How long before you tossed your work clothes?

My former company got rid of its formal dress code back in 1998. I kept a few jackets and nice pants as long as they still fit me, as I was gaining some weight and went up a few pants sizes. The casual attire I wore for the next 10 years to work I wore outside of work.

When I began square dancing again in 2001, I resumed wearing my button-down, long-sleeved shirts until I could acquire some more appropriate button-down shirts.

When I ERed in late 2008, I did a purge of a lot of my old work-only clothes including anything which had become too worn out or didn't fit me. I kept a few formal shirts and a suit and a few sport jackets for weddings and funerals. I have limited closet space in my small apartment, so I was running out of space.

Then in late 2017 (when the tax law was about to change which doubled the Standard Deduction), I did another purge of more clothes, especially stuff I hadn't worn since my working days. This followed a scary event when a closet clothing rack collapsed from it being overloaded. Now I have ample closet space and enough formalwear for special events, without any chance of a clothing rack collapsing.

My square dancing sadly ended in mid-2018, so I haven't had to wear those shirts any more.
 
W2R said:
It's probably a really good idea to get rid of some/most of them before you move, seems to me! Imagine unpacking at your new home and pulling out all those work clothes. :sick:
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W2R, that's a good point!
 
Ronstar said:
I didn't toss them when I retired 7 years ago. And it had been years before that when I wore most of them. I'll be digging them out and wearing them to jury duty next week.
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Careful, your fellow jurors might vote you their foreperson!
 
I purged a lot when I retired, but still kept too many. This is good reminder to finally get rid of more. My work clothing was mostly khaki type pants and regular dress shirts. I can get rid of many of those since my usual attire now is jeans or shorts and T-shirts or flannel shirt.
 
Great post topic, OP. I’m in an unconscious stand-off with my work duds and, nine months after winking out of Zoomland and FIREing, this string motivates me to face them down and clear up some storage space.
 
Still working but I suppose when I’m done I can get rid of a bunch of dress shirts. Not all of course but I probably have 30+ long sleeve and another 20-30 short sleeve. 10 of each is probably plenty in retirement. Pants and shoes won’t change so nothing to get rid of there.
 
Boose said:
Did you gleefully fill garbage bags for Goodwill at the first opportunity? .... Guess I'll save one librarian-ish blazer for funerals, though.
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I was gleeful! Within 3 months, I donated around 20 suits & most of my casual Friday outfits (we had to wear a "smart blouse & slacks/ modest skirt" on Fridays) to a women's shelter. A year later, a kid in our neighborhood was collecting work clothes for his Eagle Scout project, so I took a scorched earth approach with our closet- again. He came away with a further 10 or so suits (DH's and mine) as well as a bunch of blouses/ men's formal shirts, dress slacks & skirts. The pile must have weighed over a hundred lbs.

I love our closet now. And I've been buying tons of casual dresses, tops etc. from Amazon- which I now live in. We each have appropriate clothes for weddings & funerals.
 
Still have some of them including a few fairly new suits.
 
Gave most work clothes away within a couple months after retiring. Kept a minimal amount for weddings, funerals, or nice outings (ex:restaurants).
 
Weird coincidence- just got an e-mail from my tailor with a promotion for 10% off custom blazers. I do have one he made that looks good with jeans and boots. I bet he could find another fabric that would accomplish the same purpose.

Blow that dough.
 
Tossed a good bunch shortly after ER, certainly the "back of the closet" stuff that neither of us was wearing even lately to work.

Then about 2 years ago did a Marie Kondo thru the rest and winnowed it down a lot. But (female) I did still keep a number of nicer things that I would wear if the opportunity arose, or because I really really liked them. Plus I always liked double duty clothing - a nice blouse or top that I would wear to dinner or to the office, as we were business casual. Of course, since ER my definition of casual is definitely much more casual than it used to be.

If I were called to Jury Duty however, nope I would not get dressed up. Presentable yes, office-dressy nope. Nice top and smart jeans will do - gotta plan for something comfy to sit in for 8 hours all day. DH has one suit left, I have a couple of semi-formal dresses, but never used them for work anyway.

