We’ve talked about spending fasts on the blog before, but I want to talk today about another method of spending less – having less! Specifically clothes. Today’s post is all about my experiment with using a capsule wardrobe.
I have done a few purges since reading Marie Kondo’s the Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up (this is a great book by the way – see my review HERE), but I still found myself staring at my closet in the morning confused about what to wear. Then, I would pick something only to not feel great in it. And then I would end up buying things that I thought would make my closet options happier. Except it didn’t work.
Recently, a co-worker of mine started a capsule wardrobe, and her experiment intrigued me. Decision fatigue was my main enemy, and it was at its worst in the morning before I had my coffee. Since Spring just started, why not? Hopefully this would not only solve my decision fatigue early in the morning, but it would help me not be tempted to shop since I would regain access to ‘new’ old clothes each season, keeping it fresh.
The idea is simple: reduce your closet to a minimalist version of only what you’ll need for that season.
The number of clothes is really up to you. I’ve seen people suggest only 6 tops for the whole 3 month season, but that was just too scary for me at first. I narrowed myself down to 12-15 tops (some are tanks and under shirts) and narrowed my pants down to 3 work pants and 2 jeans, one pair of shorts since you never know here in SoCal, and one skirt. I have 4 dresses and 4 pairs of shoes. Conveniently my socks were also narrowed to fit said shoes. I also added 4 work blazers and 4 cardigan/sweaters to layer. And one fake leather casual jacket.
I know this is too much for a ‘true’ capsule,’ but this is what I was comfortable with to start. Choosing clothes could have been difficult, but I limited myself to doing it on a Sunday evening so that I wouldn’t be able to waffle or plan too much. I added my two favorite shirts and basically tried to keep most of my options to neutrals and black or gray. I love color so for my skirt, a few dresses, and cardigans I chose very colorful fun accent pieces (yellow and pink for spring!) I also tried to add some texture or polka dot patterns into my choices as well.
Next season, I will most likely have a smaller capsule, but since this one is more of an experiment, I’m starting a little larger. I’ve hung all of my capsule up in my closet together with nothing else to distract me. Actually having all of my clothes in one place is an added bonus.
In addition to my reduced choices, I’m also utilizing the coat hanger trick: I’ve turned all of my clothes hangers backwards. As I use each item and hang it back up, I turn the hangar around. This way, I will be able to see after some time if there are any pieces in my capsule I haven’t used, giving me an even better idea of where to begin the next capsule.
So far so good! It’s only day two, but I got dressed way way faster than ever before.
-WCD
Have any of you tried a capsule wardrobe? Let us know about your experience!