certain styles. I enjoy thrift shop hunting too, but yard sales are a fine source of wool or cashmere sweaters for $2. or $3.00. Bought a pair of Versacci (sp?) jeans for a dlollar, wor them a few times and sold on ebay for $14.00! Ebay is a good site for buying the occasional special item. I sometimes buy designer clothing at yard sales for pennies and sell them on ebay. After a closet cleanup like yours, I’d run a one day yard sale and sell everything possible, THEN donate. Congratulations on the clean closets!
Have to caution you while still applauding. There are items that are well made and stylish that you should KEEP. I always remember reading about Lillian Gish getting compliments on an evening gown she wore in the 1960’s which originated in the 20’s or 30’s. Try to stay the same size as much as you can. Buy classics. My best (and designer) clothes all come from thrift shops! I buy underwear and lingerie new at a discount and stock up when I get a good deal. Ditto stockings on sale. Unfortunately, for a woman to be well-dressed on any and all occasions, she needs a lot of clothes (and handbags, and shoes, and jewelry…)
Oh yes, you’re correct Pam, the best things must be kept, especially those with classic lines! TRYING TO STAY THE SAME SIZE IS THE TOUGH PART, ISN’T IT? I buy vintage occasionally, especially classic items. Fad things may come back in style, but never quite the same! As to the jewelry, purses, and shoes, keep combing yard sales in expensive neighborhoods. You can rehabilitate a worn Dooney & Bourke bag with Kiwi Wax shoe polish in a can so that the bag looks like new! Ditto other real leather accessories. Bring a loupe, sometimes in the boxes of costume jewelry you’ll find the occasional piece of real gold or silver. The gold is always hallmarked. “Gold filled” is junk. You want it marked “10 K”, “14K”, that sort of thing. The sterling will say sterling, and this is reliable except for Mexican made items which often say “Sterling” but aren’t. I enjoy wearing the “old money” look with all natural fibers, real jewelry, and not necessarily a cutting edge look, but a “I’ve got oodles of money, so much I don’t have to be a fashion slave look” like the chic French women.