How long before you tossed your work clothes?

Saving just a few things mine got dumped 5 years into retirement.
 
I am heading into my closet do find things to donate. I’ve been retired 2 1/2 years. So many items that haven’t been worn.
 
I'm not quite retired yet but, due to COVID, I've been coming into the office but keeping my door closed all day and dressing casual. I do not intend on buying any work clothes in the future. In fact, I had a revelation when I was recently at DSW. I normally look for "work shoes" and while I was there caught myself looking for work shoes until I realized, I didn't need to bu anymore workshoes EVER! I will probably throw away any remaining clothes that are solely for work about five minutes after I retire!
 
When I retired, the list of my honey do's was and is incredibly long. Many of my job tasks require physical labor and building on my properties.

No suit and ties any longer. My "uniform" in retirement is jean shorts (Walmart) and Alabama and Auburn T Shirts (Dollar General). And I usually wear an old hat. I drive an 18 year old pickup truck hauling supplies and "stuff."

When I go down to the local gas station/drive in market, many local yokels go out of their way to talk to me. After all, I'm now just one of them in my ER.

And my clothing allowance per year is just about nothing.
 
I saved what I could reasonably wear to services (3 outfits) and gave the rest to WARDROBE FOR OPPORTUNITY within a week. I wasn't going back
 
I go through my clothes yearly, am now heading into year 5 of retirement, don't have many "work clothes" left. A couple nice pants and tops, two dresses, one formal dress and two pair heels, one unopened nylon pantyhose.
Mostly my retirement clothes are jeans, sweats/flannels, comfy tops, tennis shoes and sandals!
 
Great timing since DH just told me to go through his closet and donate anything he doesn't need - he retired last month. I have been teleworking since 2013 but have always kept some work clothes to go into the office for meetings. Those clothes are already being removed from my closet to be donated (I retire in May). I am keeping a few dresses and tops/slacks that could be worn to go out to a nice dinner or the Kennedy Center but I suspect that I will continue to get rid of clothing I don't wear and just buy a new dress or outfit as needed. The biggest effort needed in my closet is to go through my shoes. No need for 20+ pairs of high heeled shoes that hurt my feet just looking at them.
 
Montecfo said:
My office was casual (startup tech company) so there was really nothing to throw out.
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+1. The only “clothes” I threw out were a couple pairs of (required) steel toe shoes. MegaCorp paid 80% for one pair per year for every employee so I didn’t lose much... ;)

It’s amazing how often I wear shorts or jeans, with polos or tees now! And with relocation, all my winter clothes are gathering dust. I can’t remember when I last wore any of my nice sweaters. :D

I still have about three dozen ties, a dozen dress shirts, a half dozen dress pants, three pairs of Allen Edmonds, and four suits I very rarely wear. :blush: I do wear some of my dress belts for golf. :LOL:
 
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One of the interesting things after RE is how few clothes we need. Our closets are now hardly occupied.

Had 4 good, very expensive suits for work. Fifteen years later they still fit and good to have for weddings, funerals etc. but don't really need 4 of them now and they're tucked away in an extra closet.

Most of the other 'work' clothes were chinos and dress shirts and I still have some of them but far, far fewer (75% are gone) but still more than I need.
 
Company dress code had progressed to business casual by the time I left, so I have one suit (typically only for funerals) and I pick up jeans ($9) at Goodwill for yard work and other dirty/messy jobs. Around the house, it's mostly sweats in the winter or shorts and T-shirts in the summer.
 
This week is my two years retired anniversary. This week I am donating my 12 formal dresses for work events that I haven't needed in retirement life. I don't expect to attend any formal events in the near future. New space in my closet for gardening, running and kayaking clothes!
 
Stopped wearing "work clothes" 20 years before I retired. It was either business casual or hospital scrubs and sneakers or solid black flats. In the clinic it was simple trousers and tops with flats. Nothing to get rid of. My white coats wore out and I stopped wearing them.
 