Everything in good condition has gone to goodwill.
 
Since the work clothes were the "Company Logo" knit golf shirt and slacks the shirts hit the can the week after. But I kept half the slacks.
 
I got rid of a lot within six months because we were downsizing. I took suits, sport coats, slacks, shirts, ties, dress shirts, and dress shoes to a group that refits people entering the workforce. All were high end and in very good condition.

I kept one suit that I have never worn in nine years. For some reason I also kept my cuff links. Very odd, because my french cuff shirts also went with the suits. I also kept one pair of brown and one pair of black dress shoes that I have never worn since. I also kept a suit overcoat. Time to pass them on.

We came back a year after packing up and travelling. We were somewhat amused at some of the things we decided to keep. We gave even more away.
 
i kept two ties for weddings and funerals. gave away my dress pants and sport coats but had to buy new pants and a coat for the same weddings and funerals. but now wearing black soft SAS shoes. much more comfy.
 
My office was business casual, so I'm still wearing my work clothes. Probably on the fancy side for a retiree.

Until last weekend, I had not bought any clothes for over a year, so my wardrobe is getting thin.
 
i kept things bc i wasnt exactly sure who i was going to be when i grew up. But i didnt have an extremely formal or strict work wardrobe. now i replace only what im wearing and wearing out. and slowly going through, however i havent really gotten rid of anything during covid bc i found i was kind of rotating between about 4 outfits so not really in my closet. Its a time capsule at this point. I tossed one pair of pants that the waist essentially shredded. Miss those pants. THey were my go to sweatpants and had seen MANY a cruise, year of living out of an SUV and went to EUrope with us for months. Old companion
 
It has been 10 years but I am sure I made my wardrobe change in the first year. I never wore suits to work. I haven’t owned a suit in 20 years. It was mostly chinos and polo shirts from Lands End. I kept 2 pairs of chinos for going out to dinner. I probably kept a bunch of polo shirts until they naturally expired. My biggest change was moving to Thailand 5 years ago. Got rid of everything that wouldn’t fit into my two suitcases. My wardrobe is exclusively t-shirts, cargo shorts, and sandals now.
 
Within 3 months got rid of most of my work clothes. I have lost 50 pounds since retiring 9 years ago so only one fancy evening dress left from the past.
 
SpinDoctorTX said:
we had to wear a "smart blouse & slacks/ modest skirt" on Fridays)
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Gotta love the dress code detail! Our county forbade us "hot pants," which must have entered the employee handbook sometime in the '60s. One of DH's jobs specifically called out "board shorts" as inappropriate.
 
athena53 said:
My pinstripe suit would probably make me stand out like a sore thumb and make one side or the other suspicious. Will have to choose carefully.
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A friend of mine was called in for jury duty a few weeks ago. She wore a tie-dyed shirt and was picked for the jury. You just never know what the lawyers are thinking. Or maybe they used up their quota of dismissals.



Cheers!
 
Boose said:
Gotta love the dress code detail! Our county forbade us "hot pants," which must have entered the employee handbook sometime in the '60s. One of DH's jobs specifically called out "board shorts" as inappropriate.
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I forget the exact language, but our dress code said that bathrobes and curlers in hair were not allowed. Which of course means that someone must have come into work with them in at some point. I can almost see the curlers, but a bathrobe? Oh well. Them days are gone. As a manager, I never liked enforcing dress code. Who the hell was I to tell a female employee how to dress. So, I never did. Easier to deal with complaints that I wasn’t enforcing the dress code.
 
My work clothes were business casual and I have not thrown any out. They fit me fine and are comfortable, so I see no reason to. I will still wear them for date nights, travel, social gatherings (when they return), etc. I still keep my suit and ties.

I prefer to wear collard shirts and have probably thrown out more t shirts and shorts that my "work" clothes. I have "retired" from most of the "t-shirt" sports. I favor compression type t-shirts instead (for as long as I can keep my figure, anyway :)).
 
Never really thought about it (retired in November 2018), but since we're moving in a few months anyway - this thread inspired me to downsize the old work wardrobe - keeping 2 suits and a handful of dress shirts - the rest is headed for goodwill :)
 
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