In my last post, I shared how I used my recent travel wardrobe as a foundation to create a hypothetical summer Project 333 capsule. I always find it helpful to create Project 333 and other such capsules, even if I’m not going to actually limit myself to only wearing those items. We learn a lot about how well our wardrobe is or isn’t working for us when we try to limit ourselves to fewer pieces, either out of necessity (for travel) or as an experiment (like Project 333).
In today’s essay, I recap the insights I gained through dressing with less on my trip and putting together my hypothetical Project 333 summer wardrobe. If you want to see the actual pieces in the capsule, you can revisit my last post, which includes lots of photos of the clothes, shoes, and accessories that make up my core warm weather collection.
However, the items themselves aren’t really what’s important to today’s discussion. Today’s essay is more about the way I feel about my wardrobe, shopping, and style at large, and how I hope those feelings will impact my future decisions.
On Capsules, “Multiples,” and Perfectionism
One issue that I noticed while compiling my capsule wardrobe is that I have multiple items in my closet that serve a similar purpose. I’ve realized this before, but I’m even more aware of it now. Two examples of the “multiples” issue are black pants and black cardigans. Because I wear these two categories of items regularly, it makes sense to own more than one of each. However, I really don’t need as many as I currently own. When it comes to deciding which pair of black pants or which black cardigan to pack for a trip or include in a capsule, I often struggle to decide because many of my pieces are good but not necessarily great.
My wanting to find a particular type of item that’s as close to perfect as possible often leads me to keep buying things, which is why I can end up with far too many items in a wardrobe category. Not only does this result in my “splitting wears,” it also leads to a larger-sized wardrobe and difficulty when it comes to getting dressed. When there are just too many items to choose from, it can result in “the paradox of choice” and analysis paralysis.
Although I packed two pairs of black pants for my late summer trip, it was much easier to decide between just those two options during my week away than it is to wrestle with choosing among the much larger number of such garments when I’m at home. If one needs to make these types of difficult selections with pants, tops, cardigans, shoes, and jewelry when putting together an outfit, it’s easy to see how they (i.e., ME) could become exhausted in the early hours of the day! And it’s also easy to see why some women with large wardrobes continually reach for the same small number of pieces over and over again. It’s just too tiring to compile outfits from a large number of choices, and we often don’t have the time to do so anyway.
The Beauty of a Small Wardrobe – and Why I Don’t Have One
I loved having a small travel capsule to dress from during my trip. While I was away, I didn’t feel guilt about the clothes I wasn’t wearing (since they were at home), and I was happy with all the outfits I wore. I know this is the beauty of a small wardrobe, but I haven’t been able to get there due to several factors. I may expand upon some of these issues in future posts, but I’ll describe them briefly below.
Lack of Self-Trust
I’m fortunate in that I have a fairly high shopping budget. Of course, what’s considered a “high” or “low” budget is all relative based upon many financial and lifestyle factors, but I’m lucky in that I have a decent amount of money to spend. I could definitely afford to purchase fewer, higher quality pieces, but that’s not what I usually do…
Because I’ve made so many shopping mistakes over the years, I usually don’t trust myself to spend a lot of money on a single piece. I feel more confident spending higher amounts on handbags, shoes, and jewelry, as I’ve made fewer errors with such purchases. But when it comes to clothes, I mostly don’t trust myself to choose wisely and buy items that will end up with a low cost-per-wear. There are also issues of quality to consider, as something can seem like a “win” early on, but may not hold up well to repeated wearings and washings, even if it was expensive to buy.
Lack of Self-Discipline
I also tend to lack self-discipline when I shop. It’s rare for me to return from a shopping trip empty-handed, as I like to have something to show for my efforts. Like many other shoppers, I can also be a sucker for a sale or a “good deal.” Worrying that a sale-priced item will be gone if we don’t snap it up immediately can have us pulling out our credit cards in a hasty manner. Shopping with friends can also be problematic, as they may push us to purchase something they love, but that doesn’t mean we love it (at least on us) or will wear it.
