Too many dresses?

[Heather76]

My wife and I will be celebrating out 40th anniversary in a few days. Back in 2017 when we purchased a 2nd home, we agreed no more gifts for birthdays, anniversaries, and Christmas as well as no vacations as the cost of the 2nd home (a condo) stretched our budget pretty tight. Back in late 2021 we sold our 1st home and the condo and purchased another home in the same area as the condo. We continued pretty much forgoing gifts and have yet to take a true vacation. That brings us to this week. My wife is going to a meeting with a tour company tomorrow and will likely sign us up for a 4 day tour to D.C. She's never been there and I've been there more times than I can count on all my fingers and toes.

Today as I was doing some major cleaning in the house, I noticed the toilet plunger had a crack in the rubber; so, it was time to go to the hardware store to get a new one. ...Yes, there is a connection...

As I was telling my wife good-bye before heading to the store, she commented, "Now promise me you're not getting me an anniversary present." I told her I hadn't gotten her anything but avoided saying I wouldn't. She mentioned she thought this 4 day tour to D.C. could be an anniversary gift for both of us. I told her I didn't really think that was really a gift. She said, "Fine. Get me a toilet plunger if you want." I replied, "Fine. Then you can get me something." When she asked what I wanted, I simply said, "I'd love it if you'd go dress shopping with me." That's when she told me she thought I had enough dresses as I have the guest bedroom closet pretty well filled. Actually, it's only half filled with my hanging clothes. I counted tonight and found I have 12 dresses, 8 nighties, a hanger with 9 or 10 suspender fishnets, 5 tops, 2 pair of jeans, and 2 skirts. I also have 2 wigs I keep in plastic bags (think Walmart bags) hanging from 1 hanger. How dare her suggest I have too many dresses.

Epilog: While I was out, I did stop by the jeweler's and purchased a necklace to give her. I know she will actually be upset; but, when I explain how special she is by not giving me grief about my CDing and that it's a daily present she gives me, I think she will get over this small transgression on my part.

[Helen_Highwater]

Firstly,

You're right to buy her a small gift and secondly she's wrong to say you have too many dresses. Eight is a modest number, that's one each day of the week and another for special occasions.

And then of course you could argue that if you did go shopping you could operate a one in one out policy just as a way of keeping your wardrobe current.

[BLUE ORCHID]

Hi Heather , Happy Anniversary , Is it possible to have too many dresses,

We are having our 60th Anniversary 3 Weeks, >Orchid**OO**

[Brooke B]

Happy belated anniversary first of all. As most have said, you can never have enough. After reading through the comments, I feel I may have a problem, lol. I was going through my wardrobe around Christmas and I stopped counting after 200! Don't ask about shoes, lol. But who doesn't like shopping?

[sometimes_miss]

Add me to the list; you can't have too many dresses. One of the ladies I worked with (bearing in mind, that I'm still not out), once explained that 'retail therapy' was one of the great joys of being a woman. Then went on to describe the many choices she had to deal with the night before, when she had gone out with her sister, dress shopping.
I never forgot that. Even though my dress shopping is limited to online, spending an entire day looking through all the available dresses in my size, brightens my mood, and makes me feel better, no matter what the issue of the day was, that was making me unhappy.
So whenever absolutely necessary, go shop for a new dress.
It will make you feel just as good, as a new tool does for any guy.
Sometimes, I will buy both. Covers both needs.

[Sabine7]

I have already reached the point when I have much too many dresses, skirts, high heel shoes, etc. However, I am addicted to buying new treasures all the time.
For example, I could not resist buying a pair of very sexy golden high heeled mules this week. Now, waiting excited for the shipment!
To avoid confusion and boring delays when selecting an outfit for a day in the morning, I used to choose anything I like and then to stay in this for the rest of the day.
Very soon, I feel very comfortable with the choice made.

[AmyJordan]

Hi Heather
My wife and myself had a similar agreement a few years back simply to take the pressure off having to buy something at a certain time instead we surprise each other whenever we see something nice for each other which is much more of a treat.

However we have found this far more expensive as we cannot resist treating each other especially my wife who brings me gifts constantly.

As for your dress collection it has barely begun I have huge wardrobes absolutely crammed with outfits and drawers so full of lingerie I wouldn't want to count them. My wife says you can never have enough.

Amy x

[kimdl93]

The necklace might momentarily, but it?s better than a plunger.

Twelve dresses does not sound all that excessive, although it?s far more than I have. I think long and hard about where and how often I will be able to wear an item. I mostly dress casually in the rural, north woods community where I live, so dresses just are a rare treat.

[suddenly_CD]

Firstly, happy anniversary!

This got me thinking. I don't think one can never have too much of anything that you enjoy. A little is good so more must be better right? Then I did a count.
99 Dresses
31 tops
70 skirts
151 pairs of boots, shoes and sandals (for some reason I keep a spreadsheet of my footwear but nothing else)
12 wigs
6 different sizes of forms
What seems like 100's of pairs of pantyhose / panties / stockings / bras etc.

