Looking at my tops by rating was kind helpful . . . to a certain extent. It's good to know that nearly half of my tops fail to meet the criteria of "buying things that make me feel great", but that doesn't necessarily help me figure out what I have too much of or what I need to buy.
When I looked at my jeans, it was fairly straight forward. Yes, I could differentiate them by style and wash but otherwise it was pretty simple. Tops are a different story. After all, this is a category that includes everything from sweaters and button-ups to t-shirts. And that's just the starting point, there's color, purpose, rating . . . (ahhhh!!! data meltdown!!! I kid, I kid . . . )
I could have chosen any one of those factors as a starting point for looking at my data, but I decided to begin with purpose. It felt like there was a pretty big divide in my closet between work-wear and casual or weekend-wear and I wanted to see if there were any patterns or trends if I looked at my tops by both purpose and rating.
Hmmmm, this might explain why I have trouble getting dressed for work in the morning . . .
I know these ratings are entirely subjective, but I wasn't expecting such a stark divide between how I feel in my work items and how I feel in my weekend-wear. (Geez . . . I hope this isn't a reflection on how I feel about my job, 'cause that would be awkward). This is definitely something I'm going to have to keep an eye on and see if it's a broader trend across my entire wardrobe. I might also want to see if there any commonalities in the items that make me "Feel Like a Million Bucks!". Maybe there's something that I'm doing right when I'm shopping for weekend-wear that I'm not applying to shopping for work-clothes.
It was also interesting to me how few "cross-over" items I owned--items that could be worn for both the weekend and to work. I want to do a post soon on value and thinking about "investment" pieces, but a good place for me to start might be in purchasing more tops that both make me feel great and are dual purpose. Obviously this is just the starting point and I'm going to want to look at some of the other factors (spoiler alert: style/cut is a big one), but I feel like I have a much better idea of some of the problem areas in my closet. On that note, happy almost friday!
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
State of the Closet: Tops
Thinking yesterday about focusing on pieces that make you feel great and that you love made me want to take a closer look at the Great Top Situation of 2013. One thing I noticed as I was going through my tops, other than the fact that there were more of them than I expected, is how many times I was surprised I still had something. Things I bought years ago and had been shoved to the back of my closet or that were in worse condition than I remember. My gut feeling is that the pool of tops I actually wear is much, much smaller than 62 (though I could definitely be wrong on that).
In an ideal world, (one in which I have a professional closet consultant), I would be able to track how often I wore each item of clothing. I even thought about adding that metric as I was logging data but
Time spent logging items into a spreadsheet is time I could spend drinking giant beers at The Standard.
Plus, then I'd have to control for things like time of year etc. Thankfully, we have things called "proxy measures" for things we can't measure exactly. I decided to treat my ratings system as a proxy measure for how often I wear something. It makes sense. The better I feel in something, the more likely I am to wear it on a regular basis. (The exception of course is special occasion items, like my wedding dress. Felt great in it, but only planning on wearing it once).
Here are the results (for 62 tops):
The good news? There was nothing I absolutely hated. The bad news? Nearly half of my tops fell into the "Like, but Don't Love" category or below. I was a little surprised (pleasantly) at how many "staples" I'd collected and that I hadn't completely failed in buying things that made me feel great.
In an ideal world, (one in which I have a professional closet consultant), I would be able to track how often I wore each item of clothing. I even thought about adding that metric as I was logging data but
a) I would have just been guessing and
b) despite my jokes, I actually do have a life (no really!) , and I don't really feel like keeping track of what I wear on a daily basis.
Time spent logging items into a spreadsheet is time I could spend drinking giant beers at The Standard.
Plus, then I'd have to control for things like time of year etc. Thankfully, we have things called "proxy measures" for things we can't measure exactly. I decided to treat my ratings system as a proxy measure for how often I wear something. It makes sense. The better I feel in something, the more likely I am to wear it on a regular basis. (The exception of course is special occasion items, like my wedding dress. Felt great in it, but only planning on wearing it once).
Here are the results (for 62 tops):
The good news? There was nothing I absolutely hated. The bad news? Nearly half of my tops fell into the "Like, but Don't Love" category or below. I was a little surprised (pleasantly) at how many "staples" I'd collected and that I hadn't completely failed in buying things that made me feel great.
Monday, March 18, 2013
Editing Your Closet
Happy Monday! I am definitely still recovering from St Patty's day in weekend mode. So I thought I'd skip a data analytics post today and instead talk about this article form goop.com that one of my friends sent me. In the article, Gwyneth Paltrow talks about spring cleaning her project. Now, I certainly can't afford a professional closet organizer service and Gwyneth and I don't face the same problems with our closets. (For example, I am not too worried about whether to keep or donate a Stella McCarthy blazer). But, I did like the six guidelines she listed for cleaning out your closet. My favorites were numbers five and six:
That point about letting go of things that you don't wear is important. Too often, when I buy something that was an obvious mistake (ahem, staring at you short-alls. Yes, I don't know what I was thinking), if I don't return it right away, it just sits in my closet. I don't like it enough to wear it (or common sense kicks in) but I feel too guilty about the purchase to give it away . . . it feels wasteful. But, in fact, I could pass it on, make more room in my closet for better purchases, and maybe someone else can make the same mistake it can bring joy to someone else
Number six is something I've been thinking about a lot (though I do love how cashmere sweaters are lumped in with casual wear. Yes, I just hang out in cashmere in jeans all the time, don't you?). It's only taken me 27 years, but I've realized that the things I really love and feel great in, are the things I wear. I know. Rocket science here. It's the kind of the idea I'm trying to get at in my rating system to help me cull out items that I don't feel good in, ergo don't wear and that take up space that I could be filling with cashmere and vintage YSL (I wish).
