To keep or not to keep, that is the question. Many of us are guilty of saving clothes we used to fit into for the day we can manage to squeeze back into them. Usually these items of clothing are meant to serve as motivation to lose weight, or at least that’s the initial logic of keeping them. The problem with this is that we tend to feel bad that we can’t fit into the clothes that we once could.
Keeping ‘skinny clothes’ can often lead to feeling like you’re not enough and that you need to be a different version of you in order to be enough. There is nothing wrong with wanting to make healthy changes such as increasing exercise or eating more nutritious food, but your self worth shouldn’t be contingent on what size clothes you wear.
If you do not feel your self esteem is affected by keeping those few items then sure, keep them if you insist. However, if they serve more as a constant reminder of how you used to look and reinforces the idea that your size is unacceptable, then it’s time to ditch the skinny clothes. Keeping something that doesn’t serve you will simply make you feel worse. Instead of throwing the clothes in the bin,
you could donate them or even sell them on sites like Vinted or Depop. This way you’re cleansing your closet and doing your part for the planet!
Instead of holding onto weight loss clothes, keep clothes that fit and make you feel confident. If you still have a goal of dropping a couple of dress sizes, binning the clothes that no longer fit should stop you from working towards that. If anything, keeping those clothes delays progress as it encourages impatience and negative feelings about not being at your goal yet. If you do choose to lose weight, you can always scout for new clothes that again, make you feel confident in how you look.
Above all, it is important to remember that your size is not your value. Your body is capable of many incredible things, rather than speaking negatively about it, treat your body with compassion.