Good article on Capsule Wardrobe

[Gardenarian]

This article is about how one person greatly reduced the amount of clothing they own. It includes a list of her final capsule wardrobe.

It says that the average person's closet contains 152 items.

Sorry for long URL, I'm on my phone.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/reclaim-minimalism-capsule-wardrobe_us_57e81d39e4b0e28b2b549819?d7pscz0fvblin 3ik9&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=The%20Morning%20Email%20101016&utm_content=The%20Morning%20Email%20101016+CID_c35 242ea476f2062ddd32b6a16caf6ff&utm_source=Email%20marketing%20software&utm_term=being%20able%20to%20fit%20nearly%20all%20 of%20your%20possessions%20in%20a%20suitcase

[Zoe Girl]

I like it, I have a medium minimal wardrobe and I like it. I ran out of hangars after shopping so I had to get rid of one thing. I like capsule ideas of clothes in color schemes that go together well. That has saved me, but each year I try to pop one or 2 items with some color into the mix.

Totally funny note, the researchers reported on how people want experiences more than stuff now, they said the baby boomers and the millennials for data. There was another generation in there, I believe X, or maybe they forgot about us again.

[19Sandy]

In Marie Kondo's Spark Joy books, she says her average client (female) has almost 100 tops (this doesn't include outerwear). This is because we often have clothing in multiple locations besides a bedroom closet. Off season clothes in a hallway closet or inside totes, stuff in the laundry, items still in suitcases or in drawers. Now, if you live in one type of climate, it is probably easy to pare down your wardrobe. My region can have four seasons in a day.

[ApatheticNoMore]

I've never had many clothes to begin with. Now if you talked about owning 100 books, ok yea probably. But 100 tops - ridiculous, couldn't happen if I *WANTED* it to, I'd have to shop at least once EVERY single week to even find that many I liked and even then I wouldn't! I suppose people may keep clothes from a decade or two ago that might not fit or something and that's how they end up with a bunch of unwearable clothes.

However too few clothes and noone answers the question whether they 1) do laundry several times a week or 2) wear clothes for more than one day. But one or the other is undeniably true if you don't have enough clothes to make it through 7 days or so. I usually do do clothes laundry twice a week. I wear clean clothes every day.

[Tammy]

I only own 6 casual tops, one pair of shorts, 4 pair of pants, 3 nicer looking tops, and 5 pairs of shoes. I wear uniforms for work. I own 3 sets of those. Other than underwear and socks, pj's, jacket, coat, swimsuit - that's it.

I do laundry every 3 days or so - whenever there's enough for one load.

I never run out of clothing to wear. Even in hot Arizona, I just wore the same shorts on all my days off all summer. Shorts are ok for a few wearings in a row most of the time. If they are dirty I wear the lightweight pants. No problem.

Everything I own fits in a large suitcase.

[catherine]

I'm not huge clotheshorse either--there probably are hidden things in the guest room closet, but I'm pretty good at culling clothes, and I'm a big believer in restricting the color scheme and shopping for work clothes in a way that everything is mix and match. My favorite store for work clothes is White House Black Market. Everything there is high quality, classic and, true to its name, very limited in color choice. This last year I bought a black jacket, skirt and pants, a roasted pepper skirt, roasted pepper casual crop jacket, and three identical tops in black, cream, and roasted pepper. So when I travel I have a multitude of outfits I can wear.

For casual clothes, I wear only black or grey yoga pants and I have 3 hoodies. Under the hoodie is a t-shirt in the summer, or a turtleneck in the winter. If I want to "dress up" my yoga pants I have a couple of nice sweaters.

My downfall may be a reluctance to purge as quickly as I should, but I think any latent minimalism I may have is manifested in my wardrobe. My family and friends have commented on how small my wardrobe is (not always in a complimentary way, either)

ANM has a good point on needing to coordinate small wardrobes with laundry practices. Like Tammy, I actually don't wear clean clothes EVERY day. Obviously, I always change when I come back from a run. But I truly don't think that things get that dirty with one wearing if you're sitting in an air-conditioned building all day. I'm also good at taking care of clothes--I believe the more often they're spinning around in a washer or dryer, the faster they'll wear out. I don't dry my clothes--I fluff them in a high setting in the dryer for about a minute and then hang them--they dry wrinkle free and with nice body. My frugal MIL once pointed out that all that lint you see in the dryer's lint-catcher--that's your clothes disintegrating.

So I prefer to decide on whether I NEED to wash rather than routinely throwing clothes in the laundry. I wash once a week.