When I use “the power pause” (waiting at least two hours and preferably up to two days before buying something), I fare better overall, as that gives me time to consider whether or not an item will actually serve my true wardrobe needs. I try to employ this practice most of the time, but shopping with friends and navigating big sales can sometimes weaken my resolve.
Settling for “Just Okay”
I’ve written often about how difficult I am to fit in certain types of clothing, especially pants. It can be exhausting to try on many pieces in a store or buy and return copious items online, only to keep being disappointed by substandard fit. Thinking “maybe this is as good as it gets” has led me to buy quite a few garments that are only a “C” – or at best a “B” – in terms of fit.
But “just okay” items aren’t the ones that we usually reach for when we get dressed. Additionally, if we buy a garment that is “close but no cigar,” we often keep shopping for something better. The wardrobe “need” may have been fulfilled in our closet, but not necessarily in our minds and hearts. This is a big part of why I have so many pairs of black pants and medium-wash jeans in my closet. I keep trying to find something better and then end up feeling overwhelmed by too many selections in a given wardrobe category.
Trying to “Rescue” Garments Through Alterations
This issue is often a follow-on to the “settling” challenge that I highlighted above. Although I may have “just okay” items in my closet that I don’t really want to wear, I also don’t want to let go of things that I spent “good money” buying. My guilt over settling for poor purchases often pushes me to try to “rescue” those garments by means of alterations.
I’m a big advocate of alterations in general, but with some caveats and reservations. Sometimes a simple alteration can take a garment from good to great, but it can be problematic to use tailoring as a means of trying to allay one’s guilt over a bad purchase. I’ve learned the hard way that an alteration won’t make me love and wear something that I know I shouldn’t have bought in the first place.
I’m doing a lot better with only buying pieces that either don’t need to be tailored or only require basic alterations (i.e., a hem or having a side seam taken in). However, I’m still struggling with whether to tailor existing items versus letting them go. While some such alterations have been successful, there have also been instances of “throwing good money after bad.”
Not Letting Go of Items Out of Guilt
This is a big one for so many of us! When I used to have a wardrobe consulting business, I encountered many women who were hesitant to let go of clothes they didn’t wear because they felt guilty for having bought them. So often, we hold on to bad purchases for years, even if we rarely or never wear them, until enough time has passed when we can finally allow ourselves to let them go. But if we were truly honest with ourselves, we would have realized much earlier that something just wasn’t going to work for us and saved ourselves both the guilt and the closet space.
Sometimes I push myself to wear things and try to make them work, but I often end up feeling unhappy and uncomfortable in the resulting outfits. Selling expensive mistake purchases on Poshmark or eBay (which I’ve written about HERE) has helped to alleviate some of my guilt, but it’s a very time-consuming process that may or may not result in recouping a significant portion of our losses. It’s a personal judgment call, but it can be better to simply donate our mistake items and have the guilt exit our homes along with our castoffs.
Believing a Larger Wardrobe Leads to Better Style
When we feel like we have “nothing to wear” or if we’re unhappy with the ensembles we’re putting together, we frequently feel that the answer is to go shopping and buy more clothes. While we all need new items from time to time, accumulating a larger wardrobe rarely leads to better style. In fact, I felt that I had much better style on my trip than I did in the few months leading up to it. I’ve also been wearing my travel outfits on repeat since I returned home, as they’re now tried-and-true ensembles.
I didn’t need more clothes; I just needed to determine the pieces I liked best and how to compile them into outfits that I’d be happy wearing. This took some effort, and it wasn’t easy for me to put together my travel wardrobe. But once I did so, I felt comfortable, confident, and true to my personal style aesthetic in what I was wearing. Once I returned home, I wasn’t ready to feel overwhelmed by my large wardrobe once again, so I’ve mostly been avoiding the pieces that weren’t part of my travel wardrobe or my hypothetical Project 333 that I wrote about in my last post. While I feel guilty about this and plan to consider the other pieces more fully, I’ve been enjoying the simplicity of mostly wearing outfits that I know work well for me.
