What not to underwear

A bit of a funk started this new year at a frightfully slow pace, goal-wise. I had to do something though. And I did. I started off with a measured attack on my wardrobe, intending to cull and decimate it, thereby freeing up drawer and closet space and reducing stress by only keeping things that I can and would wear. Without realising it, it was the right place to start. I read a little post hinting that if one has trouble making or implementing proposed changes for the new year, to start off by cleaning house. Nice thing about the wardrobe is that it is volumous enough to notice the change to a significant degree and feel good about the result and feel a bit inspired. A few random observations and realisations sprang forth in the process as well.

Why wasn't this taken care of before?

When I first moved out east, I had the bulk of my stuff shipped. At some point in that first year I could have sworn I had rid myself of everything that I intended to. This was not the case. I mean, I did expect some of my clothes to be obsoleted by extra bodily poundage and through wear and tear but outside of that I still find in my collection stuff that I've had for a decade or more, yet hadn't worn. Realisation 1: I had kept things that fit, not things that I liked to wear. Realisation 2: What's worse is I actually bought stuff that I don't like to wear for one reason or another. I mean, WTF was I thinking? Well, the only thing I could come up with was "I didn't know any better." Related example:

Boxers or briefs?

For a good chunk of my life I shamefully wore the "tidy whities," the perfect example of not knowing any better. That's what was bought for me when I was a wee lad growing up and what I continued to wear into adulthood. How embarrassing. I never really liked them, even the more stylish colored ones. That whole bikini type cut would often dig into my upper thighs near the singit, cutting off circulation and such. Also made for nasty wedgies. I graduated to boxers. Ah much better. More expensive but thank the maker for Costco, when I was still a member. Still, it did have the opposite shortcoming: It didn't dig in but putting on pants now became a little dance. They were loose to the point that they would bunch up all the time, especially when donning pants. I did come up with a system eventually that worked, but thankfully I found something better: boxer-briefs. Form, function, and efficiency all in one. The holy grail of male underwear... at least for me. No edges that dug in. Crotch area loose enough but not overly so. No riding thanks to the longer legging. No bunching up since it fits snug enough where it needs to. There's no going back. For a long time I kept the older versions around for emergencies, like say, I haven't done laundry in a month. But it wasn't just that, it was this guy notion of not wanting to toss perfectly good and usable clothing. There was a time I would keep even not so good and not so usable clothing, like socks with holes in them or worn thin but still kept and worn. No more though. Especially since I have the income to buy replacements.

The XX solution

So I had replaced the entirety of my underwear drawer not once but twice. And now I needed to apply that to the rest of my clothing... again. It was my seeester who helped to alleviate my anxiety on throwing away money via the clothing I bought with it. She pointed out that women go through wardrobe replacement all the time, ridding themselves of perfectly good and usable clothing that no longer makes them happy. (Except our mom who seems to keep everything, choosing instead to store it in every closet in the house and wardrobe boxes in the garage. I think she's slowly recovering though.) Makes some sense that women by and large can do this purging for sociological reasons (stronger need for fashion) and biological reasons (the shopping gene). Emilf lent a lot of support for this and, bless her, talked me through the initial process over the weekend. The only sad thing is that Realization 3: I'm probably going to have to keep doing this clothing binge/purge thing every so often; it's not a one time thing. Hopefully I can become a little smarter about what to buy, and I should probably monitor sales. My seeester is a master at sales monitoring. I now enlist her at times to do my shopping for me. She likes it.

The other sad observations

Rummaging through ones clothes necessitates trying many or most of them on. Observation 1: It would all look better on a skinnier person. Not necessarily like the mannequins in the stores but fit people can wear almost anything and have it look ok. I have items that I do like but won't wear because of my now beyond fledgling beer gut. I've decided to keep those items this time around as a future solid target. That normally doesn't work but this time I need to make an honest effort. Observation 2: I'm cursed at being on the border of sizes. With some clothes, I wear an L, others a XL, and still others M. They just aren't consistent with sizing. Scregman alluded to this. What I also hate is when something is labeled 34-36 and I'm just at the high border or just past it, making it a tad uncomfortably tight, but the next size starts at 38 and too loose. Bleh. Observation 3: What is the deal with shirts/sweatshirts that end at the waist, such that when you lift your arms over your head the end gets pulled up well above the belly button? Works good for girls where bare midrift is a popular style. But on a men's shirt? And my last observation: I have entirely too many printed tee's. Printed tee's are the ultimate evil of events, clubs, promotions, and tourism. They serve as cheap sousvenirs, free giveaways, and a braindead means of commemorating something. But they work and are effective and here I am with a large accumulation of them. Time to rid myself of at least the ones that have faded. I guess dress shirts and Italian leather shoes aren't quite as convenient as promo fodder.

One side benefit of all this is my realizing that dispite the drawers full of clothing, and in addition to having entirely too many of a few types of things, there are few things that I just don't have enough of. I once thought that I could construct a reasonable list with 3 pairs of this, 6 of that, and a half dozen of the other and make for a solid well-rounded complete and cohesive wardrobe that required no thought whatsoever other than the occasional swapping out here and there as replacements were needed. It may mean that I need to do laundry more frequently. I don't trust myself in the selection process though. I wonder if there's a kit I could buy. You know, send in my dimensions and a color photo, and some budding fashionista assembles some unique timelessly stylish, mix and match, color coordinated complete ensemble with instructions as to what goes with what and when. That might be cool, a complete starter kit for the newly actualized male that doesn't require complete humiliation in front of millions of viewers of the TLC or Bravo channel.