diff --git a/STYLE.md b/STYLE.md
index 17295b4f..a6aa3599 100644
--- a/STYLE.md
+++ b/STYLE.md
@@ -27,7 +27,9 @@ Google style guide do not apply. Support for C99 features depends on
 our target platforms. Typically, Chromium's target MSVC is the most
 restrictive.
 
-Variable declarations in the middle of a function are allowed.
+Variable declarations in the middle of a function or inside a `for` loop are
+allowed and preferred where possible. Note that the common `goto err` cleanup
+pattern requires lifting some variable declarations.
 
 Comments should be `/* C-style */` for consistency.
 
diff --git a/crypto/mem.c b/crypto/mem.c
index 527edd93..4596472a 100644
--- a/crypto/mem.c
+++ b/crypto/mem.c
@@ -83,8 +83,6 @@ OPENSSL_MSVC_PRAGMA(warning(pop))
 
 
 void *OPENSSL_realloc_clean(void *ptr, size_t old_size, size_t new_size) {
-  void *ret = NULL;
-
   if (ptr == NULL) {
     return OPENSSL_malloc(new_size);
   }
@@ -99,7 +97,7 @@ void *OPENSSL_realloc_clean(void *ptr, size_t old_size, size_t new_size) {
     return NULL;
   }
 
-  ret = OPENSSL_malloc(new_size);
+  void *ret = OPENSSL_malloc(new_size);
   if (ret == NULL) {
     return NULL;
   }
@@ -143,10 +141,9 @@ uint32_t OPENSSL_hash32(const void *ptr, size_t len) {
   static const uint32_t kOffsetBasis = 2166136261u;
 
   const uint8_t *in = ptr;
-  size_t i;
   uint32_t h = kOffsetBasis;
 
-  for (i = 0; i < len; i++) {
+  for (size_t i = 0; i < len; i++) {
     h ^= in[i];
     h *= kPrime;
   }
@@ -155,9 +152,7 @@ uint32_t OPENSSL_hash32(const void *ptr, size_t len) {
 }
 
 size_t OPENSSL_strnlen(const char *s, size_t len) {
-  size_t i;
-
-  for (i = 0; i < len; i++) {
+  for (size_t i = 0; i < len; i++) {
     if (s[i] == 0) {
       return i;
     }
@@ -194,12 +189,8 @@ int OPENSSL_strncasecmp(const char *a, const char *b, size_t n) {
 
 int BIO_snprintf(char *buf, size_t n, const char *format, ...) {
   va_list args;
-  int ret;
-
   va_start(args, format);
-
-  ret = BIO_vsnprintf(buf, n, format, args);
-
+  int ret = BIO_vsnprintf(buf, n, format, args);
   va_end(args);
   return ret;
 }