What’s Next?
There may be more issues in terms of why I’ve struggled to cultivate a smaller wardrobe, but those are the biggies! I could probably write an essay or even a series of essays on each topic, but identifying the problems is a good start. For years, I’ve said that I wanted a smaller wardrobe, but I don’t think I truly did until more recently. Or maybe I just didn’t trust myself to ever be able to get there. I feel like the desire is higher now, and the self-trust is getting there. Of course, I still have a large wardrobe (although not nearly as large as when I started Recovering Shopaholic all those years ago), so that’s a big hurdle that I’ll have to overcome.
Perhaps I need to actually do Project 333 or a similar challenge (I’m pondering the options…) to help me better reach the long-term goal of owning far fewer clothes. However, the capsule outlined in my last post is for a season that will soon draw to a close. I’ll either create another hypothetical Project 333 capsule soon for the cooler months, or I’ll just start getting dressed when true fall weather arrives and write down the pieces as I wear them. The latter method is surprisingly effective (check out this post and this one to learn more), especially if you’re looking more for the lessons than to honor every single “rule” of the challenge.
If my seasonal wardrobes for the two seasons we have where I live (summer and “not summer”) each end up including 40, 50, or even 60 pieces, I would be happy with that. I just don’t want to be bogged down with a much larger wardrobe anymore, so I’m setting the intention right now to cultivate the feelings of freedom and ease with getting dressed that I felt on my trip.
This is my year of clarity, and while I’ve mostly been disappointed so far with how that theme has evolved throughout 2023, I’m happy to have become crystal-clear about this one important thing! Hopefully there will be more clarity to come during the last couple of months of 2023 (fingers crossed…).
Your Thoughts?
As usual, I welcome your thoughts on this post. Here are some questions that you can answer if desired, but feel free to weigh in however you’d like:
- What size wardrobe are you most comfortable maintaining?
- What factors influence the size of wardrobe that works best for you?
- How happy are you with your outfits when you travel versus when you’re at home?’
- For those of you who have significantly downsized your wardrobes, what has helped you successfully do so?
- Do you hold on to clothing and other wardrobe items out of guilt?
- How do you manage the guilt you feel over mistake purchases?
Thank you for reading! I’ll be back soon with some new posts, including lessons from my recent outfit journals and what I decide regarding my next wardrobe challenge.
My Wardrobe, Myself 
Your post really has me thinking, Debbie. I’m always happy with my travel clothes, and it is a relief to just have less stuff to deal with. But the times I have been on trips for 2 or more weeks, I find I’m tired of the things I’ve brought and don’t want to wear them for awhile.
After all the thought and planning I have put into it, I’m still not sure what the perfect size wardrobe is for me. I like the idea of it being smaller than it is now, but every time I’ve tried to deliberately scale it down, it creeps back up –
partly because I find gaps. Lately I’ve been realizing that it’s not so much that I need more or less items but that I need a different distribution of seasonal or work/casual outfits. I’m not sure exactly how much I have right now, either – probably somewhere between 130 and 150 items counting outdoor coats but not counting gym clothes, things that don’t currently fit, and some things I will probably never wear again but am hanging onto for sentimental reasons. I’m trying to keep those last two categories to a small number! That all sounds like too much to me, but I do seem to wear it all.
Honestly, sometimes I miss my high school uniform lol. Of course I had some dressy and casual things too for outside of school but there were a lot fewer decisions to make.
Hmm, Murphy… It’s been years since I’ve been on a trip that was longer than 10 days, so I very well might get tired of the things I packed if my trips were longer. Also, when I’m at home, there are a lot of days (maybe half?) on which I don’t wear out-and-about clothing, whereas on trips I wear such clothes usually daily. So that makes a difference, too. I’ve worn my travel clothes a lot since I arrived home, but I’ve also been wearing my at-home wardrobe much of the time. I’d like to have fewer of those types of clothes, too, though.