Uniform apparel for me was a suit and tie, until the earthquake in 2011 (I worked in Japan). After the earthquake, when electricity was rationed over the following months (ie, hot and humid with no AC sometimes) we went to a business casual, with a logo’d polo shirt and nice slacks. I still have 6-8 brand new polos that have never been worn. After we came home, I lost a lot of weight and the suits no longer fit, so they got tossed. I no longer own a suit...hope there aren’t any funerals any time soon.

And I found all that weight that I lost, just in case anyone was worried about me losing things...😎
 
I wore uniforms, I had to turn them over at my exit interview.
I hate having to decide what to wear!
 
I dropped off all my work clothes at a thrift store about 5 days after I retired and then moved out of the area a couple of days later. No regrets!!
 
kingkarmann said:
I wore uniforms, I had to turn them over at my exit interview.
I hate having to decide what to wear!
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I can relate to that! I wear pretty much the same thing every day:

1) Adidas black gym shorts
2) Landsend jewel neck ladies' t-shirt
3) Teva Tirra sandals

These are my "retiree casual" clothes. I have the t-shirt in probably 2 dozen different colors, but that's the only thing that differs. If I wanted to, I could just stick to one color but this way people know that I actually do change my clothes. :2funny:
 
Don’t mean to hijack the OP, but this seems like a good tie-in to the Conversation. I can start a new thread if it’s more appropriate.

What has any former military members done with their uniforms? Whether you retired or did your 3/4 years and got out, did you keep them, donate them, sell them, etc ?
I’ve been out for 24 years and can’t bring myself just to dump mine.
 
Gone immediately , transferred to my new uniform Costco shorts and polo shirts SAS shoes.
 
For my company-branded shirts (collared golf shirts, t-shirts, fluorescent yellow safety shirts): During my last week of work, I systematically wore each shirt one last time, washed them, and then cut out the logos...then reduced the shirts to cleaning rags by cutting them into pieces. It was somewhat cathartic. I had wanted to burn them, but my wife insisted we should recycle them.
 
Fortunately, since retiring I dropped 40 lbs so none of that stuff fits, and I have no reason to get them altered. Gave away almost all my dress shirts as I can’t be bothered with cuff links except for my tux. And that basically gets worn only formal nights when we take a cruise.

Which reminds me that during the pandemic I lost another 10 and everything became work clothes anyway so need to rebuild my wardrobe!
 
Yoheadden said:
What has any former military members done with their uniforms? Whether you retired or did your 3/4 years and got out, did you keep them, donate them, sell them, etc ?
I’ve been out for 24 years and can’t bring myself just to dump mine.
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Before I went on terminal leave I put 95% of mine in the command's break room with a sign "Going out of business. Free to a good home."

If you're near a military base then they'll have a base thrift store with uniforms, although your stuff might be woefully outdated. Otherwise you could donate them to a civilian thrift store like Goodwill.

I kept one set of long-sleeve coveralls for painting, and I kept some insignia if my family cares, but otherwise I'm over it.
 
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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Oh man that made me crack up! :LOL: Some of our shared services employees had started to come in nightclub clothes, leggings & "athliesure". Eventually, the very formal dress code was updated to exclude "immodest blouses or skirts, Capris too short or tight, cargo pants, stilettos, flip flops, tank tops, & for men nothing but a dress shirt/ tie (and pants of course)". It was hilarious since one of the directors (not mine) was a supreme enforcer, yet wore some wildly questionable clothes.

jim584672 said:
Saving just a few things mine got dumped 5 years into retirement.
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Ruh roh... now you've given me a new goal! I hit 5 years this Halloween & I'm sure there's more w*rk stuff that can go. I really enjoy getting rid of stuff, and I have found some treasures that were "missing" for some time.
 
kingkarmann said:
I wore uniforms, I had to turn them over at my exit interview.

I hate having to decide what to wear!
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I felt the same when working. The solution was to use weather app and calendar every other Sunday afternoon to line up clothes for the next 2 weeks.

That way, I only had to hate deciding what to wear to the office 2-3 x month vs every day.

Now it’s 7 tees and either shorts or sweatpants, depending on season.
 
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