It’s that time of year, when coats start emerging from our closets and storage bins, one by one, as the day’s weather and plans determine, until our coat racks are toppling over or rendering doors functionless.

Between now and spring, there are infinite combinations of potential weather conditions and activities requiring different outerwear: a hike in the rain when it’s warm, a walk in the rain when it’s cold, yard work on a windy day, a formal event when there’s a chance of snow. And the coat you choose in the morning might make no sense that afternoon.

For an idea of how many coats a Mainer could put to use, the L.L.Bean website lists 165 items under women’s outerwear, after subtracting accessories. There are field jackets and barn coats, fleeces and puffers, pullovers, down parkas, bombers, anoraks, windbreakers, peacoats and then most of those in vest form.

I’m not a remotely fashionable person, and I still could easily find a function for all of them, in multiple colors. Most of us, though, only have so much money and space to devote to coats, forcing us to curate a collection that best aligns with our lifestyles. (On that note, Maine Needs donation center can always use more waterproof winter coats for people who are living outside, said founder Angela Stone.)

For me, it’s meant forgoing more formal outerwear, but every few years, there’s a wedding or funeral in the winter leading me to panic buy the cheapest, ill-fitting, wool-looking coat that feels passable, only for it to get shoved away somewhere I won’t remember when the scenario arises again. I own at least three of these, none of which I could easily locate.

If I’d hired Portland wardrobe consultant Chelsea Ray, I would not have found myself in this situation. A dress coat is on her list of the four essential coats a Mainer needs, along with a down parka, a denim jacket and a waterproof rain jacket. But she’s a big proponent of buying as many coats as you can.

“The weather changes on a dime, so I think it’s a great investment to have a lot of coats,” she said.

Ray guessed she has between 25 and 30 coats, most of which were still in bins in her crawl space as of mid-October. Transferred to a closet in her extra bedroom for the fall were a couple faux furs, a leather bomber, a motorcycle jacket, a lightweight puffer, a rain jacket and a denim jacket.

When we’re wearing coats so often, Ray said, it makes sense fashion-wise to mix it up.

“We change our clothes every day, but then we go out and see people in the exact same coat,” she said.

Brian Threlkeld’s motivations are different. Most of his 15-plus coats are suited to different types of outdoor recreation, including skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, biking and climbing. They range from a research vest to an expedition down jacket that he said makes him look like “a walking marshmallow.”

Then, he has to keep one free of stains and patches to wear in town.

Even compared to Alaska, where he used to live, Threlkeld thinks coastal Maine’s particularly fickle weather justifies the need for more jackets, though he acknowledged the privilege he has to own as many as he does.

The membership director of Maine Outdoor Brands and a former retail worker, he said he shops around to find good deals and keeps the pieces tidily arranged by weight, style and material, all facing the same direction on hangers in closets at his Portland home.

“I try to take good care of them because they take care of me,” he said.