A new tip that has worked GREAT: Twice a year I get a couple of gift checks that add up to a decent amount. The amounts are quite reliable. So twice a year, about 2 months before the checks arrive I make a humongous catalog purchase on DEFERRED BILLING, billed to my debit card. I order things I HOPE will fit in at least two different sizes, as well as anything I am not sure I will like that I MIGHT like (that fits my wardrobe needs). When the order arrives, I try it all on just like I would at the store. Obviously, I have a good idea which size to start with, so often the duplicate items are never even opened.

I used to work at a western-wear shop so I am pretty good at refolding and rebagging (and the catalog people know the items will for sure be tried on).

I keep only what I know these anticipated gift checks will cover, and send back all the rest using the handy UPS return label that's included. I add up the total I will owe, and start saving it up out of grocery bucks just in case. When the holiday or birthday checks arrive, the saved money becomes my fund for my own Christmas/birthday shopping. I worry so much about being able to cover the debit when the deferred billing kicks in, that I always have about twice as much as I need!


UPDATE

It's seasonal switchover time and my closet is stuffed. Out it all
came, from the storage drawer upstairs I'd used for offseason, from the main closet downstairs, from the hanging rack where the latest 5 new shirts had been hung up while I de-sleeved them, from the several overnight cases and garment bags I had not unpacked promptly..... Fortunately I had a couple of standing racks and nearby slatted doors, to sort it and to work on it all. I'd just added some new items, plus I'd gotten a bag of dresses-converted-to skirts back from my current seamstress. And a bunch of inexpensive shirt hangers-- I'd never hung it all UP at the same time before.


When I was done, I had to add an over-the-door rack to the main closet door to hold a season's worth of skirts in the best light that unlit closet has, so I can SEE the pretty prints clearly when the door is open into the well-lit hallway. The skirt choice determines the whole color palette: from the skirt I can find a jacket and shell (or shirt) in that main closet, plus the accessories, shoes, and bags. There are 7-8 skirts per half-year-- fall/winter and spring/summer.

I actually have enough blazers/jackets now to have a warm weather set and a cold weather set. The newer jackets are heavier and dontcha know, the colors and textures are darker and fall/wintery. The warm weather set includes two in a linen blend and two in cotton jerseys-- both comfy on a hot day in town, or on a cooler day up at one of the more mountainous parishes.

I had not known I had enough to do that until I fetched them all out at once! For awhile yesterday the whole rack was jackets being put onto newly-made hangers. I used old pool noodles to pad the hanger-shoulders for better shape and non-slippage. The result is that they take up a lot more closet space-- but also I can see what color they are better. There's more fabric showing on those padded hangers.


The shells and shirts I consider fair game all year round, so I know I will have enough and there will be a huge variety of colors to spice up the outfits in endless combinations. So they are taking up a little more than half the main closet's main hanging rod. And they leave room only for a few jackets. (I can't hang a second, lower rod-- everything is too long for the height of closet I have to work with.)


All the offseason skirts and jackets are going upstairs until the next seasonal changeover. The temp rack is going up to hold them. When I can afford a zippered portacloset I'll get one; till then each item is plastic-wrapped.


When I wear an item that's been in storage, I toss it in the dryer with a wet softener sheet to dewrinkle it and freshen it up. At that time I also do any mending needed, lint removal, etc., the night before.


Also due to the lack of main closet space I jettisoned another whole
category of my wardrobe to go live upstairs with the off-season items. That is, the equivalent of the Basic Black items that, since they are separates, provide BOTH the funeral and the semi-formal wardrobe. The reason I can send them upstairs is because the garment bags also are stored upstairs, and these items are for events I usually know about a day or more ahead of time-- I can select and bring them down, garment-bagged, from a cat-hair-free area to the dusty, hairy downstairs.

Most of the semi-formal events are Diocesan events that require an overnight stay or at least a costume change after a 3-hour+ drive, so these are items that are gonna get bagged anyhow. Now, the packing will simply start upstairs.

In the basic Black department are the older polyester jackets I could not wait to replace (navy and black). And the skirts that go with. For semi-formal: a long black solid, a long rose pink solid, a long aqua solid. For funerals: two shorter black prints skirts and one cornflower/navy/beige skirt. Plus a slipdress (red floral on black background print).

All of these are for any season, in different weights, and enough for 4-5 funerals in a week (and that happens sometimes) without having to machine wash or wait for the drycleaner. I LOVE it that the items that used to be my ONLY decent clothes are now the funeral clothes! They stood me in good stead; I was so sure I'd never be able to replace them, that I took really good care of them. They can stand occasional wear and cleaning, and I'll enjoy seeing them as the old friends they are, when I head off to a sad event-- but the rest of the time I'll be wearing the newer, more fun stuff that's in the main closet.


I have never had so much "show clothing" (as some folks call it), but then I've never had so many public events of my husband's and my own to attend, either. Nor such a love for our wonderful drycleaner.


So I now have 3 closets: Now, Later, and Occasionally.

Plus the grunt wear in my bathroom shelves, and there's another funny thing. I have several pairs of medium weight, all-cotton bike shorts. I drive to these faraway events in bike shorts, with a comfy, long men's shirt thrown over them. When I change into the show clothes, the bike shorts stay on as undies, so I am comfy all evening long. I just throw the "show" skirt, shell, and jacket on over them, and I can change anywhere. Thursday I changed in a back porch in Harrisburg because that's what was available before everyone else showed up. Last summer, I changed in a parking garage one day with my husband holding my open overcoat behind me to shield me as I grabbed the dressy items out of the open van door. Because the undies do
not have to be changed, there isn't that awkward "step all over the
knickers" moment and I am decently covered the whole time! :~) For the long drive home from these, I just shrug of the jacket and skirt at the first gas station we pass, and drive home in my shell and shorts, comfortably!


Many times this past year I have left on the run for an event, saying under my breath, "Bless that closet!" and of course that includes the ladies who sewed my way to it. The closet has not let me down, yet! I'd love to have a big walk-in closet, but there isn't a room here I could give up to do that. (Yet.)

~Susan, who grew up a Daddy's Tomboy