I’m not sure what the perfect size wardrobe for me is, either. I just know that it’s smaller than what I currently own. I have a lot of trouble with “wardrobe creep,” too, which is why I feel that it’s important not to get rid of things too hastily, especially if I think I might want to wear them again at some point. Good point about the distribution of the items in our wardrobes. That has often been a big problem for me, in that I had many pieces for activities that didn’t happen very often. I didn’t have a high school uniform, but I can definitely see the beauty in something like that! My mom was a nurse for many years and she liked the ease of just putting on a uniform for work every day.
Love your blog, Debbie! I’ve had some AHA! moments from what you write. And here’s another well thought out and honest post. I’ve been paring down my closet. Not perfect, but getting better. I still have some clothes that probably shouldn’t be in there, but keeping them until I can find better alternatives. Not rushing. Taking my time.
🙂 Chris
I also found some inspiration from Minimal Mom.
Hope you don’t mind me posting a YouTube link –
There’s also another video that Minimal did jointly with Courtney Carver, founder of Project 333, google for it, if you’re interested in that. It’s very entertaining!
Thanks for sharing the Minimal Mom video, Chris. I’ve watched a number of her videos (including the Courtney one, which was great), but not this one. She made a lot of great points, and I enjoyed watching.
Good for your for taking your time in paring down your closet. I’ve found that approach works better for me, too. For some people, the all at once approach works best, but even when I’ve done that, I’ve still kept the castoffs in my holding zone for a little while. I don’t typically go back and “rescue” something, but it definitely happens and can be more common when I did my closet audit in a certain type of mood.
Oh, that Minimal Mom video made me feel uncomfortable. Donating an item because it’s too dressy to wear regularly seems such a mistake to me.
These days, I maintain a small dressy capsule so that whenever an occasion turns up, I have something suitable to wear at any time of year, without stress and panic. Most recently, it was an unexpected funeral but even for me, there are parties and weddings. And I manufacture events so that I can air my fancier clothes from time to time (date nights, at-home birthdays, family Christmas dinners). I am not going to let go a quality item that fits just to save some closet space.
I work full time so I’m usually dressed in business casual, smart casual or lounge wear. But there’s no way I’m letting go of the dressy items that might suit a midsummer wedding or midwinter cocktail party, even if those occasions are few and far between. If I needed such items once, I might need them again.
Past experience suggests that finding suitable dressy items last minute can be excessively difficult and expensive. The same goes for all clothes and accessories really, including everything from swimsuits and snowboots, to winter coats and summer jackets. I will pass on an item if I have a better one at home and remove items from my wardrobe if I’ve found superior replacements, but I will never let go an item just because I haven’t worn it in a while and don’t know when I will again. Being prepared for any eventuality is crucial for my peace of mind (and budget).
I agree with your, Sue, but it’s good to have a small dressy capsule even if we very rarely have dressy occasions in our lives. I’ve had times when I needed an outfit for such occasions and I really struggled to find something on short notice. I could use a few dressy items now, in fact. I can pull something together for most types of occasions, but a dressy event in the cooler season could be more challenging for me.
You’re right that some people can be too hasty to let things go in the name of minimalism or reaching a certain number. I don’t think there is an absolute best number of items to own, even for each of us as individuals. I think that having some “wiggle room” works best. I do think it’s good to periodically try on the pieces we haven’t worn in a while, though. Sometimes I’ve thought that a particular garment was “perfectly good,” but when I put it on, I realized that I wasn’t going to wear it for whatever reason. But if we still like the way something looks and feels and might need or want to wear it again at some point, I see no reason why we must get rid of it. Now, if we have LOTS of such items, that might be a different story, but a small dressy capsule is a good thing to have.
This is a great analysis; I think you’ve identified things that many of us can relate to!
