A few years back at the beginning of my Minimalism discovery I came across the term Capsule Wardrobe. I’ve never been someone who points much thought into fashion. My wardrobe normally consisted of jeans and a hoodie and a band shirt. My friend and I used to laugh with our thrifty-ness of making old clothes last beyond their years through any means possible. If there was a way to look put together and coordinate an outfit without much thought going into it, this was going to be a game-changer for me.
Over the years I’ve done a lot of research on the subject, okay… a lot of Pinning more specifically. Whenever I talk wardrobes with people and mention the concept of a capsule wardrobe, I’m often surprised to hear that most people have never heard of the idea. Which is something I am hoping to change. Read on for how to create your own capsule wardrobe!
THE BENEFITS OF A CAPSULE WARDROBE
Before we start our capsule wardrobe we must understand the benefits.
Here are the benefits I have personally found of having a Capsule Wardobe:
- Having a capsule wardrobe means it is less stressful to get ready. It is one less time consuming decision to make during your day so you can focus on more important or enjoyable things like spending time having your morning coffee.
- Having all your clothes in one area makes it easier to mix and match your outfits. A well curated capsule wardrobe means that your outfits easily work together and items that suit your lifestyle which in turn leaves your feeling more confident.
- It saves you time on your laundry. If you have a capsule of 30 items, you will probably only have one load of washing per person per week. This avoids the dreaded mountain of unwashed clothing that comes with your average wardrobe!
- You can feel comfort knowing that everything in your capsule has been hand picked by you and are items that you love. No more walking out the door only to realise the pants you grabbed don’t fit anymore or are uncomfortable.
- It will save you money. When you have 30 or so items that you love you feel less of a need to continually hit the shops trying to find the perfect outfit when you have a perfectly amazing wardrobe at home!
- It is better for the environment. Fast fashion has created 6000kg of clothing and textile waste every ten minutes in Australia. By choosing to adopt a capsule wardrobe you are helping to reduce the clothing ending up in landfill by only buying quality, loved clothing pieces and being more mindful of what you buy.
- Despite what you may think having a capsule wardrobe is less boring and more creative as each day you get to create a new outfit mix, rather than picking the same old items in your overflowing wardrobe.
Now that we understand the amazing benefits of adopting a capsule wardrobe we can get started!
FREE CAPSULE WARDROBE PLANNER PRINTABLE
I’ve created a free Capsule Wardrobe Planner Printable to help you get started on your very own Capsule Wardrobe. Simply click ‘YES PLEASE!’ below and fill in the signup form to get your free printable and get started creating your newly curated Capsule Wardrobe!
FREE CAPSULE WARDROBE PLANNER PRINTABLE
I’ve created a free Capsule Wardrobe Planner Printable to help you get started on your very own Capsule Wardrobe. Simply click ‘YES PLEASE!’ below and fill in the signup form to get your free printable and get started creating your newly curated Capsule Wardrobe!
WHERE DO I START?
Before you make a start on your capsule wardrobe you are going to need to identify what you want in it. This involves going through your current wardrobe and decluttering and only keeping what you love or in Kon Mari’s words what “sparks joy”. These steps will help you get your decluttering started:
- Prepare your working area. Make the bed as a clothing work space, grab a few boxes, containers – whatever you have and label them with the following 4 signs; Keep, Toss, Donate, Mend.
- Take all your clothing, all of it, and lay them out on the bed. Grab anything in your washing baskets so you can ensure you haven’t missed anything. If you are someone that only has small pockets of time to declutter you can do this by category such as shoes, shirts, dresses and so on until you have gone through each category. This will make the process slower but is better than not doing it at all.
- Next pick out the items that you love and wear on a regular basis from your pile. Put the “love” items into the container marked keep. It is often easier to choose what we love than what we don’t so is helpful to start with the ones you know you wear and love first.
- Go through your pile and put anything you don’t like, or don’t wear anymore in to two separate piles. One to be donated, any items that are still wearable. One to Toss, for anything else that is not in good condition. If you have the time and energy, you can also put some of the more pricey donate items into a pile to be sold to add some extra cash into your budget.
- If there is anything that you love, but that needs repairing put this into a separate ‘mend pile’ and action these in the next week or so. If they need a new button sew it on, if you need to take it to the professionals put them in your car to take to your alteration store.
- Continue to work through your pile until you have sorted all items.
If you are left with anything you are unsure about, I call these the “Maybe” pile you can do the following:
- If you are not yet ready to part with items in this pile you can place the items in a container to be stored out of your closet for a short period of time. I recommend no more than three months.
- Set a reminder on your phone to review the container once the time limit is up. If you find you do want to use something you’ve stored away, you can go and ‘save’ it.
- After three months donate the items in the container. Generally after three months you will realise that you don’t miss the items you stored anymore and don’t need them and be willing to let it go.
>> Check out 9 Decluttering Methods For Your Home for extra tips on methods you can use to declutter your wardrobe and home.
After this process, you will now be ready to curate a capsule wardrobe from your newly minimised wardrobe.
