Maintenance: Prerequisites for Clothes Shopping

With the first signs of spring comes the semi-annual opportunity for a man to inventory his wardrobe and clean his house, or rather his closet. For the intelligent acquisition of a man's wardrobe requires a plan, and the planning has several prerequisites.

First, he should review what he has and ruthlessly discard worn and stained things that are no longer wearable. Sentiment belongs in areas of life other than the wardrobe.

Second, he should give up his fantasy about losing the weight he gained two years ago and sort for charity any clothing that has not been worn for that long, whether it fits or, more likely, not.

Then he should send those items that still need repair (after all, they should have been fixed before he put the things into storage last season) to whichever places will do the required jobs.

When this less rewarding work is done, he is ready to update his list of whatever things he still needs for the new season, such as clothing for a planned vacation or major events like a wedding that has recently been added to the calendar.

Then, and only then, he can if necessary go shopping for clothes. And, though he may have enlisted assistance from other household members in accomplishing the prerequisites, the actual acquisition of his clothing is a task that should never be delegated. In fact, shopping for clothing is one thing that a man should do alone - but that is a topic for another time.

Photo: Alfred Eisenstaedt