I'm sort of obsessed

[Natalie5004]

I have 1/2 a closet for clothes and shoes. Plus a chest of drawers. I am at the point now when I bring in a new dress I have to love it to keep it and and pull out a dress that for some reason I do not love anymore.

I had a strapless heavy Spanish style dress with lots of petticoats and material. I sold it because, I do not have enough boobs to keep it up, and it took so much room in the closet. It was a fun dress though.

[ReallyLauren]

I have nowhere near enough dresses! My next thing is to get some lighter, more casual dresses to wear out when the warm weather comes. While I love leggings, jeans and shorts, wearing a dress in the warmer weather would be so much more comfortable.

[Cheryl T]

I would have brought the plunger home with a nice bow tied to it and given it to her as a present.
Then I would have had the necklace as a backup when she reacted to the plunger.

Well, on the dress front I don't think a dozen is too many. I believe that's my count as well. I won't go into the rest as I'm sure some have seen pictures of me in my closet. Maybe I'm a bit overcompensating on some items, but considering that for decades I owned but one outfit, varying due to a number of ineffective purges, I'll take the blame. It's just so nice to be able to walk in the closet, dress and walk out again. It's all I ever wanted.

[Jillcder]

Great idea buying her a gift. I have at least a dozen dresses in my stash and have donated Im guessing 30 to goodwill over the last 5 years. It is weird to think I have more dresses than my beautiful wife I often wonder what she would think of my dress style hopefully someday I will find out.

[Stephanie47]

My wife and I have been married fifty plus years. A long time ago we decided not to exchange gifts for any occasion. I was difficult to even stomach the cost of exchanging greeting cards until our local Dollar store started carrying Hallmark cards. That being said, we buy whatever we want or buy spontaneous gifts not related to an event on the calendar. As to having too many dresses, I had to stop even looking at on-line sales at department stores. I have a word document listing the 162 dresses and 58 nightgowns. The downside is being in a "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" marriage since the mid-1980's.

[OrdinaryAverageGuy]

We're working on downsizing into the smaller of our 2 homes, which also has smaller closets. She commented that I have too many clothes in general the other day. She's not wrong.

As to dresses, I have probably around 20 dresses, but to be fair I only ever wear less than half of those. Thinking about purging the ones I never wear, I'm just afraid I'll regret it as I've regretted losing other items I thought I didn't want any more.

[Fiona_44]

A lady can never have too many dresses!

[Bea_]

My wife has always been a clothes horse with a substantial wardrobe and I always loved clothes shopping for her well before I started dressing. So, she'd have to tread lightly about complaining of the number of anything I have. I have maybe two dozen dresses, almost all casual. Half of those are in sizes that my wife can and does share for around the house. I prefer leggings in cooler weather and I'll be starting to wear my dresses, skirts and dresses soon.

I went through my winter tops a few weeks ago with the thought of culling a few to get some more room. I think i got rid of 2 tops total. I live on the Texas Gulf Coast and winters here don't give a chance to wear a tenth of the winter tops and sweaters i own. So yeah, I have too many winter tops. I know it. But, they're all too nice to get rid of. I have just enough dresses to have a decent rotation in good weather with a couple of nicer items for times that feel special.

[alwayshave]

I passed 12 dresses years ago. You reminded me I need to find out what my wife wants for her Birthday.

[NancyTO]

I stopped counting how many dresses I have after buying my third external clothes rack.

[JulieC]

I too don't think 12 dresses is too many! There's so many different variations and styles and lengths and colors and accents and and and and... 12 seems like a small number!

Your story is very cute Heather

My wife and I are nearing retirement. If all goes according to plan, 5 years into retirement we're going to be selling the house we have now buying a ~1/3rd larger house... minus the kids. Among other things, this means I'll finally have room to properly closet all of my Julie things, rather than living out of bins. So rather than downsizing, we'll be upsizing

[steffigirl37]

I don?t think 12 dresses are too many. I have about 15. If I see a dress that I like, I buy it. If a dress gets too old I donate it.

What I don?t have is enough shoes.

[JulieC]

Can you ever have 'enough' shoes?

[Cheryl T]

I don't think so.
Wife and I are planning to redo the closet to make it more organized. She came to me and said "we each have 25 pair of shoes". Well, the good thing is that most of them are the same size, so really I think of it as I have nearly 50 pair. We do share shoes and tops so that's really a plus for both of us. Come to think of it we wear the same size dresses so ...

[Jessica G.]

You can never have to many dresses!
I bought 23 just in the month of January alone 20 of them CK.
Not my normal spending habits but I deserved it as a gift to myself for the bad times I went through in 2023.

[Jane G]

We have our 40th in a few days. Lost count of my dresses bought and borrowed, many years ago. The internet is a wonderful place in that respect, for those of us in the closet. My wife asked, at christmas, if I would like a new dress or climbing equipment. That's when you know your in the very best of relationships.