diff --git a/config.def.h b/config.def.h
index 0a878c0..0eb2264 100644
--- a/config.def.h
+++ b/config.def.h
@@ -4,9 +4,6 @@
 /* buffer size for capturing output of the programs used for updating blocks */
 #define CMDOUTLENGTH                    50
 
-/* buffer size for status text */
-#define STATUSLENGTH                    256
-
 /* DELIMITERENDCHAR must be less than 32.
  * At max, DELIMITERENDCHAR - 1 number of clickable blocks are allowed.
  * Raw characters larger than DELIMITERENDCHAR and smaller than ' ' in ASCII
diff --git a/dwmblocks.c b/dwmblocks.c
index eb16f62..a38cdf6 100644
--- a/dwmblocks.c
+++ b/dwmblocks.c
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
 #define LOCKFILE                        "/tmp/dwmblocks.pid"
 
 #define DELIMITERLENGTH                 sizeof delimiter
+#define STATUSLENGTH                    ((sizeof blocks / sizeof blocks[0]) * (CMDOUTLENGTH + DELIMITERLENGTH))
 
 #include "config.h"
 
@@ -239,7 +240,7 @@ updateblock(Block *block, int sigval)
 void
 updatestatus()
 {
-        static char statustext[STATUSLENGTH + DELIMITERLENGTH];
+        static char statustext[STATUSLENGTH];
         char *s = statustext;
         Block *block;