I think the only way you’ll know whether you’re ready for a smaller wardrobe is to create and dress from a capsule wardrobe for a good period of time, like a project 333. Like Murphy, I sometimes find that what works for a short period doesn’t work nearly as well for a longer period. (One of the things I like about traveling is finding myself in a hotel room that isn’t cluttered and to which I have brought a limited number of things. But would I be happy living a minimalist lifestyle for months or years on end? Absolutely not! Vacation experiences can get us thinking, but they are not necessarily a good guide for how we want to live our day-to-day lives.)
One thing that jumped out at me was this interesting tension between settling for B/C grade items while continuing to search for the one A+ item to rule them all, as with your black pants or black cardigan example. I think one of the big lies of the capsule wardrobe or minimalist wardrobe concept is that you will only need ONE whatever-item to wear in every situation. I think we need to be thoughtful and clear with ourselves about what our use cases are, then look to buy the number that will cover that, but no more (if you are seeking a smaller wardrobe). For example, maybe a person needs a black cardigan that is looser and open in the front to wear with slimmer cut pants and a black cardigan that is shorter and can be buttoned up to work with a different silhouette of pants/skirts. (Note: it takes time and effort to figure out that those are the two things needed, so people often skip over part entirely.) There is no single A+ cardigan that is going to serve both use cases, and thinking there is can keep you buying these odd compromise items that don’t actually work well for either use case! Ironically, I think we can end up buying less if we plan to buy more. Instead of thinking you want the one A+ do-it-all garment (which you buy unsuccessfully over and over and over again, amassing a ton of B/C compromise garments), you can focus on finding an A/A-/B+ (whatever your standard is going to be for that item) cardigan type 1 and another A/A-/B+ cardigan type 2 and be satisfied because each cardigan works in the outfits it’s meant to work with. Then the search stops. Does that make sense? And when you know that an item you’re buying is truly checking the boxes of what you need (and the more specific you are about the needs, the easier this is), then you can have that self-trust that allows you to spend the money on it, even if it’s more than you’re used to when shopping sales.
It’s true that we can’t guarantee quality/longevity of what we buy, and that clothes that last are harder to find or identify than ever, but at least you can know that this item will serve you now…and I think that’s more than you’re currently getting from many of your purchases. For durability, I think we have to learn by experience (our own and that of other people) and just accept that it’s fine if a garment doesn’t last forever, and realize that sometimes we’ll misjudge and that’s OK too.
I believe that if a person wants a small wardrobe, planning of this sort is absolutely essential. You need to know what you need. And that means spending time and effort. This is a big takeaway from your post: “I didn’t need more clothes; I just needed to determine the pieces I liked best and how to compile them into outfits that I’d be happy wearing.” YES! A person has to figure out what they have, how it can be combined, what looks they want to achieve, and what wardrobe gaps exist (with as much specificity as possible). Then it’s time to go shopping. Not before.
And it’s not only OK but actually just very realistic to recognize that your well-functioning small wardrobe is probably not going to be as tiny as the ones we see online, where everyone seems to think that there is a prize at the end for the person who has the smallest wardrobe. And let’s be clear – we almost NEVER see what kind of wardrobe churn those people touting ultra small wardrobes experience. Are they wearing their items 30+ times? Does wearing them very frequently cause them to wear out faster so they are constantly replacing them? Does wearing the same clothes so much back to back burn them out so their churn gets really high? We know that churn is as bad for the pocketbook and the environment as buying and keeping, so I’m not sure that the most important metric is wardrobe size anyway!
I am OK when I don’t wear all my clothes evenly every season, there is no guilt there. (I also track my wears and cost per wear so I know that I am getting value, which helps mitigate that, but I don’t think it’s necessary. It’s more a mind-set that allows for some ebb and flow.) I have items I wore a lot when new, then I didn’t wear as much for a while, and that I’m now wearing more again for all kinds of reasons – my lifestyle, my body size/shape, what other items have entered or left my closet (this is a big one!), what the trends are, if a season is unusually warm/cool/rainy, etc. I think this is how capsule wardrobes work best – when you identify items that you’d like to prioritize for a season and the other items that will support those to create a capsule wardrobe that is a subset of your full wardrobe that you will wear for the next X months, rather than making some big decisions about what 80% of your wardrobe you’re going to purge to get down to a capsule sized wardrobe.
