The Great Pre-Retirement Purge

[kimcdougc]

If two new things come in two go out. We downsized to an 800 square foot house. I have lost 30 lbs in the last few months. Won't buy any new jeans until I get down to my desired weight. I did purchase a good leather belt to hold up my pants. lol. I will buy a couple of shirts every time I go down a size till I get to my goal. Need to purge many clothes now so does DH.

 

[Jerry1]

If two new things come in two go out. We downsized to an 800 square foot house. I have lost 30 lbs in the last few months. Won't buy any new jeans until I get down to my desired weight. I did purchase a good leather belt to hold up my pants. lol. I will buy a couple of shirts every time I go down a size till I get to my goal. Need to purge many clothes now so does DH.

Just MHO, but I enjoyed buying new cloths on my way down in weight. If you’ve lost 30 pounds, you need a new pair of jeans. The thought of cinching up a pair from 30 pounds heavier with a belt is not a good look. Just go easy and only buy a couple things. Also, I got great value out of a tailor. I dropped 40 pounds when I was working over the course of a couple years and getting my dress cloths taken in versus buying new saved a lot. But as I said, I recommend getting a couple things on the way down. Feels good, looks good. You deserve it. 30 pounds is a lot.

 

[Fedup]

I bought just jeans as my weight loss. I’m not going to wait for big change.

 

[mountainsoft]

Clothes were never a big thing for me. I never worked a job with a dress code and have never owned a suit. My daughter bought me a tie one Christmas when she was a little girl, and after saying Thank You I thought to myself "what am I supposed to do with this"?

I regularly take clothes to Goodwill that I don't wear. I probably have 8-10 polo style shirts and 2-3 long sleeve shirts for winter (which I almost never wear). Two pairs of good jeans, two pairs of work jeans, and I think there's a pair of dress pants hidden back there somewhere. That's pretty much my entire wardrobe other than a few pairs of shorts for the summer.

 

[rayinpenn]

Pre and post-retired men: there is a good chance your wife purges stuff for you when you're out of the house, and you have no idea

Known as the stealth purge and is employed when you have a reluctant to purge partner. All I’ll say is very Dangerous if caught.

 

[Jerry1]

Known as the stealth purge and is employed when you have a reluctant to purge partner. All I’ll say is very Dangerous if caught.

Clearly more dangerous for DH to get caught stealth purging DW’s stuff than the other way around.

 

[Dawg52]

I still have pants from my working days. Hardly ever wear them. But I keep them just in case. I did can some stuff last time I moved. What I have left doesn't take up too much room so might as well keep.

 

[Teacher Terry]

Ray, I have been known to be a stealth purger)

 

[Offgrid Organic Farmer]

... Did you pre, post or both retirement purge?

When I retired, I had a huge assortment of old uniforms.

The Navy changes uniforms every few years anyway, and I still had a few obsolete uniform items.

I gave a bullet-proof vest to a tenant who was in the reserves. I gave away most of my uniform items.

I am required to maintain one dress uniform. Which I wear sometimes to walk in parades.

 

[brett]

It was wonderful. All of my suits, jackets, dress shirts, ties, and most dress shoes went to the folks who help get people back in the job market.

Furniture went to Women in Need. Relatives/friends were told to take what they wanted Books to the Wordfest book sale. Childrens books and believe it or not school supplies went to a local elementary school.

It took us three of four passes. We got more ruthless as time progressed since we only had a limited amount of space available But it sure felt good. We thought we had done well do downsize into a container. Not. Even after unloading we had more to give away.

The hard part after the downsize....enforcing discipline to make a decision instead of storing for later just in case. Books....if we are finished we either give them to someone or donate to our local library.

I am embarrassed to admit that somewhere in a box or two I still have a skill saw, a small tile saw, and we have hand crank pasta machine, and a stove top expresso kettle. Where? Havn't got a clue but they are somewhere. For the next move.

Three months after starting, two dumpsters, and a loaded container and we drove away. Best thing we ever did. Should have done it earlier.

Clothes? My closet is empty. I hate shopping. Downside is that DW has decided to become a 'squater' in my section of the walk in.

 

[ocean view]

It’s an ongoing process for us. Those items I retained in rounds 1 and 2 of the purge “just in case” have not been touched in 3 yrs. It’s time for them to go.

If I have a need for dressier clothes in the future, I’ll have to go shopping. Probably for the best style-wise.

 

[Koolau]

Imagine the purge required to move 5000 miles from where one lived for 60 years - and then imagine said move will be in two suit cases per person (one couple.) That was my situation. I no longer own even a neck tie, so, you get the idea. YMMV

 

[Music Lover]

Pre and post. Pre a year or so before retirement as a serious effort to thin the herd. Post purging just recently after 2.5 years of retirement that got rid of almost everything along with some badly needed upgrading.

 

[friar1610]

I found myself way long in Tshirts. Way too easy to wear one, toss in laundry rather than trash, then fold and - dang it! - it's back in rotation again. Got the Gal involved. Put the giant stack out, flopped 4 down and said which one is the worst? Went through the stack in that manner and culled a quarter of them. A few weeks later I did a quick sort by color and had her pick the worst in the various colors - don't really need 6 green Tshirts. Felt good.

