Creating A Capsule Wardrobe
To Celebrate Earth Day and April’s focus on Reducing, Reusing and Recycling, I will be giving you tips on how to create a capsule wardrobe. This is also in honor of Project 333, Courtney Carver’s minimalist fashion challenge.
To create a capsule wardrobe from your existing closet, use these 3 steps.
Step 1: Empty your closet. Seriously, take absolutely everything out of your closet and lay it out on your bed. Don’t cheat–taking everything out at once is the secret to style clarity. As you put your LOVE IT pieces back into your empty closet, your style will practically scream at you. But that won’t be the case if your closet is still being muddied with MAYBE pieces left hanging in there. So just take it all out, mkay?
Step 2: Sort each item into one of these four piles:
· LOVE IT AND WOULD WEAR IT RIGHT NOW!! Self-explanatory. Put it back in your closet.
· MAYBE. This is for items that don’t fit quite right, the color is a little off, have sentimental value, you can’t put your finger on it but you just don’t wear it, or you’re keeping it because you paid a lot for it but you don’t wear it. Put all this stuff in a box and store it in the garage. You can always go get stuff out of it, but you probably won’t. If it’s still in the box at the end of your season, it’s time to say goodbye to it.
· NOPE. Self-explanatory. Donate, swap with a friend, or sell it to fund new purchases.
· SEASONAL. Wool coat in summer? Probably don’t need it handy. But you’d never get rid of a staple like that–come on. If it’s not in season, but you LOVE IT, put it in a nice under-the-bed box and store it. You’ll definitely use it in your capsule wardrobe when that season rolls around.
What do I do with the rest? Donate it, sell online or unload at a garage sale.
Step 3: Assess what’s left in your closet–aka your LOVE IT clothes. You’ll want to have 37 season-appropriate items in your closet. Do you need to supplement? Time to plan + shop. Do you need to downsize? Put a few more items in your MAYBE box.
After you’ve reduced your items, create your own capsule wardrobe per season:
Pick 37 items for each season.
Wear only those 37 items for three months AKA a season
Don't go shopping during the season until the last 2 weeks of the season
During the last two weeks of the season, plan and shop for your next capsule
The amount you buy for the next capsule is up to you, but less is more
If you’re really interested in taking a deeper dive into this challenge, check out Courtney Carver has a new book Project 333, The Minimalist Fashion Challenge That Proves Less Really is So Much More. The book challenges us all to dress with 33 items or less for 3 months. It’s a minimalist fashion challenge that in itself could be 3-month challenge!
If you are interested in Courtney’s quick start guide, visit her website at: https://bemorewithless.com/project-333-challenge/ . She has the “rules” of the challenge listed and a nice “first timers” checklist. She also mentions creating your own version of 333 that works, if you find the pure challenge to restrictive. The project is not about suffering, it’s about uncluttering your life and freeing up time, attention and money for the things that we care about.