Tea towels (dishcloths)
One kitchen drawerful, just to the right of the kitchen sink. This is the size drawer many people use for keeping silverware in their kitchens. (I keep my silverware in a drawer in the dining room.) In the towel drawer, there are terry towels and non-terry towels, and terry cloths. I use the cloths to wipe the sinks or clean the stove top or kitchen counters. When towels or cloths become threadbare, I cut them down to become rags.
Bath towels
The number of towels depends on the number of bathrooms, people and storage space. With every home I have lived in, the numbers have changed based on the aforementioned.
Master bathroom: Very large bath towels (essentially the size of a beach towel) are what we use. Two for me and two for Hubby. Two extra just because they are still in good condition and we have room for them. They are rarely used, but they come in handy now and again. Regular sized bath towels for my hair (it is no longer below-the-waist length, but some habits die hard), 2 of these that I regularly use. However I have 3 or 4 others because they are useful for laying on the bed to protect the bedspread when I use the bed to pack my luggage for a trip, or when other such activity that might damage or stain the bedspread. Hand towels: we have a few, perhaps 5 or 6. Face cloths (wash cloths): we have probably 6 in the master bathroom. Sink-drying-cloths (a waffle weave fabric): Several of these are stacked at the ready to use to dry the sink after each use. We surely don't need them all, but they are all in good condition and we have the space. As one wears out or becomes badly stained if used for cleaning, it will be rotated out to the rag bag. The same is true for the face cloths & towels (after cutting them down to size.)
Guest bathroom upstairs: Very large towels (beach towel size): 2 very nice ones and 2 older ones that are still in good shape but not as nice looking (for when we have more than 2 guests.) Regular sized bath towels: 4. Wash cloths (face cloths) 4. Hand towels: 6. Sink-wiping-cloths: several microfiber cloths. (I actually gave away 2 of the very large towels (beach towel size) last week. They were a very nice, thick terry, extra towels that we did not need. A friend who recently moved could not find towels she thought she had in a box somewhere. As it turned out they match her new bathroom very nicely.)
Small bathroom on the first floor: 4 hand towels, 4 face cloths. There is a shower in this room, but it is not generally used for showering. I tend to clean certain things in this shower, but don't need a bath towel when I do so. When we have guests, they would bring the towels from upstairs or wait for the upstairs bathroom.
I do keep a few older towels on hand to use when travelling or for using outdoors on the lawn furniture and whatnot.
Oh yes, I forgot to mention the two very large towel that covers the back seat of my car. They've been there since the car was brand new, protecting the upholstery from the dog that used to ride in my car occassionally. The color is such a perfect match that I have never felt the need to change them out, simply wash as needed and replace.
Clothes
Jeeze, am I ready to go there? So many clothes. Too many. I have downsized drastically from a few years ago. Still, I have too many. But periodically, I pull something out and donate it. Not as much as I used to do. Storage is not the issue, as we have sufficient storage space. But I simply do not wear all the clothes that I have. Neither does Hubby. But because they do not spill over into any other rooms, it doesn't seem as urgent as it did when we culled more than half our wardrobes.
Socks: way too many. I have a very large basket in which I keep most of my socks. But I also have half a dresser drawer with dress socks. I don't need all these socks, but still this is about half as many as I used to have a few years ago.
Shoes: I have cut the pairs of shoes, boots, etc. down by at least 75% since a few years ago. Still, I have quite a few. Hubby has also cut the numbers of shoes. I could probably cut it in half and still be just fine. I do not wear the same shoes two days in a row. I do wear all of my athletic shoes at least one each week. I do wear all of my dress (work) shoes at least once every week. I do wear my thongs (flip flops) every day (they are my slippers - I don't wear normal slippers around the house anymore.) I don't wear hardly any of my high heels anymore, but once in awhile I'll pull out a pair and wear them for some special occassion.
Coats: My love affair with coats began as a teen-ager. I always had far too many coats. I cut down coats a few years ago and I am so glad that I did. The sizes of our coat closets has never increased. Right now our coat closet barely has room in it for any guests to hang their coats, should they visit. Half of them are mine and half of them are Hubby's. I have two long coats. One is a rain coat (looks like a classy version of the cowboy longcoat) and one is a heavy dressy coat. I also have one knee-length coat that is fitting for shoveling snow or walking outdoors in the snow. Not dressy, but warm and protective. And I have a couple of light weight jackets that are suitable in mild weather. I don't feel tempted to buy coats the way I used to be, so I have been able to keep this down to a reasonable number.
