Trying Out A Capsule Wardrobe

My wardrobe is full of clothes I don’t wear. Literally, I’d say it’s about 2/3 of items that I’m not currently wearing; either because it's outdated, a bad purchase or I’m unable to fit into it anymore.

It’s a waste of space and it makes my wardrobe look super cluttered. I don’t have a good view of things I do like to wear, and when I want to put back my clean laundry or get something out, it’s hard to find the right spot.

To make it even worse, I’ve also temporarily moved back to my parents. I’ve lived in England for about three months and brought back a suitcase with some new clothes that I also had to fit into my closet setup. A real struggle. So I decided it was time for a change.

I don’t just want to throw all the clothes I don’t wear out, only to buy new items again. That will just give me the same problem again in about a year. I want to change my buying habits and have a well-functioning wardrobe, where everything is logical, works well together and is easily combined in multiple ways. And hopefully, by doing this, by knowing exactly what’s in my closet and how to wear it, I’ll realize that I don’t need to buy new items every time I go into the city.

A Capsule Wardrobe

I’ve heard a lot about capsule wardrobes and realized that this may be the way to go for me. I did some research and took action, and decided to share my process here.

So basically, the concept of the capsule wardrobe is that you have a certain amount of items in your closet – this may be 30, this may be 50, it’s to your preference really – that match and combine perfectly with each other. You keep your closet seasonal, so you take out and store the clothes that don’t fit the season, and then change it around every 3-4 months and with that, review it. Sounds like a good project to me.

The Research

While doing my research I found some helpful guides which I used while starting this project. I used ‘TheAnna Edit’s capsule wardrobe worksheet and ‘Un-fancy’s capsule wardrobe seasonal planner to guide my way through creating my capsule wardrobe. From these guides, I took my own ideas and started the capsule wardrobe journey.

As this is my first try for a capsule wardrobe, I obviously have way more items in my closet than when I’d do a clear out for the 4th time. This is why I took out literally everything in my closet, and went through all of them, except just the clothes that I wear daily. I also decided not to include coats and shoes in the process of clearing out, as I don’t have that many anyway.

The Steps

So here are the steps I took to create my first capsule wardrobe.

1.     A CRITICAL LOOK AT MY CLOSET

Before I did anything, I took a look at my closet, what’s in there right now, what I want to change and what I want to keep, not just of the clothes but also of the setup. After doing that, I took out 8 items I love and wear daily, and 8 items I never wear.

2.     CLEARING OUT MY CLOSET

It’s time to get everything out. Literally, everything. Just dump it on your floor and on your bed, and start the dividing process. I decided to make 4 piles of clothes.

1. Keep (including the 8 items I love that I already took out)
2. Maybe - A pile of clothes that I wanted to try on again
3. Seasonal - Clothes that are strictly for the season it’s not
4. Go - Clothes to give away, sell or donate

My ‘Maybe’ pile was a lot larger than my keep pile, so I decided to try on all the ‘Maybe’ clothes once again and then decided if I wanted to keep it or not, and I was really very strict here. I put the clothes I tried on either in the ‘Keep’ pile or the ‘Go’ pile. I folded all the clothes of the ‘Seasonal’ and ‘Go’ pile and put them away to keep a good overview of what was still left. I put my seasonal clothes in a different closet so it won't take space up in my wardrobe anymore.

3.    RIGOROUSLY SELECTING

I still had a lot of clothes left in my ‘Keep’ pile so I decided to divide them again in categories. I categorized it into bottoms, tops, basics, colours, sweaters and tees. From here I counted out how many pieces I had, and then decided how much I really needed of it to filter some more out and put them with the ‘Go’ pile. I also looked at the colours of the clothes to filter out any colours that don’t really look good on me and, for example, to not have 4 white tees in my closet.

4.     PUTTING MY WARDROBE BACK TOGETHER

It’s time to put everything back. I recently watched ‘Tidying up with Marie Kondo’ on Netflix and tried her way of folding shirts and jeans, so I have a good overview in my drawers. Most of my tops I decided to put on hangers and my knitwear folded underneath. I have two closets but decided to have my daily wear just in one of the closets so I don’t have to go between two closets.

I did also go through my pyjamas, sportswear, comfy wear and sentimental items. I also put away my summer pyjamas with my seasonal wear. I critically looked at my sportswear, I only kept 2 comfy outfits for when I really need it and made a separate space in my closet for sentimental pieces. I put my pyjamas, formal wear and coats/blazers/jackets in the other closet.

5.     EVALUATING AND WRITING DOWN

As I’m a lover of notebooks, I saw a good option to use one here. I got my planner and decided to create a separate tracker/planner in it for my capsule wardrobe. In here, I will take the notes from the guides I used, add other things I thought was important and make a list of things I still want to buy. This way I will keep a good overview of what I thought when starting this process, and how this compares to what I will think four months later when I’ll change my winter wardrobe for the spring/summer. This way I can keep up with the changes and if I still love the same items, same colours and if I still have the same lifestyle.

And that’s it. That’s how I started my capsule wardrobe journey. I’m curious to see if I’ll actually keep up with it, if I can resist buying new items and if I will actually change my closet again for the spring.

Maybe I’ll update my process as I go!