Help!?

 I have run out of closet space. I have clothes two months old that I have not worn yet. How did this happen?

 I’m a relatively frugal guy, and by no means a fancy dresser. Sure, I have to have four wardrobes – “suit &tie” three or four days per week; “business casual” for the rest; jeans etc for weekends; and shorts and lighter shirts for the few months of poor dog sledding here in God’s Country*.

 But I have a whole closet to myself, and six drawers. What happened?

 “Obsessive” was one of my 100 words about myself, but I don’t think that makes me a shopaholic. And "vain" was not in the top 100... I never thought the song was about me.

 Still, I have at least 15 “good” dress shirts, plus a couple that I could wear if I ran short. I really only need eight – two weeks rotation, to allow for laundry, spills, variety, and matching. What happened was I bought a spare white shirt – then discovered I had one in the closet I had not yet worn. Then, I’ve branched out from the basic white, blue and cream. I’ve added grey, then checked, then striped, then turquoise, mauve and harvest gold.

 I have over 75 ties. I’ll buy more. I wear conservative colours. I justify my tie buying fetish as a way to brighten up my wardrobe.  Once I wear them once, I crave another new one – always need one no one has seen. Any “occasion” will be an excuse to buy another, or, if no excuse pop up, well, there’s a men’s store right beside my second favourite liquor store…the one near my office.

 Actually, I blame that store. They send me gift certificates- about 10% of what I spend. Then, when there’s a sale on, they give me an extra 10% off. Their loyalty program works for them. Sold me an extra sport coat (two instead of the one I needed) , a pair of black jeans, shoes to go with the jeans, a mock turtleneck so I can wear the sports coat for business casual, or with the jeans, in an amazing shade of blue. Of course, I bought the matching dress shirts and ties, and a red mock turtleneck to wear to the office Christmas party. Had to do my bit for the economy.

 So now the two sport coats hang in the front hall closet, because there’s no room in my room. A Goodwill purge will buy time, and make my conscience feel better about my two coats when some have none. However, it will only slow the surge, not stop the flood.

  Maybe I should just buy a nice antique wardrobe  and go out more to get use of the purchases? Now, there’s a plan.

 I think I like it….

What do you think?

* as a community booster, I must point out that, contrary to popular misconception, though we have dog sledding, its just a sport… we have cars, roads and everything. The winter ice roads start a few hundred miles north of us.