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Capsule Wardrobe

Minimalism

How to Build A Capsule Wardrobe: A Guide For Beginners

Posted on March 11, 2022

Building a capsule wardrobe can be a great way to limit stress in your life. By picking a well-curated selection of 30 items of clothing in your capsule that you love, you can ensure you look stylish, and feel great each day with minimal effort!

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

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!

LEARN MORE

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.

If you found value in this post I would be super appreciative if you could share it with others who might also find value in it.

Organising

7 Essential Questions to Help You Declutter Your Wardrobe

Posted on March 12, 2018

Have you asked yourself these questions when trying to declutter your wardrobe?

With the new norm of fast fashion it can be easy for us to end up with an overflowing wardrobe filled with unwanted clothing choices that we no longer wear (and in some cases, never did) or that no longer bring us joy. We look into our bulging wardrobes and packed drawers filled with clothing options but still feel like we have nothing to wear. In this case sometimes less is more. When we can see what we have to wear, and compile a wardrobe of pieces that we love- with a little bit of planning, we can open up our wardrobe to better reflect what we need on a day to day basis.

But where do you start when you want to clear the excess and declutter your wardrobe? When we have so many clothes the thought of trying to go through them one by one and remove the excess can seem like an impossible task. Luckily there are questions we can ask that can help make the decluttering process of our wardrobes an easier and more successful event.

Here are 7 Essential Questions to Help You Declutter Your Wardrobe.

Let’s Get Started

Before you start going through your wardrobe grab three bins to help you organise your piles. They can be anything you have around the house: laundry baskets, boxes or garbage bags. This will help you keep track of what is what and avoid you getting confused down the line as the piles get bigger. Now grab a piece of paper and some sticky tape and label those bins – Yes, No and Maybe.

The Three Sorting Bins

Yes – These are the clothing items you want to keep. When you are done sorting, hang these back up in your wardrobe or fold them and put them back into your drawers. Remember to only keep what you can fit in your space.

No – These are the clothing items you no longer want. Donate this pile to a local charity clothing shop or bin. Be sure to toss any items that are non in sale-able condition.

Maybe – This is a pile for those items that you are unsure about. For anything that ends up here, keep them in a container somewhere separate to your current wardrobe. Set a calendar reminder on your phone to review this container in three months time. Over the next 12 weeks if there is anything in the container you want to wear, you can ‘save’ this item. Anything left in the container at the three month deadline can be donated.

Two Decluttering Methods:

Now depending on the time you have you have two methods to declutter your clothing.

1. All At Once: You can grab all your clothes and throw them on your bed to sort in one heap or;
2. By Categories: You can declutter your clothes category by category: dresses, shirts, shorts, underwear etc.
If you have a couple of hours or more to spare, go for the All At Once approach. This will mean you can declutter your wardrobe in session and being able to see the sheer number you have piled on your bed will help you let go. If you only have half an hour or so, it’s best to either wait until you have more time to do the full wardrobe declutter, or in this case, work on one category at a time.

Now let’s get into those questions and get decluttering your wardrobe!

7 Essential Questions to Help You Declutter Your Wardrobe

1. Do I love this?
As you pick up each item Ask yourself if you love the item you are holding. If you saw it in store would you buy it right now? As Kon Mari asks in her book the Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, ask does it Spark Joy? Pick one item at a time and see how you feel about it. Is it something you love to wear and find yourself always holding out for wash day to wear it again? Maybe it’s a piece that reminds you of a negative experience every time you see it? If it doesn’t spark joy and you don’t love it put it in the no pile. If it brings you joy and you feel happy wearing it put it in your Yes pile. Building a capsule wardrobe of clothes you love will ensure that everyday you get to chose your outfit from a handpicked selection of clothes that you truly love and feel comfortable in!

2. Do I currently wear it?
Be honest with yourself. You know what clothes you wear regularly and what you haven’t touched in the past year. It’s more than likely it is the same outfits in rotation that you are grabbing each day. If you don’t wear something anymore ask yourself why? Is it something you would wear but it missing a button or needs a hole sewn? If so put it in a mend pile and get it repaired so you can wear it. Actually put your pile of to be mended items into your car and take them to the alteration shop that same week to avoid delaying wearing those items any longer. Is it out of style? If it is something you don’t see yourself wearing again let it go.

The Minimalists have a rule to help decide what you do and don’t wear called the 90/90 rule. For each item ask yourself if you have worn it in the last 90 days and if you would wear it in the next 90 days. If the answer is no, let it go. If that is too short, make it a 6 months post and prior rule the “180/180 rule” to cover a full year. If you haven’t worn it in the past 180 days (6 months) and don’t see yourself wearing it in the next 6 month period it’s probably time to put it in the no pile.

3. Does it fit?
This seems like an obvious one, but we are all guilty of hoarding clothes for that magical day when we have lost all our unwanted weight. Does your item of clothing fit you or have you been holding onto it for years waiting to lose or gain weight so it will fit? If you are unsure, try it on. Maybe it does fit now and you can keep it, or maybe you will remember that it doesn’t and if that is the case let it go. If you are really attached to an item, and determined to get back into it, keep one or two favourites but let go of the rest. By the time you meet your weight goals, you will want to reward yourself and invest in a new fresh wardrobe anyway.