[Zoe Girl]

I don't have my own washer dryer, it is down the hall and takes quarters, so having enough clothes I could go 2 weeks most of the year is perfect. I get home a little before 7 and using the laundry room much past 8 is rude, so if I miss a weekend laundry day then it may have to wait. Over the summer I have 4 work polos and a bunch of work t-shirts, I don't like wearing the t-shirts because then I don't look like the supervisor, so I will do a load mid-week. Camp is messy business! During the school year I can wear jeans some days easily but like to dress a little nicer.

[Tammy]

Laundry is in my apartment. That is a consideration. I've found that having laundry in my apartment is almost more important to me than having a full kitchen in my apartment .

[Miss Cellane]

I don't have my own washer dryer, it is down the hall and takes quarters, so having enough clothes I could go 2 weeks most of the year is perfect. I get home a little before 7 and using the laundry room much past 8 is rude, so if I miss a weekend laundry day then it may have to wait. Over the summer I have 4 work polos and a bunch of work t-shirts, I don't like wearing the t-shirts because then I don't look like the supervisor, so I will do a load mid-week. Camp is messy business! During the school year I can wear jeans some days easily but like to dress a little nicer.

I agree, when you don't have your own washer and dryer, it is prudent to have more clothing. When I was dependent on laundramats, I think I had three weeks worth of underwear, just in case I couldn't get clothes washed on the weekend.

[Miss Cellane]

About the 100 tops--I recently met someone who has over 75 pairs of shoes. She's still buying more shoes, and was explaining to me how she sneaks them into the house so her husband doesn't realize she's bought more shoes. Someone else I know has 15 or so Coach handbags. So I can completely believe that there are people with over 100 tops.

If you include tee shirts, button-down shirts, golf-style shirts, sweaters, fleece tops, cardigans of every sort--it all adds up. If you need both long and short-sleeved tops, tee shirts and turtlenecks, lightweight sweaters for summer and heavy wool ones for winter, you could easily have 50 or more.

When I started decluttering my clothes, I gathered all my sweaters together. There were 33 sweaters. Never counted the other tops, but I'll bet the total was over 100 total. And I had a very small closet and an average size dresser. Many homes these days have huge walk-in closets, mostly because a great many people have huge wardrobes. They buy constantly, inexpensive items from Target and Walmart and even the thrift shops, wear things a few times and then just store them.

Now I have capsules per season. Because it gets cold here in winter, and hot and muggy in summer. Things like tank tops and tee shirts are year-round, as I layer them under other tops in the winter. But I'm not going to wear turtlenecks in July. And the 27 year old wool cardigan is useless in August.

[frugalone]

I'm a firm believer in Capsule Wardrobes, going back to the 1980s when Janet someone-or-other published books on the topic. I can say, though, that at times it gets boring for me. This is regarding my fall/winter/spring wardrobe. In summer, I guess I even have a version of one, but I tend to wear more dresses then.

For winter casual clothes, I come up short. Around the house, I tend to wear old, holey sweats. When I go out, I'll just grab a pair of work pants and a turtleneck or sweater. I don't go out to fancy restaurants or anything. Usually just to see my mom or a friend.

A couple of years ago, I bought pants from Lands' End that were sort of like yoga pants. They were too big and I should have returned them. Instead, I ended up paying a tailor to alter them, and I still don't like them. Now the waist feels funny because what he did was basically take the waistband and fold it over in two places and stitch it. They feel weird, but I feel like I spent too much on them to give them away. Even though I don't like wearing the. I don't know how to deal with this kind of mistake.

[Miss Cellane]

A couple of years ago, I bought pants from Lands' End that were sort of like yoga pants. They were too big and I should have returned them. Instead, I ended up paying a tailor to alter them, and I still don't like them. Now the waist feels funny because what he did was basically take the waistband and fold it over in two places and stitch it. They feel weird, but I feel like I spent too much on them to give them away. Even though I don't like wearing the. I don't know how to deal with this kind of mistake.

Admit you made a mistake. Then let them go. Donate them, since they sound like they are in good shape. Let someone else who does like them get them at a bargain price.

Chalk the mistake up to learning by experience.

If the pants just aren't right, you won't wear them much. And then they won't wear out. And there they will be, mocking you gently every time you see them in your closet. Every time you open the closet door, there they are, reminding you that you made a mistake. Just get them out of your life. And eventually, if you need to, find something to replace them that fits and doesn't make you feel miserable every time you put them on.

[Miss Cellane]

I really like this blog for capsule wardrobes: http://www.theviviennefiles.com/2016/10/a-starting-from-scratch-wardrobe-first.html

This week, she's doing a "start from scratch" wardrobe, which will probably end up with about 16 pieces of clothing, plus shoes, scarves and other accessories. It's interesting to see her thought process as she works through what additions will add more outfits to the existing pieces.

[Float On]

Admit you made a mistake. Then let them go. Donate them, since they sound like they are in good shape. Let someone else who does like them get them at a bargain price.

