THE BENEFITS OF MINIMIZING YOUR WARDROBE

DO YOU HAVE ANY CLOTHING ITEMS YOU DON’T LOVE?

Do you ever notice that when you go into your dresser drawers or closet to pick out what to wear you tend to gravitate to certain items more often than the others? What about those items that you keep bypassing? The things that you think look nice but they don’t feel comfortable. Or things that are comfortable but make you feel like you don’t have it together? How different would you feel when choosing what to wear if all of the options that you had to choose from were things that you loved? You would no longer have guilt about those close that no longer fit. Those clothes you paid so much for but never wear because you don’t like them won’t make you feel bad anymore if you no longer have them. The goal of minimizing your wardrobe is not to have a certain number of clothing items. The goal is to get to a point where the vast majority of the clothing that you have are those things that you constantly reach for.

MORE CHOICES MAKES DECISIONS MORE DIFFICULT

We all know that when we have more things to choose from decisions become more difficult to make. Having too many clothes to choose from adds to the difficulty of that decision-making each day. Even if you don’t have that many clothes, but you have many clothes that you don’t love, it leads to the same level of decision-making. Are you going to wear your favorite things again? Or pick something else because you feel guilty about not getting use out of the other clothes you have? You are not allowing yourself to just grab what you love. If you can allow yourself to always put on what you really love to wear, you eliminate the daily decision-making of having to choose from your few favorites. The idea is to simplify this daily decision-making. This can be done by having a wardrobe that is manageable to you and made up of clothes you love.

LEARNING WHAT YOU REALLY LOVE IN CLOTHING

In order to have a minimal wardrobe made up of clothing that you really love, first you need to understand what it is that you really love about certain clothes. Start to pay more attention to what you always grab for. Take your time and really think about what you really love to wear and feel most comfortable in for whatever your daily activities are. If you work outside the home there might be favorite work clothes and favorite home clothes. It’s Ok to wear the same style over and over.  No one will notice or care! Think about it, do you really remember what your friends or co-workers were wearing the last time you saw them? If you do remember, do you remember the last time they wore that item?  Probably not! So, if there is a certain type of pants you love, buy a couple of pairs so that you can wear them frequently.

BE VERY PICKY WHEN YOU PURCHASE NEW CLOTHES

As you start to really know the type of clothing that you really love, it’s time to start being picky about what you bring into your home. You want to build a wardrobe full of clothes that you will always reach for. Being picky about the clothing you purchase goes further than finding a style that you like. Comfort is very important.  If you purchase something that looks great but doesn’t feel comfortable, you are not going to reach for that item frequently. It’s also important to consider the amount of time you are willing to care for the clothing item in order to be able to wear it. For example, some material requires certain washing and drying, as well as potential ironing for them to look nice. Those clothes are pretty much a “no” for me. I like to find clothes with as minimal care needed as possible. Those clothes that can be thrown in the washer and dryer and come out without a wrinkle are the clothes for me!

TIPS TO HELP MINIMIZE YOUR WARDROBE

Try sticking with a particular color palette so that things can be mixed and matched more easily. Maybe buy one or two types of socks that you love. Even with the socks maybe do only a couple of colors. I always like my socks to match whatever I am wearing. Since I mostly wear black with some type of color, I pretty much only buy socks that have white with black, or white with gray. Then they go with everything and I can reach and grab any pair. Instead of a color palette, if one aspect of your clothes is pretty neutral, the color of the items won’t matter as much.  For example, if you are always wearing black pants, then you can have a variety of color tops that go with black pants. This is pretty much what I like to do. I wear either black leggings or jeans in the winter, or black bike shorts or jean shorts in the summer. So, I can pretty much wear any color shirt with the bottoms that I have.

START SMALL

You don’t need to go through your entire wardrobe all at once. That can be really overwhelming and isn’t really necessary. Start small and make changes slowly. If you love to wear jeans, look at the jeans you have, are there certain ones you always choose to wear and others that stay at the bottom of the pile? What is it about them that you love? Can you get one or two more of those, and donate the ones you aren’t wearing? When you come across an item of clothing that you keep pushing aside, consider putting it in a bag to donate. I also love to fill a bag of clothes to donate at the end of each season. If certain pieces of clothing sat in my drawer untouched the whole season, there is a pretty good chance it’s not something I love.

Thanks so much for checking in! If you would like to hear the podcast version of this topic check out Lola’s Frugal Life Podcast! Also, be sure to check out my other blog posts on this site!

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