Our Wardrobe

Today was laundry day. And, someday early next week we're going to visit our POD.

And those two things have what, exactly, to do with each other?

They have us thinking about our wardrobe.

Next week's trip to our POD is an opportunity to put into storage anything that we don't really need as fulltimers. (It's also our first chance to make sure the POD actually made it to its destination.) We've spotted a few things that will head to storage, and we'll keep looking for more. One thing that's on the chopping block is our clothes. We have too many. Over the next few days we'll take a close look and see what we can do to lighten our load.

As I was putting away my laundry, I decided to take stock of what's in my drawers and my side of our teeny tiny closet. Knowing that we have a future fulltimer or two who stops by here from time to time, I thought I'd share a bit of my findings:

• 22 "t-shirts". This was a topic in chat recently. My actual total was a bit more than my guess. These shirts fill one drawer and include sleeveless, short and long sleeve varieties that I wear for everything from exercise to going out and about. Most of these shirts are either white or black. After all, those two colors go with everything. That said, I think I have too many!
• 6 "nice" shirts. Nice means they hang in the closet and don't go in a drawer. Only two are really nice. And, I've only worn one of those. The other four get lots of wear.
• 3 cotton sweaters. Living in the Bay Area provided good training for dressing for fulltiming: It's all about layers. These three sweaters range from light to medium weight and get worn all the time.
• Jeans, capris and shorts. I have 3 pairs of each. This is probably one pair too many. But, I had 'em so I kept them.
• Shoes. I think I have 5 pairs. Maybe 6. Depends on what you count as shoes.

That gives you an idea of the "scale" of my fulltiming wardrobe. There are a few more things, but it's all pretty simple. And, it's all washable and pretty darn interchangeable. So far, it seems to work.

Before we started this journey, I tried to figure out what I'd wear the most. A couple of months out, now I know. Most days you'll find me in a a 3/4-sleeve t-shirt, a pair of capris and my trusty Keens. If it's chilly, I'll add one of those cotton sweaters. If my wardrobe has a direction, I'd say that's it.

And, what about Paul? He's the first to admit he brought more clothes on board than I did. For a guy who used to wear a suit and tie everyday, he's made a quick and easy adjustment to a daily wardrobe of shorts and a t-shirt.

We both have some purging to do. But, now that we have a bit of experience wearing clothes on the road, we have a much better idea of what we need...and what we don't.