Welcome back to the monthly edition of Where Bloggers Live! I am lucky to have joined a terrific group of bloggers who give a peek into the places and spaces where they spend their time.
Today's topic is...New Years Resolutions, which is something I basically never do. But this year, after a December with a fair amount of clothing shopping, I took stock of my wardrobe and realized that 2025 was a good time for a Clothing No Buy Year/Shopping Break.
I have periodically taken clothes (and accessories) shopping breaks over the past several years, sometimes very intentionally and other times by accident. My wardrobe shopping tends to operate in cycles where I'll buy more, then buy little to nothing, then start shopping again. I felt like 2024 was a heavy shopping year for me, and quite seriously, both my closet and I were feeling a bit overwhelmed by the time I'd added my new purchases and gifts into my wardrobe. Not in the sense of having too much to handle necessarily; more that I was really ready for a break from dealing with new purchases and finding space for them in my closet and my life.
Looking at different items, choosing what to buy, buying them, tracking the orders, trying them on, washing them, putting them into the closet, getting them out of the closet into outfits...it can be a lot of time and effort. And since I maintain a digital closet, I also had to update my spreadsheets, take photos of everything and edit them, and put them into the right folders on my computer. And since I do a lot of strategic outfit planning, I also needed to figure out what I was going to wear/not going to wear as I made room for them in my outfit plans. (No matter how large my wardrobe gets, I still only have 365 days a year to wear outfits, you know?)
Looking at my wardrobe spreadsheet, I realized that many of the wardrobe additions I made back in 2022 still felt "new" to me because I haven't worn them very many times yet, let alone my new items from 2023 and 2024.
Let's take a look at my wardrobe additions for 2023 and 2024 by the numbers. After a heavy shopping year in 2022 (44 items), 2023 was a light year with 10 new items: 6 pieces of clothing, 3 scarves, and 1 pair of shoes. I actually didn't shop at all for the first 7 months of 2024, but I more than made up for it in the last part of 2024! Sure, some of my new pieces were gifts, and all of them were purchased on sale so it was financially OK, but it was still a lot. I don't think any of them individually are a mistake, but taken together, I probably did buy too many things in 2024. So 2025 is a good time to slow my roll. The idea of taking a break in 2025 feels like a relief, actually!
In addition to putting the brakes on new pieces entering my wardrobe, I'm also hoping to remove some things from my closet this year as well. I hope that not shopping will leave me some extra clothing-related time and mental energy to evaluate some of my current items (when I wear them or when I think about wearing them) and decide on some things I'd like to pass on. I actually have already removed two items from my closet this year for comfort reasons.
(1) A green puffy vest that is flat out too warm to wear at home. I could make it work in my old office, which had its really cold days, but working from home...especially with my husband who is a delicate flower (well, Texan) that gets cold easily...I just overheat in it.
Thrifted Lands End, $6.74, 10/2018, 11 wears, $0.61 CPW
(2) My dusky pink sweater from Loft (that has featured in my recent soft pink color combos posts) that is less than 10% wool but itches my sensitive skin like it's 110% wool. The shoddiest, scratchiest, shortest-fiber wool known to man at that. It's a very pretty sweater but I've never liked the feel of it (even though I always layer a t-shirt under it), and I decided that I was just done.
Loft, $24.75, 10/2016, 23 wears, $1.08 CPW
As for my 2023/2024 wardrobe additions, you've seen a few of them on my blog already. Here are some of my birthday presents from my mom this year (I'm wearing the grey top as I'm writing this post). I'm looking forward to showing these in action!
My black straight leg jeans and black Adidas sneakers from 2024.
My dark rinse straight leg jeans from 2024.
My medium rinse straight leg jeans from 2024. (New jeans are just so easy to put into the outfit rotation; I just started substituting my straight leg versions for the slim/skinny ones I had worn before.)
The palm print top that was so cute my mom and I both bought it for me (2024)!
The dusky rose floral thermal top I bought in 2024 and the camel-gold Alice scarf that was a Valentine's Day gift from my husband in 2023.
The purple/red floral print blouse that was so lovely my mom and I both bought it for me (2024)! (As I mentioned before, I'm planning to alter both of the "extra" tops into sleeveless versions so I can enjoy these prints under short-sleeved cardigans.)
My teal colorblock sweater from 2023.
My white/blush colorblock sneakers from 2023.
It was yet another wake up call when I realized how many new items I have that I have not yet shared in outfit of the day posts here. Clearly that's another way I'll benefit from this shopping break, giving myself time to get caught up on featuring my 2023/2024 items on the blog. (Honestly, I'm not sure I'm even caught up with 2022!) That will make a nice recurring topic for me in 2025.
Thanks for joining me for a quick glance at my recent wardrobe additions and my intentions for a Clothing No Buy/Shopping Break in 2025!
Next month's topic is Day in the Life: Going A Romantic Date...and I don't know whether I will discuss a long ago date or a more recent one, but expect my husband to make an appearance in the tale!
In the meantime, visit these lovely bloggers as they share their New Years Resolutions for 2025:
Bettye at Fashion Schlub
Daenel at Living Outside the Stacks
Em at Dust and Doghair
Iris at Iris’ Original Ramblings
Jodie at Jodie’s Touch of Style
Leslie at Once Upon a Time & Happily Ever After
Do you have any New Years Resolutions for 2025? Do you ever make them? Do you have any particularly successful or unsuccessful resolutions that you've made in the past? Have you ever taken a break from shopping for clothes or any other category you tend to overbuy?
Blogs I link up with are listed here.