PICK CLOTHING TO SUIT YOUR LIFESTYLE
When it comes to creating your capsule wardrobe, it is important to be honest with yourself and what you wear day today. Are you really going to wear that old bridesmaid dress again? Do you own 5 pairs of short shorts but never wear them? Do you have clothing that needs ironing that you haven’t worn in six months cos you just hate ironing? This wardrobe is designed for your lifestyle now. Pick what you love to wear now, what you feel comfortable in and what suits your lifestyle. If you work in an office that might mean more button-up blouses, if you are a yoga instructor you might only own one button-up blouse and 10 gym outfits. Curate the capsule wardrobe for your present needs. To make your capsule flow day to day, try and pick a colour theme. Basing your wardrobe around three to four colours is ideal. For example, if your wardrobe is made up of black, white, grey and blue you can mix and match these colours effortlessly. Of course, feel free to pick whatever colours you love, it’s your capsule!
OTHER CAPSULE WARDROBE RESOURCES
You can also check out Fashion Youtubers such as Lindsay Albanese for tips on How to Flatter Your Body Issues With Clothes to help you pick the right clothing choices for your capsule or watch Jennifer L. Scott’s Ten Item Wardrobe TEDx Talk for tips on where to start with picking the core items for your capsule wardrobe.
My favourite Capsule Wardrobe blogger Courtney Carver’s Project 333 is a great starting point for your capsule wardrobe. Courtney started blogging about her wardrobe of 33 pieces including accessories and shoes in 2010, in which she picks a capsule wardrobe of 33 items including clothes, shoes and accessories for 3 months and changes them out each new season.
BUILDING YOUR CAPSULE WARDROBE
What’s Included:
Include all other clothes – pants, tops, dresses, shorts, skirts and so on as well as your shoes.
What’s Excluded:
In my capsule wardrobe, I exclude pyjamas, gym clothes, loungewear, swimmers, underwear, singlets or thermals, and accessories.
Accessories:
I feel that buy the time you add in a couple of necklaces, a belt, sunnies, a scarf, a watch and bracelet to your capsule, a lot of your capsule wardrobe limit is taken up so I wanted to be free to mix and match accessories and not focus too much on those limitations within my capsule.
By all means don’t go crazy but allows some variety! The goal is to limit your decision making and stress! My necklace collection is probably larger than others, but as I do wear what I have, I wanted to ensure my capsule didn’t restrict the freedom for me to do that.
GET STARTED
Grab a pen and paper (or your freebie Capsule Wardrobe Printable download) and create a list for your capsule wardrobe. Start with the numbers 1-30 on a piece of paper. Create a blend of items from your new wardrobe of ‘loved’ pieces. Pick out 30 pieces for your capsule, ones that are suitable for the season you are going to be in for the next three months.
Once you have your 30 items hang them up in your wardrobe and box up the remaining items to be reviewed next season. I use space bags to minimise the space they take up :).
And remember, avoid going and filling your wardrobe with new clothes now that you have more space unless you are missing key pieces or want to swap out items in your capsule.
Declutter With Me Decluttering Course
Are you finding yourself overwhelmed and stressed out by clutter in your home?
If you’re looking to minimise the excess in your life, Declutter With Me: A 12 Week Guide to Declutter Your Home is a go-at-your-own-pace course that will give you the step-by-step, room-by-room instructions to help you clear the clutter in your home in as soon as just 12 weeks!
But clearing the clutter isn’t just about getting rid of your excess stuff. It’s important to change your behaviour and consumer habits so you can avoid re-cluttering your space once you have decluttered. Included in Declutter With Me, are “Keep It Minimal” tips for each area in your home + 7 Tips To Help You Keep Your Home Minimal, to give you strategies you can implement to help you spend with intention so you can avoid bringing clutter back into your home.
If you are keen to minimise your unwanted clutter check out Declutter With Me so you can create a home you love!
WHAT IF 30 ITEMS IS JUST TOO LIMITED FOR MY LIFESTYLE
If you find 30 items too difficult to get to, that’s okay! Try 35 or 40 items, or 50 and see if that can work for you. You might find you don’t need the extra items after all or even if you do, you’ve at least come a long way from where you were previously with a bulging wardrobe. Experiment and see what works for you. Keep in mind the 30 items isn’t your entire wardrobe, just one season of it.
REVIEWING YOUR CAPSULE WARDROBE
In order to check what you have and haven’t worn without much thought, use the Backwards Hanger Method. Turn all your coat hangers backwards when you start your capsule wardrobe and put worn items back the regular way when they are washed.
At the end of the month you will easily be able to see what you did and did not wear. This will help you to make decisions on what to keep in your capsule for the next season and what to donate.
At the end of the three months, check what you did and didn’t wear and alter your wardrobe accordingly.
KEEPING YOUR WARDROBE MINIMISED
A good rule of thumb to avoid getting carried away and refilling your newly minimised wardrobe is to implement a one, one out rule. This rule requires you to donate one item for every item of clothing you bring into your home. It will help you resist the urge to buy something unnecessary when you have to think about what you are willing to get rid of in place of it. For more ideas on building your capsule wardrobe check out my Minimise With Me Building a Capsule Wardrobe board on Pinterest for some inspiration.
If you would like to start your own capsule wardrobe check out 5 Lessons I Learnt From My Capsule Wardrobe for tips on how to pick and check out my Pinterest board for Capsule Wardrobes for inspiration.
Do you have a capsule wardrobe? Let me know how many items in your capsule wardrobe that you find works for you in the comments.
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