On a side note: I really like how she decided to turn cleaning out her closet into a way to help her favorite charities. It's inspired me to do something similar with my closet. I haven't decided how to do this yet. For example, I'm not sure a charity auction for my clothes would be as successful. But, I would like to take this as an opportunity to "pay it forward". I'll keep you updated once I figure out the best way to do this.
Number six is something I've been thinking about a lot (though I do love how cashmere sweaters are lumped in with casual wear. Yes, I just hang out in cashmere in jeans all the time, don't you?). It's only taken me 27 years, but I've realized that the things I really love and feel great in, are the things I wear. I know. Rocket science here. It's the kind of the idea I'm trying to get at in my rating system to help me cull out items that I don't feel good in, ergo don't wear and that take up space that I could be filling with cashmere and vintage YSL (I wish).
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Treemaps and other happy things
Exciting news!!!! (at least to me) Today we have a pretty graphic!!!! I discovered this site Infogr.am that lets you upload your own data into different kinds of charts and, voila!, pretty graphics. And, yes pretty graphics are to me, what bright shiny objects are to squirrels.
You've probably seen treemaps on different sites, but they're a nice way of seeing how items relate to each other within a dataset. I thought it would be a good to visualize the items in my closet. In the spirit of being completely honest and open about what I have, I wanted to include everything I've counted so far, including the items I might donate. That way I have a baseline to use in the future.
Without further ado, here is what my closet looks like right now, as of March 12, 2013 at 8:53 pm.
You've probably seen treemaps on different sites, but they're a nice way of seeing how items relate to each other within a dataset. I thought it would be a good to visualize the items in my closet. In the spirit of being completely honest and open about what I have, I wanted to include everything I've counted so far, including the items I might donate. That way I have a baseline to use in the future.
Without further ado, here is what my closet looks like right now, as of March 12, 2013 at 8:53 pm.
Remember when I announced that I had waaay more bottoms than tops? Yeah, not so much. As you can see, blouses, t-shirts, and sweaters are the biggest categories in my closet. This is a lesson in why you shouldn't announce any "findings" before you have all of your data. That's data analytics 101 and I should have known better.
If I filter out the items that I'm going to donate it only gets a slightly better, but it's still not what I initially thought.
Besides the obvious point that I jumped to conclusions about my closet without having all the information, I am going to have to take a closer look to see if there's more going on here. In the meantime, please excuse me while I go make some more pretty pictures . . .
Besides the obvious point that I jumped to conclusions about my closet without having all the information, I am going to have to take a closer look to see if there's more going on here. In the meantime, please excuse me while I go make some more pretty pictures . . .
(On a side note, I've been trying to make treemaps with my data at work for forever, and it took starting a blog to find an easy software that does it for me. Figures. But I'm loving infogr.am and highly recommend it if you want to play around with ways to visualize your data)
Monday, March 11, 2013
Progress
Denim Recap:
. . . so, I sort of waffled on the second pair I was going to donate and decided that I needed them just in case I ever did anything like hiking through the alps or pheasant hunting with my brothers-in-law. Yes, we all know none of those things is going to happen, but do you know how attached I get to my clothes?!?!? Plus, if you think about it, I did just cut almost 40% of my denim collection. I promise (pinky swear) that if I don't wear that pair in the next six months than it's being donated.
164 items? whew. As I've been going through and logging each item, II've been trying to mark which ones go into the donation pile. Some things were easy . . .
Well, hello, paisley shirt that I bought on final sale, without trying you on.
Some things were harder . . .
Goodbye corduroy mini skirt that I don't want to believe is too short for me . . .
Surprise, surprise . . . I attach a lot of sentimental value to my clothes and it's a little hard for me to part with some items. But, I have found 42 items that are definitely "Yeses" for the donate pile! That's progress, right? Let's going back to looking at things in percentages. Twenty-five percent sounds a lot more impressive than "42". Who said numbers don't lie?
. . . so, I sort of waffled on the second pair I was going to donate and decided that I needed them just in case I ever did anything like hiking through the alps or pheasant hunting with my brothers-in-law. Yes, we all know none of those things is going to happen, but do you know how attached I get to my clothes?!?!? Plus, if you think about it, I did just cut almost 40% of my denim collection. I promise (pinky swear) that if I don't wear that pair in the next six months than it's being donated.
164 items? whew. As I've been going through and logging each item, II've been trying to mark which ones go into the donation pile. Some things were easy . . .
