How to Craft a Capsule Wardrobe Part 1: Ruthless Wardrobe Edit
Adopting a capsule wardrobe lifestyle streamlines your morning, inspires you to be more creative with resources and curbs impulse shopping, which ultimately saves you money. Put that all together and you’ve significantly improved at least one corner of your life – your closet.
Capsule Wardrobe Goals
- Reduce your closet to a manageable number of garments that fit your lifestyle. My closet ranges from 35 - 40 items
- Wear only these items for three months (for practical reasons I rotate by season)
- Do not purchase any new fashion items during a season
- Use the last month of the season to plan and purchase the items you’ll need for the following season
- You can buy whatever you think you need for the next season but be sure to stay consistent with your number and remove/store an equal item for anything new that you purchase
Getting Started
Materials Needed
Ruthless Wardrobe Edit
- Assemble all the apparel you own in one place, preferably on your bed or near your primary closet
- Remove and discard existing hangers (unless you already own matching huggable hangers, in which case set them aside)
- Carefully inspect and try on every garment
- Move anything that does not fit, is stained or is in need of repair to rack
- Move anything of sentimental value that you don't regularly wear to secondary closet
- Pack anything out of season neatly in storage bin or hang in secondary closet
- Evaluate everything left using only your intuition: IF YOU LOVE IT YOU WILL KNOW INSTANTLY -- HANG IN CLOSET. If you have any hesitation AT ALL, move it to the rack
- Repeat this process until you fill your closet with 35- 40 seasonal items that you love. This may take several rounds. Assure you have selected an adequate mix of pants, skirts, tops, sweaters, jackets
- Donate, resell or give away the garments you moved to the rolling rack
- Trash anything that is stained, beyond repair or too worn to donate or sell
- Store the out of season garments out of sight
Footnotes
- My “closet” refers to the items on hangers that I wear mostly to work
- In addition to my “closet” I maintain 5 active drawers:
- Undergarments and hosiery
- Basic tank tops and t-shirts
- Jeans
- Yoga gear
- Sleepwear
- Shoes, jewelry and accessories do not count in my 35-40 items
If you are craving order (or lacking closet space) I highly recommend that you try this for exercise for yourself. It isn’t nearly as drastic a practice as it seems. You will quickly realize that you only wear about 30% of your current wardrobe as it is.
The space you once wasted worrying about and wrestling with clothes will fill itself in new and curious ways. I promise. (Where do you think this blog came from?)
I am sure you have questions. Ask! This is a fluid concept and you should tweak it based on your storage space, lifestyle, taste, etc. I can help you navigate, just ask!