And suddenly, it’s August!
This month has flown by.
It’s been very hot for most of the month – 88-91F many days and we don’t have air conditioning, so that means 77-83 in the house, but we did have a break last week with 60 degree temperatures, clouds, and a day of pretty steady rain. We had a 30 degree F temperature swing, which is not really typical for this area in late July. But don’t get me wrong, we’re having a beautiful summer. We even had nice weather before the 4th of July!
I’ve been doing my usual things – spending a lot of time at home, walking a lot, and no special occasions. I haven’t had any major wardrobe challenges this month besides the heat. I’ve just been wearing whatever feels comfortable and that shows up in my tracking.
My most worn pieces this month:
My striped tank dress (usually a house dress, although I sometimes wear it as a tunic), blue cotton knit dress, pink sweatshirt, darker purple tank, basic black and grey tanks (almost always for layering outside of the house), blue capris, denim skirt and my jeans (not pictured). Each was worn 4, 5, or 6 times, or at least once a week.
I actually thought I had worn that blue dress even more than I had. I’ve been reaching for it more often than I ever have before. It has a nice high back so I don’t have to worry about getting hubby to sunscreen on me (another favorite dress has a deep v back). It fits well. It’s extremely comfortable. And it’s cotton. I was going to try to shorten it last year but I’ve gotten used to the midi length (I think that’s what they’re calling it this year – look at me falling into fashion by accident!) This dress was one of my luckiest thrift finds.
It always surprises me that even when I feel like I’m reaching for the same things over and over, I’m actually not. As I reached for the blue print dress today I wondered if I had worn it to the library too many times this month. I decided I didn’t care, but the truth was that I’d only worn it one other time. It just felt like I was “always” wearing it.
These are the things I didn’t wear at all:
4 of my dresses and my green polka dot top. The 3 dresses in the middle are the ones I wasn’t sure quite fit me any more. So far I haven’t chosen to wear them. I’m inclined to donate the chevron one before chevrons totally lose their appeal (they’re on their way out already). The black dress is one of my favorites for very hot weather. It was particularly nice to wear last year when we went out to dinner while vacationing on Maui. But then again, I don’t live in Hawaii. The maxi dress and the bright blue dress were both very useful last year so I’m not keen to get rid of them yet. But then again, they are looking a little tired, so we shall see. I’m not sure why I haven’t worn the emerald polka dot tank. It’s a pretty top and it’s good quality cotton from Lands End.
I didn’t need anything from my special occasion capsule, but that was to be expected.
Everything else got worn 1-3 times. Once a month means wearing a garment 6-12 times a year. That’s not very often. Those things might be unnecessary, or they might meet a specific need that doesn’t come up very frequently. I also cycle through things during the year – that grey sweatshirt I only wore once this month got worn at least once weekly during spring. That’s why tracking what I wear long term could be very helpful. At this point tracking is pretty easy and I quite enjoy seeing how things add up at the end of the month.
I know I could reduce my wardrobe further than I have, but I’m fairly satisfied with where I’m at.
I have a quick update for next time about a few new things I’ve acquired.
Thanks for stopping by!
Jo:)
My tracking spreadsheet is here if you’d like to take a closer look.
adventures in the here now 
I do the same thing, I think – I have several items that it always feels like I’m wearing them more than I actually am. I wonder why this is? Maybe it’s because we like these things better so we suspect ourselves favoring them? Although I don’t track my wearings so I guess I’ll never really know if I’m right or not :-)
I think we overestimate how much we wear everything, based on the tracking I’ve been doing. I would have thought I wear most of my clothes a lot more than 12 times a year, but it just isn’t true. I wear some things more often, but still not as much as I thought. I really don’t know why my mental tracking is so inaccurate, but I think human memory is not as accurate as we think it is. And like you said, we like the item, so we figure we wear it a lot, even if we don’t really.
I think it also means that we can lighten up and wear things as often as we like. There’s no need to hold back because we’re afraid we’re wearing something “too often.”