Getting rid of work clothes

[Koolau]

Back in the day, dress shirt and slacks to w*rk unless attending a meeting at Corporate. Then it was a suit/tie.

Since retiring and moving to the Islands, I've given away all suits, dress shirts, ties and dress shoes. I own one pair of slacks on the mainland and one in the Islands. Otherwise I wear shorts and a T-shirt (for every day) and shorts and Aloha shirt for dress up (like church, weddings and funerals).

 

[DuluthGA]

I was attached to old tshirts that my wife tried to toss many times. She eventually had a quilt made from 16 of them I use everyday during cold weather. I wonder if they can make quilts from old suits and ties? It’s kinda like why we keep a “good” box and have coffee cans full of screws and bolts. You never know when you might need one.

 

[CO-guy]

Anything that doesn't get worn in the past year either gets donated or relegated to a "last chance" location before being donated the following year. Any suits and other business attire were donated to the local school long ago to help with job interviews, etc.

In the past few years I've replaced any professional attire with stretchy clothing designed to look like business attire. In contrast to "athleisure" wear, I'd describe my current professional wardrobe as "bizletics." Everything can go into the washing machine, fabrics are durable, nothing wrinkles and there's enough lycra that it feels like I'm wearing workout wear. There's lots of options for this kind of comfortable professional attire, but much of my professional wardrobe is from this company.

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[CaptTom]

Someone just posted a photo of our group at work from 35 years ago. Some special event where I had to wear a tie, which was unusual at this job.

I still have that tie. One of a very few. That jacket looks suspiciously familiar, too. Lately they only get used for funerals. Otherwise I'm in the official retiree uniform mentioned above. Footwear is optional for about half the year.

 

[jollystomper]

I'm sure I'm not the only one who had to decide what clothes to get rid of after retirement.
...

How did you all decide what to keep? I don't want to just keep a handful and always be wearing the same shirts when I do wear them but I don't need half my closet taken up by shirts either.

Simple. I decided to keep what I looked good in . Especially after losing weight in retirement.

 

[RetMD21]

I did Irishgirlyc58's staged approach. I have about 8 long and 5 short sleeve button shirts. I'm down to a dozen ties, No one is going to notice that I have such a small selection since I can go many months without repeating, lol

 

[Route246]

I think it is time for me to seriously consider downsizing my dress clothes which I wore extensively when I worked for a consulting company. All of it is high-end and I only wear it now for weddings and funerals. I'm lucky because I still fit into the suit I was married in although it is more snug in the waist it still fits.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

I kept one or two sets of monkey suits for the inevitable funerals. However, since FIRE I lost 30 pounds so I’m not sure what I’ll wear when the time comes.

 

[Jerry1]

I kept one or two sets of monkey suits for the inevitable funerals. However, since FIRE I lost 30 pounds so I’m not sure what I’ll wear when the time comes.

Good idea to figure it out now. I knew I shrunk out of my main wardrobe but I had some clothes that were a size or so smaller that I thought would fit. When I needed them for an unexpected funeral, I put them on and even those were too big. I had to go get some slacks and a sweater from JC Penny. It worked, but I much prefer wearing tailored cloths when I dress nice. It’s hard to get something that actually fits correctly off the shelf.

 

[kgtest]

I'm 44. Wore suits and ties for a little while. Mainly I too have a similar sized wardrobe collecting dust, quite literally. Each time I do need to wear one of the "work" attire I would have worn, I have to dust it off.

Usually just for job interviews and funerals.

Lots of RTO in my world, so maybe I will need to dress up and drive in again soon. I sure as he!! hope not. I love doing IT work in my athletic wear.

Doesn't help my wardrobe. I suppose I could upgrade if I did go in, but I don't like buying clothes lol.

 

[Koolau]

I did find out that weight loss is expensive. I had to replace all my clothes. $20 (now more like $30) for aloha shirts and $10 for gently used shorts/slacks. T-shirts are $5 used.

Just in case (and because I have the room) I'm saving my "fat" clothes.

 

[ivinsfan]

We rarely...very rarely...go anywhere where we need to 'dress up'. Mostly weddings and funerals and at our age its mostly funerals. So when I retired I kept one sport jacket, a couple of ties, two dress shirts (one short sleeve, one long sleeve), two pairs of dress pants and one pair of dress shoes. I've since converted from the black dress shoes to a pair of black soft SAS shoes. Everything else went to Goodwill.

