weight lifting/cardio

Do both! You won't gain a significant amount of muscle mass on a calorie deficit, so in that regard, it should not affect weight loss. It may cause you to retain water in your muscles during the post-workout healing process, but that is temporary and can happen with cardio too. Lifting weights, along with consuming adequate amounts of protein, will help you maintain the muscle mass you already have while you lose body fat. This will help you look better as you lose weight than if you did cardio alone.

Lifting = more inches lost = smaller clothing

For a little while I was actually doing Stronglifts 5x5 (had to stop because I no longer have access to a barbell) and although my weightloss slowed for that time period, I saw more changes in the mirror/pictures/on tape measure. It was awesome. Plus each time I was able to increase the weight on the barbell(and actually complete the sets) would make me fee invincible.

Seeing the number on the scale go down is great and all, but personally I want to fit into smaller clothing. You also have to keep in mind that the number on the scale is influenced by all sorts of things and is actually not the best way to track progress.

Now, I'm not saying ditch the cardio. Cardio is good too, but for best results you should combine them both.

My guess is your reason to lose weight is to look better in the mirror, yes? If so, then lifting weights will absolutely help you acheive that goal by making you look better at a given weight.

However, a couple of key points:
-It is not necessary to alternate days between weights/cardio. If you have the time/energy, you can do both.
-You should not sacrifice cardio for weight lifting if weight loss is your goal.
-It is important that you do a routine that hits compound exercises (overhead press, bench press, row, squats, lat pull or pullups, and deadlifts) at least 2x a week. There are a lot of articles that advocate hitting muscles 1x a week -- those articles are geared toward steroid users who are trying to build as much size as humanly possible. That's not you.
-You can add additional arm/leg exercises to the above if you like (eg bicep curls, tricep extensions, dumbbell lunges, etc), but the above are the main lifts you need to perform to build strength which is what will build 'tone' as you lose weight.
-You can probably handle free weights (the bar is 45 lbs and if you can't lift that, there are dumbbells that go as low as 5 lbs each), but you need to have someone show you how to safely use them with proper form. Freeweights are generally far superior to the machines in terms of getting results both in terms of building strength and looking better.

If you do the above, it will help you achieve your goals. If you are doing a few sets of dumbbell curls and tricep extensions in lieu of cardio, you're mostly wasting your time.