4. Does it suit your current lifestyle?
A good rule of thumb is to keep at least 80% of your wardrobe of things you can wear on a day to day basis. You don’t want to end up with 90% of your wardrobe filled with dressy outfits that you can only wear on a Friday and Saturday night and have nothing much left to wear the rest of the week.

If you are change careers from working in an office to being a yoga instructor you can do away with the excess corporate uniforms. Maybe you only need to dress up at the occasional wedding or birthday party but have 50 dresses in your wardrobe? If so let go of any excess dressy outfits that you won’t be wearing to free up space for the clothes that you will be the majority of the time.

5. If I found this in store would I buy it right now?
This one always helps me decide when I am stuck on whether to keep to donate something. Ask yourself ‘if I found this in store would I buy it right now’? If you wouldn’t buy the item you are holding again for whatever reason – it’s itchy, the colour doesn’t suit you, it’s too tight etc add it in your no pile. This question can cut through any guilt about what you spent on the item and will lose by letting it go and take you back to the real question – Do I want to keep this?

6. If I could sell this would I let it go?
This was a surprising one that helped me let go of lots of excess clothing. I found that if I imagined a scenario where I could hold onto something or get ten or so dollars for it, I would most often take the money and be willing to let go of it. These items I would put into a sell pile to upload on eBay which certainly helped claw back some of the lost money and helped give me that little extra push I needed at times to let something I no longer wore, go. Finding items to sell as you declutter your wardrobe can make the parting process slightly easier when you know you’ll get some bonus financial wins!

Related Post: The True Cost of Our Stuff

7. Is it Me?
This is the last question I like to ask when decluttering clothing. Something may fit okay and you may very much like it but you need to ask yourself is it me? Do you have stilettos that you know you won’t wear because you can’t walk in them? Or a dress that you used to love wearing but now don’t really feel like you have anywhere to wear it or doesn’t feel ‘you’ anymore? Maybe you have lots of colours in your wardrobe and now prefer more monochrome tones? As we age our tastes, interests and likes change and so do our fashion choices. What you may have liked three years ago might be completely different now. By asking ourselves ‘is it me?’ we can curate a wardrobe that consists of pieces that make us feel confident, comfortable and true to ourselves.

7 Essential Questions to Help You Declutter Your Wardrobe

Do I love this?

2. Do I currently wear it?

3. Does it fit?

4. Does it suit your current lifestyle?

5. If I found this in store would I buy it right now?

6. If I could sell this would I let it go?

7. Is it Me?

What questions do you ask yourself when you declutter your wardrobe? Please comment below with your tips and what you have found helpful 🙂

Minimalism

5 Lessons I Learned from my Capsule Wardrobe

Posted on September 5, 2017

When picking your capsule wardrobe aim for comfortable, versatile pieces that you love and you'll never feel the need to go back to a packed closet again

For some time now I have been attempting to adopt a more streamlined, intentional, and have less excess in my wardrobe. This June I decided to make it official and adopt a 30 items capsule wardrobe for the June to August winter months. I didn’t want to make it too onerous, so I limited the 30 items to clothing and excluded, jewellery/accessories, underwear, gym, and loungewear.

We’re four days into spring and after three months of living my capsule wardrobe, I thought I’d reflect on the process of choosing my capsule and what I learned and do a Winter Capsule Wardrobe update!

Here was my breakdown of my Winter Capsule Wardrobe:

Shirts – 9

Long-sleeved shirts – 6

Coats/Jackets – 3

Jumpers/Cardis – 2

Pants – 5

Skirts – 1

Scarves – 1

Shoes – 3

Total clothing pieces 30

WHAT I LEARNT FROM MY CAPSULE WARDROBE

Here are my main takeaways from adopting a capsule wardrobe this past season:

1. You need less clothing than you think you do
I’ve previously tried to limit my clothes to a reasonable number but never gone through the process of setting a limit. I was surprised after three months that I managed to stick to a 30 item wardrobe and had 4 items still left untouched over that time (see the backward hanger method for how I monitored this).

In three months using a capsule wardrobe, I managed to wear only 26 items of the 30. I was really amazed that I didn’t need a huge number of clothing. I never felt like I was too restricted and was wearing the same clothes over and over again.

If anything, I felt like I had more variety than ever as I knew everything I had hung up in my wardrobe was wearable, comfortable and that I loved it. The fact that I could easily see everything in my wardrobe and grab it with ease was a bonus!

2. Think ahead and be selective about what you pick for the season

A couple of weeks into my winter capsule wardrobe I realised I had a few too many cooler shirts in my capsule that just weren’t cutting it in the warmth department. Particularly as my 30 items had to be suitable for working in an office (which is freezing most days, am I right ladies?). So I decided, in order to ensure the success of my capsule wardrobe and my survival of winter (…okay that was a slight exaggeration) to swap in some warmer long-length shirts whilst removing some of the short-sleeved tops during the first couple of weeks. I ensured I still stuck to the 30 piece goal I had set myself.