My wife has one remaining dressy outfit that she will wear when absolutely necessary! Otherwise we're both essentially shorts or jeans and t-shirt people. I will wear a collared golf shirt if we're going out to a fancy restaurant like Olive Garden or to a movie but we don't go to many movies these days. We are going to OG for lunch on Friday for our anniversary. Jeans and a golf shirt for me and pretty much the same for her.

Since Covid I have noticed a huge change in funerals. My DH and I are in the serving group for funerals at our church. We ready the church ie extra seats, make sure things look neat, serve the catered food and help do dishes. Less people are attending funerals (more just making do with the visitation) and they are dressing much more casually. As in, literally no one wears a suit. A nice pair of casual dress pants and a dress shirt is considered dressed up. A lot of time my DH dressed to work in the kitchen is more dressed up then some at the service. And that's fine, what matters is that they came. So if you older gents want to toss those suits, go for it.

 

[jollystomper]

I did find out that weight loss is expensive. I had to replace all my clothes. $20 (now more like $30) for aloha shirts and $10 for gently used shorts/slacks. T-shirts are $5 used.

Just in case (and because I have the room) I'm saving my "fat" clothes.

Fortunately, DW and I can do a bit of tailoring, and we know several good tailors, so the items I wanted to keep that I felt were too baggy I was able to tailor them to a better fit instead of replacing them. More incentive for me to keep my weight down .

 

[Diogenes]

For my "Barista FIRE" gig, I dress more formally that I did pre-partial-retirement. Why? It's the sort of "job" where one needs to convey some sense of dignity and gravity, perhaps for unsound reasons, but nevertheless with some emotional compulsion. I have also found that being out-and-about, I receive more positive attention from random strangers, if dressed more formally. At the gym I'll wear shorts and a Tee-shirt, but elsewhere it's slacks, dress shoes and buttoned-down long sleeved shirt. If it's cold enough to merit some form of outerwear (unusual in Southern California), I'll wear a suit-jacket instead of sweater or hoodie etc.

But none of these clothes are well-tailored, particularly clean or in good shape. My shirts often are missing buttons, and my favorite suit-jacket has rips in both sleeves, near the elbows. Most shirts have stains, such hard-water (rust) stains from amateurish attempts at laundry. I resemble a lower-middle-class man from 1925: dressed formally but shabbily.

 

[ivinsfan]

Diogenes if you are trolling for new used clothes you came to the right place!!!! I'm joking of course.

 

[stepford]

Work wear started as khakis, button-down shirts and shoes in the 1980s and degenerated to jeans and sneakers by the time I retired in 2015. Other than migrating to T-shirts from button-downs there wasn't much for me to throw out.

 

[Jerry1]

I receive more positive attention from random strangers, if dressed more formally.

One thing I always did was shine my shoes when I dressed more formally for work. Many people noticed and commented. Interesting how such a tiny thing stood out.

 

[aja8888]

One thing I always did was shine my shoes when I dressed more formally for work. Many people noticed and commented. Interesting how such a tiny thing stood out.

Shoe shining is a lost art now!

 

[FIYes]

I donated a fair amount of my work clothes when I retired. In retrospect I could have donated more. I don’t miss anything that I donated.

 

[FIYes]

I was attached to old tshirts that my wife tried to toss many times. She eventually had a quilt made from 16 of them I use everyday during cold weather. I wonder if they can make quilts from old suits and ties? It’s kinda like why we keep a “good” box and have coffee cans full of screws and bolts. You never know when you might need one.

I’m not a quilter, but I’ve seen some beautiful quilts made from old ties.

 

[DuluthGA]

One thing I always did was shine my shoes when I dressed more formally for work. Many people noticed and commented. Interesting how such a tiny thing stood out.

I also liked getting a shoe shine at the airport when I traveled. It does make you look and feel better

 

[disneysteve]

I got rid of 3 long sleeve shirts over the weekend. It's not much but it's something.

 

[RetMD21]

No rush in downsizing the wardrobe

 

[sengsational]

I was attached to old tshirts that my wife tried to toss many times. She eventually had a quilt made from 16 of them I use everyday during cold weather. I wonder if they can make quilts from old suits and ties? It’s kinda like why we keep a “good” box and have coffee cans full of screws and bolts. You never know when you might need one.

Here's what my brother did with the shirts in my dad's closet. I know all 7 kids got one, and I think some of my aunts and uncles.

 

[disneysteve]

Here's what my brother did with the shirts in my dad's closet. I know all 7 kids got one, and I think some of my aunts and uncles.

My wife sews and she has made memory pillows a few times for a friend of ours when her mom, her dad, and her husband passed. Each kid and grandkid got one. She has also made numerous t-shirt quilts for people.