Chalk the mistake up to learning by experience.

If the pants just aren't right, you won't wear them much. And then they won't wear out. And there they will be, mocking you gently every time you see them in your closet. Every time you open the closet door, there they are, reminding you that you made a mistake. Just get them out of your life. And eventually, if you need to, find something to replace them that fits and doesn't make you feel miserable every time you put them on.

Yes!

I'm always buying things(at thrift shops) that I never wear or find I just don't like. I pass it along quick as can be. I keep a bag or box in the laundry room at all times to gather donations. Sometimes I'll raid the box if I need new stuffing for a dog bed or a rag.
Because we're 4 seasons and have small closets I rotate my wardrobe. I've been pulling out the fall/winter stuff lately and if I don't like it as much as I liked it when I did the purge before packing it up, it goes in the bag. I think for fall/winter this year I have 1 dress, 3 skirts, 2 jeans, 1 khaki, 30 tops (I do a lot of layering so that includes sleeveless, shirt/blouse, sweaters). A rubbermade box full of shoes/boots to replace the rubbermade box full of sandals. I'm down to 3 purses but that'll probably go down to 2. Scarfs - I have 20 but I never wear them all so I'll purge those as well and maybe keep 10. Meanwhile, I'm purging the spring/summer things as I pack them up. Getting rid of a lot of dresses and skirts I never wore this summer...I think I'm just tired of them. Will probably get rid of the black capri and a white capri and 10 shirts I never wore.

[rosarugosa]

I have 157 shirts/sweaters/t-shirts after seasonal culling. This does not include jackets, blazers, or hoodies. I guess I am not a minimalist.

[JaneV2.0]

I have 157 shirts/sweaters/t-shirts after seasonal culling. This does not include jackets, blazers, or hoodies. I guess I am not a minimalist.

Ha! Neither am I.
There are a number of different approaches to this simple living stuff.
I'll have plenty of time to own nothing after they wheel me into the Death's Anteroom Feeble "Living" Center.

[rosarugosa]

That makes me feel better, Jane. So I can still hang out with you guys? :)

[19Sandy]

I still have a lot of clothes but most are my nonfitting skinny clothes that meant to inspire me to lose weight.

Most people wear 10 percent of their clothing 90 percent of the time though. Me included.

[frugalone]

Yes, you're right--and they're taking up valuable space.

If anyone has suggestions for elastic-waisted, yoga-like soft pants (but not with that huge waistband yoga pants seem to have) at a reasonable price ($50 or under), please let me know!


Admit you made a mistake. Then let them go. Donate them, since they sound like they are in good shape. Let someone else who does like them get them at a bargain price.

Chalk the mistake up to learning by experience.

If the pants just aren't right, you won't wear them much. And then they won't wear out. And there they will be, mocking you gently every time you see them in your closet. Every time you open the closet door, there they are, reminding you that you made a mistake. Just get them out of your life. And eventually, if you need to, find something to replace them that fits and doesn't make you feel miserable every time you put them on.

[rosarugosa]

Counting my shirts helped motivate me to declutter 4 that haven't seen any use for a long time and that I don't particularly like, so the counting exercise did have some value. I can feel reassured that I still have plenty of options even with "only" 153 shirts, and will try to get it down to 150!

[JayPee]

I definitely have more clothes than I need and want. Until now, I didn't really declutter my wardrobe as I think the problem will solve itself in time. As a man, I have quite a simple solution what to wear today: The one on top. If something is worn out, I throw it away. If I don't like something or it does not fit anymore, I give it away. Takes some time, but no extra effort for decluttering needed.

Only if I run short of something, I buy some new. But carefully chosen and not a monster pack just because it's cheap...

[Teacher Terry]

4 years when I semi-retired I gave a way 2/3 of my clothes. I counted my tops and have 65 which includes tank tops, short & long sleeved shirts, sweaters, blazers, etc. We have a mild 4 seasons.

[rosarugosa]

JayPee: I love your male perspective on the topic; I suspect my husband does something similar!
The problem with owning 153 shirts is that one can theoretically try on 153 shirts before going out while trying to decide what to wear. I've never actually done this, but sometimes it feels like I come close. That my friends, is the antithesis of simple living!

[ApatheticNoMore]

I pretty much have a male perspective, but probably keep more spares, because women's fashion is always changing, and if hideously ugly happens to be what is in this season, it's good to have some emergency old clothes. Clothes truthfully wear out faster than I can replace them most of the time. If anything fall is my stock up season as the fall colors and styles agree with me.

[19Sandy]

I have clothes for different lives and sometimes have to pull something out of the closet for a different job or such. Plus, the weather is always changing in my neck of the woods.