The post retirement purge...

[MRG]

Clothes were easy after I lost 60ish pounds. None fit. I should have kept a dress shirt, 18" neck. The last time I wore it, too tight. When I tried it on, pretty funny. My arm fit out the neck!

I did find a suit, I'd worn in the 80s, fits fine now.

 

[Jerry1]

I did find a suit, I'd worn in the 80s, fits fine now.

Fits, yes, but that doesn’t mean you should wear it.

 

[Bir48die]

My wife said she will be burying me in a suit because I make a point of being the most under dressed person in the room.

 

[gerntz]

I kept one suit. Figure I'll wear it one more time but for quite a long time.

 

[steelyman]

Sinatra liked to use (while decked out in a tux) the line, “If you wanna look dead, dress dead.”

 

[Bestwifeever]

We have kids to deal with our crap that will be left, but when I think of how much emotional work it would be for them (I know DD would feel the need to look at every little thing, never mind deciding what to do with it), it reinforces my dislike for stuff and I am a world-class declutterer. My retired friend showed me a photo of her new walk-in closet and my first thought was why? Who needs that much clothing?

 

[scrabbler1]

I did a clothing purge in 2008, a few months before I retired. I had been working part-time for the previous 7 years, and my company had gotten rid of its formal dress code in 1998. This meant my dress shirts and sport jackets had gotten little wear in the last 10 years. I had also put on some weight, so much of those old clothes from the 1990s didn't fit me any more.


I have limited storage space, so I had to get rid of some clothes. That purge helped a lot, but by the end of 2017 I was in need of another one. The clothing rack bar in one closet actually collapsed due to its weight, a strong signal I had to lighten its load. I was able to get it back into place, but by the end of last year, the last time I would get any value from a charitable donation (tax law change), I made a second purge. I got rid of lots more old clothes including several sweaters I had received as gifts but rarely or never wore. Some of the other clothes included shirts from the 1980s which still fit but I hadn't worn in at least 25 years. This purge gave me more room in all 3 closets, especially the one which had the bar collapse. I also donated a portable manual typewriter I had since the 1990s, as the charity specifically mentioned typewriters as allowable items to donate.

 

[pacergal]

We have kids to deal with our crap that will be left, but when I think of how much emotional work it would be for them (I know DD would feel the need to look at every little thing, never mind deciding what to do with it), it reinforces my dislike for stuff and I am a world-class declutterer. My retired friend showed me a photo of her new walk-in closet and my first thought was why? Who needs that much clothing?

This is my daughter to a tee--she will also have an extremely difficult time getting rid of anything of ours. We have been donating or trashing stuff for two years and continue to do so.

 

[SheitlQueen]

We’ve done quite a bit of purging over the last 4 years, but barely have scratched the surface. It will be catastrophic when we downsize. It would make sense to move to our snowbird condo, but it isn’t big enough. So we’ll have to find a house, and move some stuff from both places and purge the rest, and from my workshop. We’ve probably only purged 5% of what we need to.

Once you purge stuff, it will be surprising how much bigger than condo looks.

 

[Helena]

.

I like all my stuff and have advised my heir to cherry-pick what she wants then hire professionals [who work on percentage] to conduct an estate sale to get bonus money.

 

[Chuckanut]

The trick for me is to not replace the purged stuff with other new stuff I really don't need and won't use very often.