When we went to Nova Scotia for ten days I took my worst socks and threw the used pair away every night - that was great and forced replacement with new, something I have a problem forcing myself too.

These are great ideas! (I have the same problem you do trashing stuff.)

Not that anybody really cares, but here's why I have so many t-shirts:

- I get them 3 ways
-- gifts from my daughters
-- I might buy one or two interesting ones on an overseas vacation
-- if I see decent plain ones on sale for $3 or so I might buy a couple

- After they've been in the "dress t-shirt" rotation for a couple of years, I put a mark on the inside of the collar or on the label with a magic marker. This transforms them into "workout t-shirts". Periodically I'll cull those shirts, but not often enough. The last time I did so I got rid of a few 10 year old shirts.

I'm halfway through a cruise at the moment and have only bought one new t-shirt. But when I get home I'm going to follow calmloki's rules above and do another great culling before winter.

 

[Totoro]

Just had a purge weekend! Got rid of lots of 20+ year old items. Anything I didn't wear since a few years got tossed. Lots of cables that are now useless, games I don't play. For some reason I had four chess sets.

I did keep some aspirational (weight loss) pants.

Still have too much stuff: pots, pans and lots of glassware that I don't use. I'll try and hand them off to my nieces if they ever need them in 6+ years.

 

[6miths]

No real purge here. I was lucky enough to be able to wear the official work uniform for most of my career so never accumulated much in the way off business or business casual clothing. Still have one suit (the one I got married in) and a dress jacket. A few pairs of dress/casual pants and shirts. I continue to wear the 7 or 8 Geoff Norman golf shirts that I bought in Hong Kong in 2001 and they are supplemented by various newer golf shirts with rec sports teams logos that I play on. My 501s get tossed when they rip in compromising places (ie not the knees). The only kind of sock I have is Thorlos and they go when threadbare. I did toss a bunch of vintage underwear recently as the elastic was not anymore. My mother works in a thrift store at 85 and still contributes the odd nice fleece but I have pretty high standards as you can likely tell.

 

[karen1972]

I cut a little too deep when downsizing, so ended up having to buy a few things back. While I didn't think I needed dress clothes anymore, then realized my retired life still left many opportunities for dressier attire (certain cruises, helping with early voting which is business casual, dinner events for charities, etc) and still have to factor in weather. Still far less than working years but more than I had estimated.

 

[Fedup]

My strategy for purging is the same as calmloki, pack the worst clothes to travel and throw them out when I bought new ones in Europe. Mostly cotton t-shirts that I bough for $5 and have worn them for five years already. The worst of the bunch of my clothes, I give them to my art teacher, she cuts them out for the oil painting classes.

 

[MrsHaloFIRE]

I sold the high end stuff to thredup thru the mail. They send you a prepaid heavy plastic bag which you fill and then take outside for the mailman to pickup. Pennies on the dollar, but you don't even have to carry to your car. Formal gowns donated to a prom dress charity except my plainest dressiest one and my fun wedding one. Suits and ugly professional heels gone. Sandals that hurt my toe gone. Costume jwelry donated to a thrift shop. Real jewelry im not feeling sold for the metal weight through the mail (this was a hassle, do not recommend). I had probably 30 feet of hanging rod space and I decided speed helped so I went as fast as possible and went hanger by hanger. if I didn't love it and it fit my new lifestyle, I dropped it to the floor. Then a quick sort of trash/sell/donate and a couple pieces went to my sister. I think I had something like 50 dressy sundresses that I wore to daytime ceremonies/receptions/whatever for the military. Those were my favorite to see gone. No more standing in the hot sun in a tight dress and heels pretending like Im not dying inside.

 

[Jerry1]

Lots of cables that are now useless,

So I got rid of a bunch of cables and sure enough, there’s one cable I didn’t know what it was for, sure to form, I figured it out (needed it) about two weeks later. Oh well, just a small risk for the benefit gained by getting rid of so much stuff.

 

[DeborahB]

If two new things come in two go out. We downsized to an 800 square foot house. I have lost 30 lbs in the last few months. Won't buy any new jeans until I get down to my desired weight. I did purchase a good leather belt to hold up my pants. lol. I will buy a couple of shirts every time I go down a size till I get to my goal. Need to purge many clothes now so does DH.

How did you lose 30 pounds? Congratulations!

 

[MrsHaloFIRE]

Oh we got rid of lots of furniture we had collected bc we will "never live in a house this big again." And cheap artwork. And assorted window treatments. Guess what we are under contract on? Im short atleast 2 rooms of furniture. Good thing I like choosing new furniture. Would not have matched this house anyway stylewise

 

[Fedup]

I’ve always get rid of some furniture when I move. They may not fit the decor of a new one. My sister on the other hand is a hoarder, she will pack her new house with old stuff under the pretense of savings money. They look ridiculous.