Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
There has been a lot of focus on the benefits of minimalist fashion recently – from decluttering in the style of Marie Kondo to being compelled to resist the tug of fast cheap fashion.
An increasing trend in the minimalist world is the capsule wardrobe, which we love at Good Choice Guide and post a lot on our Pinterest.
Capsule wardrobes provide a smaller variety of clothes to choose from and encourage thoughtful purchasing. This is in stark contrast to the fast fashion world whose mantra is “quantity not quality”. I know from my own experience – having a high quantity of clothes makes it more likely I’ll be left standing in front of an overflowing wardrobe, frustrated and still without any good outfits to wear!
I still don’t personally have a capsule wardrobe… yet. It is definitely a whole process to come out of the fast fashion world and into a minimalist space. But I can say I have got closer to a reduced wardrobe. And with all the pressure and guilt surrounding fashion choices, I have found a step by step approach to decluttering and minimizing your wardrobe is key.
So, here are 3 things I found helped me get that little bit closer to a capsule wardrobe. Hopefully these steps could be a bit helpful and realistic to accomplish in your own wardrobes.
Feel free to add your comments below with what helped you get closer (or fully achieve!) a capsule wardrobe.
3 ways of decluttering your wardrobe (rinse and repeat, as needed)
Turn your clothes hangers around the opposite way
While it’s not the fastest way to reduce your wardrobe, this simple trick is very effective in showing you what you wear often… and what you don’t wear much at all.
This method is to turn all your coat hangers around a particular way. Then, over the next few months, turn the hanger back around the ‘right’ way when (or maybe if) you take an item out to wear it.
At the end of the few months (or even after a year to go through all 4 seasons), take out the items which still have a backwards hanger – these are the items that you have not worn.
Now you can look at these and decide: do you really need to keep these items? Or do you think you can do without them?
Go through your clothes at the start of each season
This one is pretty self explanatory, but is a great discipline to have.
At the start of each season, go through each of your clothes items, try them on, and see if you think you can get rid of them. See if you can match up the items into outfits you want to wear, to make sure they go with the other parts of your wardrobe..
If anything does not fit, or you do not feel confident and good in, get rid of if.
Something else I like to do, is to pack away all the clothes that are out of season. I find this further increases my wardrobe space, and reduces all the items I have to sift through when deciding what to wear in the morning.
Get a friend or family member over to help you be ‘brutal’ in your choices of what stays and what goes.
I have personally found having someone who is objective to my wardrobe can be a great help when decluttering.
Choose someone who will be honest – but gentle – with you when trying on each item. I found I had several items in my wardrobe which I loved the look of on the hanger, but they just didn’t work for me when I put them on. Having someone who can look and honestly say “that looks fantastic on you” or “I think the last top was a nicer colour on you” is so helpful and eye opening.
It’s like having a personal stylist with you whilst shopping!
Share your own ideas below
I hope this article has been helpful for you when starting the journey of decluttering your wardrobe. Please leave comments below and tell us what helped you on this journey – we are all in this together so let’s help each other out with ideas!