Well, hello, paisley shirt that I bought on final sale, without trying you on.
Some things were harder . . .
Goodbye corduroy mini skirt that I don't want to believe is too short for me . . .
Surprise, surprise . . . I attach a lot of sentimental value to my clothes and it's a little hard for me to part with some items. But, I have found 42 items that are definitely "Yeses" for the donate pile! That's progress, right? Let's going back to looking at things in percentages. Twenty-five percent sounds a lot more impressive than "42". Who said numbers don't lie?
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Closet Confessions: Denim
Hi. My name is K____ and I am a jeans addict.
Yesterday was mortifying cathartic. It's pretty clear to all of us that I have a problem with denim. On a positive note, we can celebrate the fact that there are no jeggings in that collection. Yes, I consider that to be a win.
So let's delve a little deeper, shall we? One of the first things I do when I get a new data set is to check for duplicates and the same rules apply when tackling my wardrobe. For example, the dark skinny jeans that I never wear because I like my other pair better. Then there was the low-hanging fruit, the pair of jeans I've owned since 2006 but only worn once (yeah, that should have gone along time ago). Duplicates Found. Three pairs in the donate pile. Done.
Yesterday was mortifying cathartic. It's pretty clear to all of us that I have a problem with denim. On a positive note, we can celebrate the fact that there are no jeggings in that collection. Yes, I consider that to be a win.
So let's delve a little deeper, shall we? One of the first things I do when I get a new data set is to check for duplicates and the same rules apply when tackling my wardrobe. For example, the dark skinny jeans that I never wear because I like my other pair better. Then there was the low-hanging fruit, the pair of jeans I've owned since 2006 but only worn once (yeah, that should have gone along time ago). Duplicates Found. Three pairs in the donate pile. Done.
That still leaves me with 8 pairs of jeans. Quite a lot for someone who does not work on a dude ranch or own a canadian tuxedo. But, for some reason when I was trying to add to my donate pile I kept justifying why I neeeeeed each and every pair (my precious). But, that's ridiculous. In my real life, I definitely don't wear all of these on a regular basis.
One of the things I do when I'm stuck on a data project at work is to try and look at the problem from a different perspective. If I was having trouble weeding out my jeans just based on cut and color, what about looking at them by their ratings?
If you look at it this way, it's pretty clear that there are two pairs that I'm kind of ambivalent about. These are jeans I bought on sale or on impulse, but don't really fit into my everyday life, so they are probably just wasted in space in my closet. Now excuse my while I pry these from my cold dead hands go add them to the donate pile.
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
State of the Closet: Jeans
While I'm still letting the realization that I have 21 pairs of pants and skirts sinking in, I thought I'd tackle some low-hanging fruit . . . my hefty jeans collection. While it's helpful to know that I have 10 (Correction: I actually have 11 if you count my black skinnies) pairs of jeans, I really only had a vague idea of what type of jeans I owned. (Wait, you mean to tell me I have more than the 2 pairs I seem to live in?) So, *gulp* in the spirit of full disclosure, here's what I have:
My Jean Collection
Le sigh. 4 pairs of dark wash bootcut? While I go hide my head in shame, check back tomorrow for a rundown on how many of these I actually wear.
Friday, March 1, 2013
State of the Closet
If I was a cleverer more experienced blogger, I would have timed this post to coincide with the POTUS's State of the Union (get it, State of the Closet . . . State of the Union. Don't judge me too harshly. I've lived in DC waaaay to long). But, moving on.
It turns out that one person can accumulate a lot, (I mean a massive amount) of clothes that they don't wear/know about over a 27-year life span. I won't pretend that I have finished logging everything I own. For starters about a third of my wardrobe is in storage. It's mostly summer things, but that probably should have been the first indication I have too many clothes.
So far, I've collected data on 58 items and that's probably (rough guess) about half of what I currently have in my closet, excluding shoes, pajamas, things like belts, and *ahem* delicates. Since the criteria for my "model" closet is that it meets my needs for a professional wardrobe, I decided to start with my work clothes and go from there. While I don't have enough to draw any real conclusions, I am seeing some interesting things:
- I have waaaaaay more bottoms than tops. So far I've counted about 9 pairs of pants and 14 skirts and only have 11 blouses logged. Granted I haven't finished listing all my tops, but right now that's more than double the amount of bottoms to tops.
- I don't need to buy new jeans anytime soon. Right now I have 10 pairs. But, when I think about it, I only really wear 4 or 5 of them on a regular basis. And, most of the time, I live in one of my two pairs of AG jeans.
- On that note, I could probably lay off stocking up on work dresses. Right now I have 7 that are purely for work and I'm guessing I have a lot more in my summer storage box.
Probably the most surprising thing for me was the number of pants and skirts (14?!?!?!) that I have. Maybe it's because I've had problems finding pants and skirts that I feel good in so when I find some I like, I jump on them. I also noticed several items that I don't remember wearing in the past year, so I should probably decide whether or not to donate them. And, I'm definitely donating some of those jeans . . .
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)