Spending a good amount of time dressing from a capsule wardrobe will probably give you a lot of experience and insight into the items in the capsule, how they combine well or not so well with other pieces, etc. And that is valuable information to have, even if you never adopt a really small overall wardrobe. Committing to putting new purchases into high rotation right away is another avenue for developing this knowledge (and is one that I like to do).
Such wise words, Sally! I won’t reply to everything, but I will comment on a few things… I love what you wrote about the cardigan example. Those who tout the very small wardrobes often express that we can get by with just ONE of a particular category, but that isn’t always true. Since I wear black cardigans very often (and same with black pants and a few other types of items), I feel that I need at least a few of them. And you’re right that different silhouettes or lengths work with alternate pairing pieces. While I could be fine with just one black cardigan for a trip, for example, I would have to curate the entire capsule to make sure things mix and match well. At home, I like more variety, but just not as much as I currently have, especially since some of what is in my closet is not an A or a B. I would prefer not to have C items in my closet, but I know that I have some “placeholders” that are of that caliber.
Very good point here: “Ironically, I think we can end up buying less if we plan to buy more. Instead of thinking you want the one A+ do-it-all garment (which you buy unsuccessfully over and over and over again, amassing a ton of B/C compromise garments), you can focus on finding an A/A-/B+ (whatever your standard is going to be for that item) cardigan type 1 and another A/A-/B+ cardigan type 2 and be satisfied because each cardigan works in the outfits it’s meant to work with. Then the search stops.”
I called out that part of your comment because I think it’s SO important! Realizing that we may need more than one of a particular type of item and identifying our specific needs (which can take time) can help stop the search for ONE perfect item and help us to buy what will best serve us. Yes, it can take more planning to have a small (or smaller) wardrobe, and I think a lot of people don’t want to spend that time. But I think that a lot of us spend a large amount of time shopping or browsing online sites, and much of that time would be better served doing the type of exploration and clarification that you wrote about.
I think that dressing from a capsule wardrobe for a period of time can be helpful even for those who don’t care that much about having a small or smallish overall wardrobe. It can help us to better understand what we actually like to wear and what we actually might need to buy. Likewise, refraining from shopping (or slowing the roll way down) for a while can help us to shop more wisely. I like what you wrote about putting new purchases into high rotation right away, too. This often runs counter to shopping end-of-season sales, but we can be better served to buy fewer items and spend more on each one anyway.
Okay, so I still wrote a lot in response to your comment, but you said a lot of valuable things that I wanted to address. Thank you so much for taking the time to weigh in on this post!
Sally’s two cardigan example and your response, Debbie, are truly helpful. It’s so true that minimalist aspirations can have us end up buying more, and it’s really useful to understand exactly how!
I’m so glad you found this helpful, Samantha! I got so much from Sally’s comment (as I always do). It’s tough to strike the right balance with minimalism, and it can take a lot more work to have a smaller wardrobe. Most people aren’t willing to put in the time to do the type of analysis that Sally mentioned, but it can really pay off to figure out what we truly need. I’ve been having a lot of “aha moments” about this, and what Sally wrote was very helpful in that regard!
What size wardrobe are you most comfortable maintaining?
Basically what fits in my small closet (fortunately I have extra closets for coats and shoes) plus a few boxes and under the bed bags.
What factors influence the size of wardrobe that works best for you?
Comfort is number one. I’d rather have a little more mess and feel warm at home – since Covid, I’ve kept the habit of changing when I get home, as I use public transportation. Weather comes next, along with activities. It often rains in Normandy, but it can be quite hot or cold where I live, compared to more oceanic and rural parts nearer Brittany. So I need various fabrics to feel comfortable throughout the year.
How happy are you with your outfits when you travel versus when you’re at home?’
Fine, but I tend to travel light and end up craving for variety when I get back home.
For those of you who have significantly downsized your wardrobes, what has helped you successfully do so?