Business clothes: I have about 6 pair of slacks suitable for business wear, and about 5 jackets (what used to be called sport coats type) to wear as needed and as they match the outfit. I have about 7 or 8 blouses that can be worn as business wear with the slacks when working. I do have some dresses, but I don't wear them as business clothes.
Casual clothes: Things for around the house, working in the garden, shopping, etc. are numerous. The seasons determine weight and style, so I have many of these. In the summer I may wear short slacks. In the cooler weather I may wear jeans. I have about 5 pair of jeans. I have about 6 pair of knee-length pants for summer wear. As for skirts and dresses, I have only two casual-wear skirts, which I rarely wear.
Special occasion clothes: I have a couple of floor length dresses and a couple of floor length skirts, suitable for special occasions. And tops to match. I have not worn these very much lately, although I will keep them for such occassions should they arise.
Lingerie: The extensive wardrobe of lingerie has diminished greatly with my age and changing activities. Like Script, I have found that sports bras are an essential item, and I own more of these than any other kind. I have one dresser drawer in which I keep my lingerie. I believe at one time I had 3 drawers full of lingerie.
Gone are the days when I wear silk pajamas. I discarded my last pair of silk pajamas about 2 years ago, I think. I don't miss them. I now wear cotton or flannel p.j.s. But that is not lingerie, now is it? The silk pajamas were lingerie, but the cotton p.j.s are not. At least that's how I see it. However, I do have one drawer just for night wear. I keep the numbers of p.j. bottoms to two flannels, two short cottons (summer), three long cotton bottoms. The tops are simple cotton tops such as cotton tank tops or jersy pullovers, in about 1 1/2 times as many as the bottoms.
Hard work cleaning or gardening clothes: I have a couple of pair of long bib overalls for gardening or other heavy work. Several pair of gardening gloves. Two pair of sweats (stained with poison oak juice from my California days) are delegated to gardening when it is cold out. I rarely wear these anymore. Shorts: I haven't worn shorts hardly at all this summer, so I am considering cutting down the numbers of shorts drastically.
Athletic/exercise clothes: 3 pair Yoga pants; several exercise tops that work well with the athletic bras. I have made some errors in judgement purchasing athletic bras a couple of times. I kept them, but couldn't deal with wearing them (discomfort, poor fit), but have discarded them & now no longer have them cluttering up my closet.
Stuffed toys.
I used to have tons of stuffed toys when I was a teen-ager. My sons made short order of them when I decided to share them with them in my 20's. Now I have one large rabbit that my mom gave me. My granddaughter named her 'Mrs. Cuddly Ears.' My granddaughter has a few stuffed toys that live here, upstairs in her room. I have not counted them, but I would guess there are about 6, including one very large tiger, 'Mr. Tiger Stripes'.
Books...
I have no idea of the actual count of books that we have in our home. We have 3 full book cases, and other books in other locations. We each have our own office, and we each have a book case full of books in each office. We have a small bookcase, full of paperbacks in the master bedroom. There is also a full built-in shelving area in the living room full of books. But I could not even estimate the numbers. We both have culled books periodically, but I still think we could furnish a small bookstore.
Sheet sets.
Again, this depends on the number of beds, the sizes of the beds, the numbers of people and the frequency of laundering needed based on circumstance. I have no infants in the house, but when I did, I had several infant sheets because it was the only way to have enough clean sheets between washings.
We have 3 different sizes of beds in this house. One is a queen. One is a double. And two are twins. We used to have two queens, but I got rid of one a few months back. Thus I was able to get rid of a couple of sets of queen-sized sheets when I did.
We have 2 sets of sheets for the master bed. But only one set of sheets for the double bed. I had planned to purchase a second set for the double, but never have been able to find a high quality, high thread count sheet set that I liked sufficiently to purchase the second set. We have two twin sheet sets.
Bed Pillows: We have more of these than the average person, I would venture to guess. But I can't really say that I know that for sure. We have two bed pillows per head per bed. In other words, 4 pillows on each bed that can sleep 2 people, and two for each twin bed. So I guess that makes it 12 bed pillows. Therefore, there are at least 2 dozen pillow cases.
This is by no means a complete or accurate account of everything we own in duplicate.
Example: 2 dining room tables with their respective matching chairs.
Progress: We used to have 3 bar-b-ques, but we kept only one when we moved here and got rid of the other two. That was surely progress. Plus it made no sense to move all that stuff 2000 miles across the country, now did it?