I'm only a little less than a month out from surgery but have lost 43 pounds total (pre and post surgery).

My old clothes don't fit! Good problem and luckily I do have sizes below from before I gained all the weight.

I'm cleaning out my closet. I am scared to throw away my old, too big, clothes. I'll put them in a big box and store them, but why?

I don't think I will or want to gain weight back once this is all through, but what if??

what did you do? Donate clothes? Save them in a box, hopefully to never use again?

If you totally got rid of them, when did you do it?

Edited July 23, 20179 yr by AZBlackhawk

I gave all mine away, and currently am giving more, to my church that has a donation store. I don't plan to keep any of them, not even for reference. That's why I have pics. ?

To be honest, I still can't let go of my old clothes. Started at 34/36 and am now at a 16/14-, I know I need to let go and I will, but when that time comes, I'm going to donate to the mission in my city. Check out Swap.com, it's an online consignment store, those types of stores will become your best friend.

You my friend are going thru exactly what I did. My track record wasn't good with maintaining the weights I lost. So of course when I had to go thru my clothes in my mind all I wanted to do was save them!! At first I had family and friends to hand down too. But anything I want to get rid of now I have noone to give them too. TRUST your program, follow your guidelines and do whaterver your Surgeon says and you will lose weight and fast. Trust me you don't want or need to keep your old clothes!!! When I went thru my closet I had 2 huge lawn bags full!! One thing I found it is so REFRESHING to purge my closet. Before my WLS I didn't have or find many choices for clothes. Now I have kind of went a little crazy and I love to shop for them and also shoes!! Man, when I lost my weight I got into shoes too. I had never wore knee high boots in my life!! My hubby bought me a shoe tree tyo put them on!! LOL KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE PRIZE!! Good Luck and I look forward to following your journey!!

8 minutes ago, heycrystal2052 said:

To be honest, I still can't let go of my old clothes. Started at 34/36 and am now at a 16/14-, I know I need to let go and I will, but when that time comes, I'm going to donate to the mission in my city. Check out Swap.com, it's an online consignment store, those types of stores will become your best friend.

When you do, I believe you'll find freedom of letting go of the old you. ?

I got rid of everything. I gave some to my brother and the rest to Goodwill or similar stores. That made my closets empty which was a good thing because I filled it up with an entirely new wardrobe in the latest styles. Shopping was a lot of fun, especially when you can buy clothes in normal department stores.

I am a bargain shopper and generally buy clothes for around 75% off retail. So replacing my wardrobe wasn't really that expensive.

Donated everything except this pair of pants so I could do this....

1 hour ago, jess9395 said:

Donated everything except this pair of pants so I could do this....

This is so awesome!!!! Wow!

@jess9395 YESSSSSS. Omg! That is too frickin' awesome.

To OP, the dietitian I used to work with (before joining the bariatric program) told me not to keep ANY "fat" clothing because the fit of your clothing is a better indicator of your weight than the scale, which can reflect all manner of odd variables. She said when her pants became tight or uncomfortable she knew she was probably 4-5 pounds above her usual weight range and needed to cut back on sweets and snacking or add in some more exercise.

Take her words for what they're worth. I have no personal experience with this - I wear 95% dresses and skirts... they're very forgiving. It'll probably take 100+ pounds lost before I need new clothes.

@jess9395 that is fantastic and truly inspirational.

Sent from my SM-G935V using BariatricPal App

I have over 40 pairs of pants and other clothes.... a total of 8 construction sized plastic bags I have to take to Goodwill's thrift shop... I am getting rid of all of them. So far I have only bought a couple of pairs of dress pants for work that were on sale and those will have to be donated very soon as well.

Sell them. Donate them to a shelter or other non profit and keep for tax deduction. Give to friends! Replacing clothes was an expense I did not fully anticipate. My work necessitates a fairly specific dress code. Also there is a clothes change on this. site. Best!

There is a site called thred up. If you have some really nice clothes you can sell them there. Also look for the battered women shelter in your community. Most of those women leave abusive relationships with the clothes on their backs. Also see if your community looks for donations for clothes for women entering the work force through a welfare program. Salvation army gives donated items to people in need where as goodwill they must buy the items. The welfare to work program also needs men's clothing and suits.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using BariatricPal App

I got rid of them as soon as I could and donated them to Good Will. First the winter clothes and now the summer clothes. I hate my clothes to look baggy so I continue to buy smaller clothes. I've gone from size 32 to size 18/20. As they get too big, the newer clothes also go into the goodwill pile. So far I've donated 4 contractor sized bags of clothing to Good Will.

The Saturday before my surgery (which was a week ago today), I donated 3 large trash bags of my big out-of-season clothes and consolidated my smaller clothes into a single bin.

I found it very liberating, especially the ones that I realized I actually hated, but bought only because they fit at the time.

p.s. An organizational consultant that I saw speak at a conference let us all in on a secret:

"They will never stop selling black pants."

Like so many others on this thread, I purged my closet and donated a huge heaping pile of clothes. It was cathartic! I still feel great every time I look into my closet DON'T see all those clothes from before I started all this. (I did keep my hand-knit sweaters, though)

I now have a tricky time keeping up with my changing sizes and I think I am going to start shopping at consignment shops rather than retail sales. I feel like I am just borrowing clothes and giving them up again after a couple of months. Does anyone have any advice on how to deal with quickly changing sizes?