You love shopping and buying clothes, but how do you know when enough is enough?

What is enough for one person may not be the same for another.

It boils down to just a couple of things.

Do the clothes in your wardrobe fit your lifestyle, and is your closet working for you?

Struggling to find the perfect wardrobe? It can be difficult to determine exactly how many clothes you really need. With our guide, you’ll be able to determine exactly what items are essential and which ones you can get rid of. Get ready to declutter your closet and feel that sense of freedom that comes with knowing exactly how many clothes you really need!

This post may contain affiliate links. Please see my full disclosure policy here for more information.

How do you know if you have too many clothes? Take a Quick Quiz!

If you say YES to any of these problems, you probably have too many clothes!

#1. Closet Overload

This may seem obvious, but it’s shocking how many of us live with closets that seem almost hoarder-like.

If your closet is completely packed, you may have too many clothes.

#2. I can’t Find Anything to Wear

How many times a week do you wake up and struggle to get dressed in the morning because you can’t find anything to wear?

If it takes you longer than 5 minutes to get dressed, you may have too many clothes.

#3. You Keep Clothes for Sentimental Reasons

One of the challenges many of us face is that we pack our closets with clothes we don’t actually wear. Instead, we hold on to clothes for sentimental reasons, such as a first date outfit, party dresses from years ago, prom dresses, bridesmaid dresses, and even wedding gowns.

If you have any of these items in your closet, you have too many clothes.

#4. Clothes Don’t Fit in Closet

The closet has overflowed into other areas of your home…bedroom, a spare room, etc.

If this sounds like you, you have too many clothes.

#5. Skinny/Fat Clothes

Diets, periods, and overeating over the holidays can cause fluctuations in weight. Those moments prompt many of us to keep multiple wardrobes for when we feel skinny or fat.

If this sounds like you, you have too many clothes.

#6. Lose Items in Your Closet

Do you spend a lot of time hunting for clothes in your wardrobe? Or do you find clothes you forgot you owned? Or perhaps, you forget what’s in your closet, so you rebuy the same silhouettes again and again.

If you have experienced any of these situations, you have too many clothes.

#7. You only buy outfits

Fashion websites, influencers, and retail stores are notorious for showing you pulled-together outfits from head to toe.

Everything looks so good together that you can’t resist purchasing the look and wearing it again and again. However, after wearing it a few times, it starts to get tired, and it’s hard to find a fresh look in your closet. Hence, the “I have nothing to wear” syndrome begins.

If this sounds like you, you have too many clothes.

#8. Clothes with tags still on

You go shopping, and an in-store stylist pulls outfits together, and you buy them. But now they just hang in your closet unworn.

Or, you go shopping with a friend (sister, mother, etc), and she pushes you to buy clothes she loves…not clothes you love.

Or, you go shopping without a plan, and you end up buying clothes that you just don’t feel good wearing.

You may try these clothes on, not feel good in them, and then hang them back up in the closet. Let’s be honest; we all have a few pieces like that.

So, let’s get rid of them because you have too many clothes (that don’t work for you).

#9. Items you haven’t worn in over a year

This is one of my biggest check-offs when going through my closet.

I may have loved the garment when I purchased it and even wore it a lot, but if I haven’t worn it in over a year….I have too many clothes.

#10. You Put Clothes in Storage

Do you switch out your summer and winter wardrobes to make more room in your closet to make more room?

While switching out clothes for the season may seem convenient, it’s also an indicator that you have too many clothes.

#11. Do Your Clothes Fit Your Current Lifestyle

Throughout our lives, we change lifestyles many times.

In our teens, we start middle school/high school. What you wear from middle school and then in high school usually changes a lot. In high school, we don’t want to be seen as tweens or children anymore and start to experiment with different looks.

Then we head off to college. It’s a completely different vibe than high school and a unique casual look you probably won’t experience again in your lifetime.

The next step is starting a job. You may work for a corporation that requires suits or suited styles, or even business casual attire. Both are vastly different than how you dressed in college.

You may make a big leap into becoming a stay-at-home mom or get a job where you can work from home. More life changes which also mean wardrobe changes.

However, are you hanging on to any of these old lifestyles and filling your closet with lifestyles past?

If so, you have too many clothes.

You Have Too Many Clothes: What to Do Now

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, if you said YES to any of the eleven questions, you have too many clothes.

It may not mean your closet is packed to the gills, but it does mean the clothes you are choosing to put in your closet don’t fit with your current needs or lifestyle.

Let’s change that!

All of the unworn and unsatisfying garments we mentioned above are perfect examples of Pareto’s Principle.

The principle states that we wear 20% of our clothes, 80% of the time. The rest of the clothes in our closet are just taking up valuable real estate.

By clearing out all of the visual clutter…aka…clothes you don’t wear, you’ll be left with a wardrobe full of clothes that fit your lifestyle and love to wear.

What to Get Rid Of

This may sound like a daunting job, but you already know the clothes that NEED TO GO based on your answers in the questionnaire you just completed.

Clothes you haven’t worn in a year. If you haven’t worn a garment in more than a year, chances are you won’t wear it again. Your lifestyle may have changed, styles change, or you just don’t like the way it looks on you. Time to toss it.
Clothes that need to be altered. You might have purchased pants, a skirt, or a jacket that would look so good if they were hemmed or tucked here or there. Instead, they hang in your closet, taking up space. Take them to your tailor, and don’t return them to the closet until they fit you properly.
Clothes that are stained, ripped, or broken. A broken zipper on a jacket, a tear in your jeans, an undone hem in your skirt, or a stain on your blouse - don’t put those clothes back in your closet. You can’t wear them as is. So take them and have them repaired or donate them.
Clothes that are out of style. If you buy a lot of fast fashion, you’ll probably notice that the clothes you purchase are out of date not long after bringing them home. They usually last a season or two. Then, they just take up space in your closet. Remove these clothes from your wardrobe.
Sentimental garments. This is a tough one. In fact, you may need to recruit a friend to help you weed through clothes that spark happy memories. It could be a prom dress, bridesmaid dress, first date outfit, what you were wearing when you got engaged, or even your wedding dress. All of these garments take up A LOT of real estate in your closet and are keeping you from having a closet that helps you in the present day. Remove all of these items from your wardrobe.
Clothes that you don’t look/feel good wearing. You may have bought a garment on impulse, your friend pushed you into buying something that’s her style, or it looked good in the fitting room, but you hate it now. Your feelings aren’t going to change. If you have clothes in your closet that you don’t feel look or look good wearing, remove them ASAP.
Get rid of clothes that don’t fit or flatter your body type. You may have items in your closet that don’t suit your body type. You’ll want to learn more here if you’re unsure what your body type is and how to dress for it.
Garments that don’t fit you today. Do you have separate sections of your closet filled with skinny and fat clothes? You know, clothes for when you plan on losing weight or if you’ve put on extra pounds during your period, the holidays, or stressful times. All these extra clothes triple the number of clothes in your closet, and they don’t actually fit or make you feel good when you see them. Only keep clothes that fit you TODAY.
Clothes that don’t fit your lifestyle. I’ve saved the biggest “what to get rid of” for last. You will change lifestyles MANY times throughout your life. For example, you’ve just become a mother and plan to stay home or work from home for five years. But you’re still holding on to all of those work suits and separates. Do you think in five years you will still want to wear them? You won’t. They are adding clutter to your closet, and if/when you enter the workforce again, you’ll probably want some current pieces. Remove ANY and ALL clothes that don’t fit your lifestyle.