The decision to fine-tune my closet and stop over-buying clothes comes in the midst of a two year project to really clean out my entire house and keep only the items we really need and want. My goal is to be as minimal as possible without feeling like we are deprived or lacking in any way. Swedish Death Cleaning, I think? When it comes to cleaning out my clothes, it’s been a bit more challenging. I love clothes, I have since I was a pre-teen. My thought had always been, more is more. If I saw something I liked and it fit, I bought it. After a while I started noticing a recurring trend of accumulating a bunch of clothes and then getting rid of them after only wearing them a couple times or, um, not at all. Also, despite having a closet full of clothes, I was not able to easily put together outfits that I loved. In fact, it was opposite. Often times, I felt overwhelmed and put together outfits that I felt were just okay when I knew I had better options. So, I decided to do something about it and I knew it had to be done in a way that was sustainable for me. I pulled ideas from a variety of sources including Marie Kondo, Emily Ley, a free capsule wardrobe guide I downloaded a couple years ago, slow fashion expert and advocate Sarah Fagan of Wander and Rove as well as my observations and experiences from working in clothing retail. No, I’m not a professional organizational expert but these steps are what has worked for me so far and I feel will continue to work for me.

Relentless Clean Out: This has been the hardest part for me. I spent days going in and out of my closet deciding what stays and what goes and sometimes it was things I bought only a few weeks or months ago. A relentless clean out means only keeping the things you really love and wear on a regular basis. One suggestion I received was to pull everything from my closet and drawers and lay each item out in one of three categories: Love and Wear Regularly, On The Fence, No Way. While I haven’t pulled every piece of clothing out, I have been using this three-category method to sort through my clothes at a pace that I find comfortable. I also plan on applying this method to accessories, jewelry and make-up.

Clothes that fell under the “love” category were pretty easy for me to pick out. They are clothes I wear regularly. They’re comfortable, fit well, and flattering. I will admit that this has ended up being very few items, which means that I still had a lot of clothes that needed some serious contemplation and many of them were going to end up being sold or donated. These were the “no brainers” in my wardrobe.
Clothing in the “on the fence” category was a bit more challenging. Clothing that made it into this category were items that I just could not make an immediate decision and required me to evaluate them in some way and then decide if they were worthy of taking up space in my wardrobe. If the issue was just fit and it could be easily altered, then it stayed. If it was a matter of styling and I was easily able to find something to go with it, then it stayed. If it was uncomfortable, unflattering color, did not fit my personal style or cheap construction and fabric, I let it go.
Clothes that made it into the “no way” pile were really a mix of clothes that were just complete impulse purchases, not at all my style, out of style or were worn out or damaged in some way (stained, frayed, torn). The most frustrating part about this pile was that many of those impulse purchases were items that were so similar to something I already owned that it seemed ridiculous to keep both. I also noticed that a handful of items were relatively new and were already pilling, fading or showing other signs of long-term wear. This made start to re-think my standards when it came to new clothing purchases.

Applying the three category process to my sweatshirts.

Choose Quality Over Quantity: This mission all started with a growing frustration over the lack of quality in many of the mainstream clothing brands I have bought over the last few years. It also started with a fabulous pair of boots. I bought a nice well-made pair of boots last fall and absolutely fell in love with them. I wear them multiple times a week. I wear them out at night, to work, running errands. You name it. Every time I wear them, they get better and better. I can see myself wearing these and continuing to love them for many years. I realized that this needed to be my benchmark when cleaning out my current wardrobe as well as purchasing new items. I also realized that there were only a handful of items that I have purchased over the last ten years that fell into this category. That’s right, a handful. The truth was that my closet and drawers were full of things that just felt…“meh.” Which meant they were full of things that I didn’t love or the quality was just okay and they were not going to stand the test of time. I realized I was okay with having fewer things I really loved and that would last, rather than having a wardrobe busting at the seams with mediocre items. Affordability was certainly something I had to consider when making this decision. Quality can cost more, but it doesn’t necessarily have to in every case. I’m okay with investing a little more in certain items from time to time, but I also love to hunt for a bargain. This is where clothing resale and consignment platforms like Poshmark, The Real Real and Thred-Up are incredibly valuable. They make it very easy to find what you are looking for by using customized filters and you pay a fraction of retail prices. They are also great for selling unwanted items.

