Things I used to like a LOT that I don't really like anymore: Sweaters

(This is kind of the opposite of my older post "Five Things I Like That I Used to Dislike." This post and several future posts will instead be dedicated to things that I used to be really in to but now don't really care for anymore.)

Sweaters

Between the ages of 16 and 22, I apparently decided to invest the majority of my limited income in sweaters. I believe one of my justifications for buying so many sweaters was that a good sweater would last a long time and could be worn for years to come. They do and they can - my favorite red Gap sweater from senior year of high school looks no worse for wear (until I put it on and then it looks a lot worse because I am much fatter than I was then). At one point I was purchasing more less exclusively turtleneck sweaters. My sweater collection grew by leaps and bounds when I had that holiday season job at American Eagle when I was in college and seem to have bought every sweater that appeared in the store over those three months.

Because I bought and wore so many sweaters, people started giving me sweaters. Sometimes these sweaters looked like something I would have purchased, and sometimes the only thing about them that remotely resembled anything I would wear was the fact that they were made out of yarn. And though I had stopped buying myself sweaters sometime around 2003, that did not stop people from continuing to give me sweaters.

Where are all these sweaters now, you ask? Well, they happen to be taking up the entire top shelf of mine and Noe's bedroom closet as well as several gigantic Tupperware tubs in our basement.

See, I have this problem giving away stuff that was given to me to begin with, no matter how apparent it becomes that I am not going to wear it. The ones that I bought either have good memories attached to them or I remember how much I spent on them and hesitate to get rid of them. Most of them are still in really good shape and I would say 75% of technically still fit, so I guess I keep them in hopes that someday I will want to wear them again.

Honestly, though, the odds of that are looking pretty slim. For one thing, most of these sweaters are big and bulky and I get hot too easily. For another thing, they are just not my style anymore, and if I haven't really returned to that look since 2003 it doesn't seem very likely that I will return at all. Lastly, I have lost the affinity for horizontal stripes that dominated my clothing taste between 1999 and 2002 - even the patterns and colors don't work for me anymore.

My goal is to actually get rid of some of the sweaters. I should have done this when we moved to Connecticut, but I didn't (seriously, I really do feel guilty giving away stuff that people gave to me). This year, with the economy being as bad as it is, I am sure that there are plenty of people who good benefit from buying these sweaters at Goodwill or receiving them from a charity. (The fact that they are actually nice and for the most part name-brand probably won't hurt, either.)

Obviously I will keep some of them. I don't HATE sweaters - I just don't want to wear them every single day between October and March like I used to. And I like solid colors and finer-gauge knits now.

And if you were planning on getting me a sweater for Christmas, can you get me just a regular shirt instead?

Thanks.