Why and how to minimize your wardrobe

Reasons to minimize your wardrobe

This is a task that takes a very long time. I have been trying to minimize my closet for about 2 weeks now (less than 2 hours each day), and am almost nearing the end of the process. My motivations to minimize my closet is to have less material items overall: 1) so I can spend less time deciding what to wear and focus less on image, and focus more on activities and things that are important to my life goals; 2) so I can have a clean, minimalist house that require less effort to maintain as I am busy - this helps me keep my sanity also by eliminating some stress; 3) it will make it easier to move as there will be less to carry; 4) it is better for the environment because you will spend less money on clothes, which take a toll on the environment to produce, and I am not wealthy enough to afford organic materials. Also less clothes require less closet space, which means less wood taken from the environment.


How did I acquired so many clothes?

Annually, I donate about 2 large bags of clothing to goodwill, yet I buy new items, so the process kept recurring. Over the course of my life, my style has been feminine but chic (think Bebe, BR, Zara) and consisted of color combinations that I love. When I was working before, I spent thousands on brand name items that I didn't particularly love, but that would fit into the work image and because a friend made a negative comment on my style of dressing. then, I felt stifled by that image, so I started purchasing trendy items to find my style once again. It was difficult for me to get back to that style because I started caring about the image I presented to everyone because I remembered my friend's comment, rather than dressing based on what I like. I even started dressing a little differently with each set of friends I was with because I wanted to feel that I was appropriate to their dress, though they never criticized. The strange thing is that the friend friend who did criticize recently changed her style to dress feminine as well - goes to show to never let people affect what you like about yourself because sometimes those people don't even know themselves.

How to choose what to throw out

The plan to minimize my wardrobe has helped me regain my style because my yardstick to see what to throw out is based on styles that I truly love. My style has only changed in that I cannot wear midriffs that I wore at a younger age, but I can still wear slim fit leg pants, pencil skirts and belted tops and other feminine tops like I did 10 years ago. Some of the items that I am keeping I have not worn for a while when I was trying to project a different image, but no matter how much I donate, I still kept because I love them. It is strange that when I bought and wore things based on soley what I loved and felt comfortable with, rather than an image to impress other or garner attention from others, I had less clothes, and I loved almost all of the clothes I had. By eliminating items that are not consistent with my lifestyle, and what I do not feel completely like myself in, I will only wear items I love. After choosing styles consistent with my lifestyle that I also love, I decided to choose clothes to keep based on color and material. I detest wearing name brands to appear more classy or for image, but I do believe in buying things of good quality materials. Often times, buying more expensive means better material, but many times, beyond a certain price point, you are paying for the name and image alone rather than just materials and workmanship. That is why I would prefer simple cotton button down blouse from Bebe or Banana Republic for about $70 to one at Theory for $200. I make an exception for outlet shopping because sometimes you find high quality, very expensive pieces for a fraction of the price.

Letting go

It is strange how we become attached to things because we don't want to feel like we wasted money or because we convince ourselves that we will wear an item later or might need it later. The rule of thumb is that if you have not worn an item more than twice in the last year, then it should go. This does not go for special occasion wear like formal dresses or an interview suit. Make a list of the main activities you do, then place each item in a category (i.e. work, casual/friends, formal). If you have never worn an item for its activity, donate it. It would also help to have a cap on how many clothing items to have for each category. For instance, 9 dress pants for work are more than enough. You can even have a max amount of clothing list like me (100). Try to keep a few things that are versatile and can be used for more than one activity. For instance, 2 shirts that can be both casual and for work cuts your need of shirts in half!

I will post my own (final) list of clothing soon.