Avoid Being Lured By Trends & Cheap “Fast Fashion”: The fashion industry is perpetually focused on “the next shiny new thing” and there are plenty of manufacturers and retailers willing to play that game and offer a wide variety and high volume of those items at enticing and affordable prices. The problem, for me, was that the gratification from buying those items was fleeting. I’d wear them a few times and then realize the quality was terrible and/or they were so trendy that I could only wear them for a short period of time. Buy, wear and toss, again and again. It was a cycle that no longer felt comfortable. Fast fashion also has a huge impact on our environment between sourcing of raw materials, irresponsible manufacturing practices and textile waste. It became more important to me to seek out companies that were dedicated to more responsible manufacturing practices and focused on quality and timelessness of items over quantity.

It’s estimated that 92 million tons of textile waste is created globally each year. Yikes!

Find a Good Seamstress or Tailor: Sometimes the only thing standing in the way of actually wearing and loving an existing piece of clothing is a little nip and tuck. It took me a while, but I found a seamstress who is well-skilled and can provide good advice on whether or not an item can be tailored to my needs. Before I decide to donate, sell or return, I get her advice and then make my decision to from there. There are many times a little tweak took a piece of clothing from “on the fence” to “love.”

Reselling on Poshmark has been a great way to make money on items I let go.

Get To Know Yourself and Your Style: Getting to know myself and developing my own individual style was another way I started creating a more enjoyable and functional wardrobe. For me, this meant taking note of the items I already had and loved as well as observing the types of items I was drawn to when I went shopping. I also took note of what colors looked best with my skin tone and the silhouettes that looked best on my body type. This was much more important than I ever thought. Even though I love certain colors and styles does not mean they are meant for me. So, I took off my rose-colored glasses and got really honest with myself about what I could and could not pull off even if I really loved it. I knew that even if I initially loved it and kept it, eventually the illusion would dissipate and I would see that it really just did not work for me. Another one of my shopping pitfalls was getting “lured” into buying items based on how they looked on someone else (i.e. that model who makes everything look good) rather than how they looked on me or completely ignoring my individual style because I admired someone else’s. Again, just because they made it look good and felt comfortable, did not mean that I would too. I also want to mention that sticking with your individual style does not mean you can’t push yourself out of your comfort zone. Sometimes we don’t know what we like until we try it so it’s good to keep an open mind but forcing or fooling yourself into liking it and then later regretting that decision, is a completely different story.

Playing around with outfits is a great way to figure out if certain clothing items are going to work in your wardrobe.

Do Try-ons and Outfit Building Sessions: The only real way for me to know if an item is going to work in my wardrobe is to do a try-on and outfit building session. It is important for me to know that I have other items in my wardrobe that will make it work. It’s also important to know that it will fit my lifestyle. I may be able to build a great outfit but if it doesn’t work in my lifestyle then it’s not worth keeping because it’s just not going to get worn. I’ve also purchased items thinking that they will be so easy and versatile in my wardrobe, only to try it on and find out that it was a complete dud. The other advantage of doing these sessions is so that I have outfits ready to go for all types of occasions, even casual everyday outfits. No more standing in my closet wondering if this and that will look good together. This worked well for going through items in my “on the fence” cleaning out phase, especially with items that had me really stumped.

While this has been a really great cleaning out and organizational project, it’s also been a very interesting journey of self discovery. It really pushed me to look at my purchasing habits and understand how and why I ended up with such an unnecessary surplus of clothing. It also pushed me to find sustainable strategies to help me avoid falling into the same vicious cycle over and over again. Breaking old habits takes time and so does sifting through years of clothing purchases so this project is far from done, but I do feel I have the right mindset and strategies to finally get the fun and functional wardrobe that I love.