Towards the end of the period I had some more formal events including a bridal shower and wedding which I hadn’t really accounted for in my winter capsule wardrobe as I don’t normally like to wear dresses in winter, so had to expand my wardrobe to include something a bit dressier for those two occasions.

I’d managed to get through 10 weeks with my regular capsule but realised in the last two that I hadn’t catered for any more formal events in my capsule.

Try and think ahead about what clothing you will need for the three-month period. Do you spend your time in an office, or do you work from home? Do you do yoga every day and live in yoga pants or are you in court for work and need something more dressy. Do you go clubbing most weekends or spend them mostly indoors or in the garden. Try and map out what clothing suits your needs and allocate a percentage of the type of clothing you need for different activities in the week. It could be 60% work, 20% loungewear, 10% gym wear, 10% dressier occasions. Pick your outfit ratios according to the relevant percentages for your lifestyle.

Bonus tip: Note down what you had in your season’s capsule so if you mix and match pieces across the seasons you will know what to grab when that season rolls around again.

3. Having a capsule wardrobe saves you time and stress
Each morning I knew in seconds what I would wear to work or out for dinner that night. Having fewer clothes in rotation and selecting easy-to-maintain clothes meant I didn’t have to waste more time than necessary on washing, folding or ironing them.

A capsule wardrobe also has other time and stress benefits. I wore a dress I have worn a few times to a wedding last week and got many compliments on it. Barely anyone at that wedding had ever seen me in that dress so it would have been silly to feel self-conscious to re-wear it. Had I been afraid to wear a dress more than once I would have had to not only spend unnecessary money on a new one but would have had additional time and stress trying to find the perfect dress for the wedding.

4. Having a capsule wardrobe helps you to reduce clothing expenditure
Thanks to my capsule wardrobe I felt less of a desire to go clothes shopping as I knew that for the current season I had everything I needed. Every time I thought of buying something new I had to think would I be willing to get rid of something in my capsule for this new item? Pretty much every time the answer was no. I knew I had something I liked more that had been tried, tested, and paid for already at home.

The capsule wardrobe also helped me to avoid the shops unless I had something specific in mind that I needed. As I knew that I could only have 30 items in my capsule wardrobe I made sure that any purchases were quality items that I loved, and felt comfortable in and would get a lot of wear out of them. Check out what I did buy below.

5. Your capsule wardrobe doesn’t have to be perfect
From this experiment, I realised that there was no perfect capsule wardrobe. Through all my efforts of selecting versatile pieces that were comfortable and that I loved, there were still instances where I had to make changes some slight changes. There are no awards for perfection, keep your capsule expectations realistic.

Whether you have a capsule wardrobe of 30 items or 40 the key is selecting the right number and pieces to suit your lifestyle and needs. At the end of the day, any capsule wardrobe is a huge step on the path to a more intentional life and will help you reduce the excess in your life. The benefit of this is less stress, less decision making, less spending in your clothing budget, or a reduction in your need to shop unintentionally.

FREE CAPSULE WARDROBE PLANNER PRINTABLE

If you would like to know more about Minimalism and it’s benefits check out 13 Benefits or a Smaller Home and How I Discovered Financial Stability Through Minimalism.

WHAT DID I BUY?

One of my goals of having a capsule wardrobe was to reduce my desire to buy more clothes to be content with what I had. I am pleased to say that I achieved this for the most part. Over the past three months I did make a few clothing purchases that I felt were necessary.

Although I didn’t avoid buying clothes all together over this period, I was pleased that my clothes shopping became much more intentional. I only replaced or purchased things that I specifically needed and could get a lot of use out of.

Here is a list of what I bought:

2 Jackets
3 Thermal singlets
2 Thermal long sleeved tops
2 Thermal leggings
2 Pairs of thermal socks
2 Long sleeved shirts
1 Scarf

My criteria for these purchases were:

Do I need it?
Can I afford it?
Are they good quality?
Do they feel comfortable to wear?
Can I get a lot of use out of them?
Are there online reviews that recommend this particular item?

I made sure I tried everything on first to check for comfort and fit (except the socks of course :p). My shopping policy is something similar to – if I am too lazy to try it on I can’t buy it – policy, which also helps me avoid any impulse decisions and saves me having to return anything I buy that doesn’t fit.

I try to, where possible, read reviews online, and reviewed travel blogs about what to wear in particular climates and locations as all of the items purchased I would be able to wear during my upcoming Europe trip. A lot of what I bought was on sale and all were quality items.

Most of these items purchased were external to my capsule. I felt that my 30 item capsule other than a few minor additions was more than enough for my needs which helped me to resist making impulse clothing purchases. I look forward to continuing on with my capsule wardrobe and monitoring my clothing purchases over the next few seasons and see how my clothing purchases will be impacted in the long term!

If you would like to start your own capsule wardrobe check out How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe: A Beginners Guide for tips on how to pick and check out my Pinterest board for Capsule Wardrobes for inspiration.

Do you have a capsule wardrobe? Would love to hear what you have learnt from your experience with having a capsule wardrobe and how many items you feel is ideal in yours. Leave your experience in the comments below 🙂