Wardrobe science

Here's a little graph which I hope illustrates how the number of clothes in use (or at least keep hanging in the active wardrobe) affects one's emotional state. Quite scientific looking little chart, don't you think? I'll neatify it later.

This particular graph is about dresses, which for me form the base of my wardrobe. Purple graph shows positive consequences. From zero to one dress, the graph jumps to +2. It's that much better to have a dress than not to have any dresses at all. Getting another dress adds half of the original rise, so it goes up to +3. Getting a third dress has again half of the impact, so graph rises to 3,5. Next dress adds again half of the previous points, only 0,25 this time, so graph goes up to 3,75. (edit: the rate of increase is logarithmic). The positive graph does keep inching upwards, though slower and slower as more dresses are added, but that's not the whole story, because there's also the...

black graph, which shows the negative emotional costs and inconvenience caused by the dresses. One dress causes only 0,25 worth of trouble (basically, the tiny loss of time when hanging it in it's place in the evening). Negative consequences double with each dress. So 2nd dress causes 0,5 points worth of negative emotions and lost time, 3rd 1 point, and so on. (edit: the rate of increase is geometric). As there are more dresses, it's more difficult to choose which one to wear, they take up more space and are annoyingly on the way, and other actual and emotional trouble. What does all this mean? It's explained by the

green graph: the total emotional impact of the number of dresses. It's simply calculated by checking the middle point between purple and green graph. At owning one dress, total is 2-0,25 = 1,75. Two dresses, it rises to 2,5. By third dress it stays the same, 2,5. And then something weird happens... the graph starts to turn down. By 4th dress the graph comes to the same level as owning just one dress. By 5th dress time loss, annoyance, wardrobe confusion etc. cancel out the positive aspects alltogether. And if you keep adding more dresses, the total emotional impact drops below zero.
So ideal number of dresses in active wardrobe would be two or three, that's where the total graph is the highest.

Of course, I've pulled the actual numbers from, well, let's say thin air. As far as I know, there's no standard for measuring emotional impact. And why it should be that getting a new dress generates positive points on a logarithmic scale, compared to previous time, while negative consequences double each time, I have no idea. But that's how I've noticed things are.

This graph can be modified to use with any item, in wardrobe or not. The most important thing is to figure out how much positive and negative points the first item gives. If I got one baseball cap, it would give me perhaps only 0,1 in positive, since I don't wear baseball caps and it would just get some mild interest from me. Then it would drop below zero already at first cap, since I'd say one baseball cap generates as much negative impact as one dress (so the calculation would be 0,1-0,25 = -1,5).

Lyhyesti suomeksi: kaavio, joka ilmentää tietyn mekkomäärän omistamisen aiheuttaman tunnevaikutuksen. Violetti käppyrä ilmentää positiiviset vaikutukset (ilo kauniista esineestä, tunne siitä, että on sievä, vaihtelunhalun tyydyttäminen jne). Musta käppyrä ilmentää negatiiviset vaikutukset (huoltoon kuluva aika, vaiva, stressi, valinnanvaikeus jne). Vihreä käppyrä ilmentää lopullisen vaikutuksen, se saadaan laskemalla violetin ja mustan käppyrän keskikohta.

Violetti käppyrä nousee aina puolet edellisestä pistemäärästä (siis kun eka mekko aiheuttaa hyvää mieltä kahden pisteen edestä, toinen mekko lisää siihen puolet alkuperäisestä pistemäärästä eli siis tulos on kolme) Edit: siis käyrä kasvaa logaritmiseti. Musta käppyrä tuplaa pistemäärän jokaisen uuden mekon kohdalla. Miksi on niin, että positiiviset vaikutukset vähenevät mekkomäärän kasvaessa, mutta negatiiviset lisääntyvät geometrisesti, en osaa sanoa. Näin olen kuitenkin havainnut olevan. Paras tulos on kohdissa kaksi tai kolme mekkoa, sen jälkeen vihreä käppyrä alkaa laskea, ja kuuden mekon kohdalla se menee jo perustason alle.
Joskus vielä väsään tietokoneohjelman, jolla voi laskea koko vaatekaapin emotionaalisen vaikutuksen ja kunkin vaattyypin optimaalisen määrän :D!