As I once wrote, my cat! Who put herself in danger in my, and my son’s, chests of drawers, until we got rid of them. It’s made our lives a little more difficult organization wise, but no regrets.
Do you hold on to clothing and other wardrobe items out of guilt?
Occasionally. I think it’s only natural to try and make something work for a while, especially a relatively expensive pair of boots, for instance (lol)! Until I admit to myself they’ll never work.
How do you manage the guilt you feel over mistake purchases?
Either I manage to give them away or turn them into something useful for myself, like handkerchiefs, according to the fabric. I’ve also used some to learn how to sew (by hand as I really hated to learn using a machine) well enough (for my needs) to shorten a hem or sleeve (even lined ones). I know you have the opposite issue of clothes being too short, still the point is, if you find a way of turning a mistake into something valuable for your own or someone else’s needs, it doesn’t feel that bad.
Thanks so much for answering all of the questions I posed, Samantha! Having a small closet can make it easier to keep one’s wardrobe in check. When my wardrobe was at its largest was when I lived in a place with multiple large closets (and of course was also a shopaholic – the perfect storm for a huge wardrobe!). I remember your cat story! That type of situation would have been very impactful for me, too, as a major cat lover.
Good for you for finding ways to turn mistake purchases into something useful! You’re right that we feel less bad if we can find a way to make these types of things useful for ourselves or others. I can see turning certain items into handkerchiefs, pillowcases, or the like. I really should learn how to sew, if only to be able to do some simple types of alterations. I rarely need to hem anything, unless a tall size is too long, but I need to take in waistlines and the sides of tops and toppers. I don’t even want to know how much money I’ve spent on such alterations!
I ‘ve belatedly realized that to avoid holding on to items “just in case,” I’ve consigned some quality classic pieces I’d only momentarily shrunk out of, grown out of, grown tired of, or saw no use for.
So I’m trying to be more thoughtful and less rash in these decisions. For me, it’s a fine line between “just-in-case,” and “not now, maybe later.”
I’m also trying to wear all my fall clothes. After I wear an item, I put it back in my closet in order of how much I like that piece, by item type. If I wear a long-sleeved pullover sweater that I deem my absolute favorite, I hang it in front of the other like-sweaters I’ve worn. Once I’m done wearing my fall clothes, I hope to learn from my favorites and my not-so-favorites and possibly establish a color palette.
Any seasonally and lifestyle appropriate item I don’t feel like wearing this season will go into my holding area in the basement to cull through another time. I don’t tend to accumulate much there, but as I said, I want to be less hasty in getting rid of quality classic pieces in the future.
It’s hard for me to access an item when I have no occasion coming up to which I’d wear it. So my few dressier items will be accessed when I do.
My number one goal right now is to get a better handle on my current style, and what I love, and what I don’t.
Now and then I buy a piece that throws me for a loop, like the wool fedora I emotionally purchased a few days ago. Was that for who I want to be? Who I should let myself be? I LOVE it. But will I wear it? Should I wear it? Am I winter hat person? And down the rabbit hold I go…
It can be hard to strike a balance between holding on to items “just in case” and purging things too hastily, Jenn. I’ve been there, too, which is why I usually put things in my “holding zone” for a while before passing them on. I like the method you’re using with your fall clothes. I might try that, too, but I will have to get past my OCD tendency of color-coding everything by category! I could always go back to that later, though, after I learn the lessons from identifying my favorites.
That’s great that your holding area isn’t that large. Mine is still two plastic bins, but many of those items are there for size issues rather than because I’m not sure I like them. I do plan to go through the bins again soon, as the change of seasons is upon me now (our fall weather comes late, as I’ve written about before). I think your idea to hold on to your dressier items until you have an occasion to wear them is wise.
The wool fedora sounds cool, but it’s good that you’re pondering why you bought it and if you will wear it. Yes, that can take us down a rabbit hole, but sometimes we learn a lot from that type of “navel gazing.” I see a lot of such pondering in my near future, too!