Dejunk Yourself Week Two: A Capsule Wardrobe Without the Capsule
How to figure out the age-old problem of clothing
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Aaah clothes. We love them. Sometimes a little bit too much:
The average person owns 148 items of clothing (in the US, it’s 173)
On average, people spend $161 per month on clothing
We only wear 10% of our clothes on a day-on-day basis
40% of our clothes are never worn
We buy 60% more clothes - but keep them for half as long - as we did 15 years ago
350,000 tonnes of wearable clothes end up in landfill
The average American throws away 65 pounds of clothing every year
In other words, clothing is a pickle. Too many of us have too much of it but don’t know how or what to do with it all. Do you throw away? Donate? Keep just in case?
Welcome to week two of Dejunk Yourself - a comprehensive how-to guide to curating a beautiful, practical closet that makes you feel neither guilty nor deprived.
Let’s get started with 8 ways to reduce what you already own:
Identify your uniform
First things first - what do you love to wear?
Most of us have a uniform - the backbone of our closets.
I’m a classic Millennial. I live in skinny jeans, t-shirts and slightly oversized sweaters when the weather changes. Give me a leather biker jacket to go over it all and I’m one happy woman.
So first - think about your uniform. Go into your closet and choose all the clothes that fit within that - clothes you wear all the time. Because there is no point in throwing out items that are worn every day.
Then…
Start with the decluttering but start slowly
Decluttering like a Marie Kondo-possessed demon is a surefire way to lead to regrets. My advice? Start slow and take your time - months, even.
Start with the real easy stuff:
Anything that hasn’t been worn in years.
Clothes that are beyond repair.
Boxer shorts or panties that are falling apart.
Working from home after Covid? Get rid of the suits!
Clothes that are the wrong size or fit you poorly.
Odd socks.
Costumes from old costume parties.
Shoes that feel like torture to wear (thus you’ve likely not worn in years).
Hats you wore once to a wedding.
Purses you’ve not used since the Bush administration.
Take your time. No one is forcing you to jettison all your clothes in one decluttering session.
Use the changes of the season to help you decide what to declutter
It may still feel like Summer in some parts of the Northern Hemisphere, but where I am in Estonia right now, Fall has definitely arrived. These changes of seasons are a great time to consider your closet because it’s when you change up what you wear.
If you’re pulling out sweaters and jeans you didn’t wear last Fall, do you think you’ll be wearing them this year? Probably not. They could be candidates for Goodwill.
Create an “unsure” closet
If you’re undecided whether to throw an item of clothing, stick it in a separate section of your closet. Give yourself a timeframe to wear items that find themselves there - say 3 months or (or 6 if it’s seasonal). If you’ve not worn it in that time, there’s your answer.
Wear “unsure” clothes and notice how they make you feel
Clothes are hugely psychological - we want what we own to make us feel good. Sometimes we try and guess if they’re going to make us feel good just by looking at them, but we’ll never know until we actually put them on.
So get those clothes in your “unsure closet” on your body. Wear them out to the store or on a night out. How do they make you feel? By the end of the night, you’ll know for sure if they're a keeper or a goer.
Use this quote
“Instead of asking, what if I need this someday, ask, what if someone else, today, needs it more?”
This is a quote from my friend Julia Ubbenga at Rich in What Matters.
If you’re on the fence about giving away an item of clothing, remember Julia’s words. It could make your decision for you.
Separate your seasonal clothes and put them somewhere you never see them
This is a little hack I discovered when I started to live on the road. During the winter, all my summer clothes are kept in storage and vice versa in the summer. When the seasons change, I return home and pull out the clothes I need for the next few months.
Because I’ve not seen any of these clothes for 3-6 months, they almost look like new items.
I forgot I owned that sweater, I love that sweater!
Keeping off-season out of sight can reduce the temptation to shop for new. Because they feel like new.
Treat your accessories the same way you do your clothes
Separate every accessory out. Set aside the ones you wear on a regular basis. The rest can be treated as above. Same goes for shoes, purses, belts etc.
How to declutter your wardrobe responsibly
Nobody wants to throw away perfectly wearable clothes to landfill and yet as I mentioned in my intro, that’s exactly what happens every year.
It’s harder to jettison responsibly. It takes more time and more effort. But many of us want to live a simple, slow life not just for the kickass personal benefits, but for the kickass environmental benefits too.
Here are some ways to help you declutter responsibly:
Wear until unwearable
Wear your faves until they wear through. Or until they smell bad. Or until a stubborn stain just won’t come out.
We owe it to our clothes - even the crappy cheapie ones - to wear them until they’re unwearable.
Use Goodwill (or similar) for any clothes that still have life left in them
In the UK, we have charity stores. We also have recycling bins for unwearable clothes that go towards making fibers. I use both - anything to avoid clothes going to landfill
Make your own rags
My mother will always take any of my unwanted clothes and turn them into rags for cleaning. This is especially good for socks or underwear. T-shirts also work well.
Repurpose
I’ve turned t-shirts into headbands. Jeans into cut-offs. T-shirts into crop-tops.
Breathing new life into old clothes by repurposing them is a really great way to satisfy that itch for shopping whilst costing you next to nothing.
The sticky issue of a capsule wardrobe
I LOVE capsule wardrobes. They always look so effortless and beautiful.
But I’m mindful that diving headfirst into a capsule wardrobe isn’t always a great idea. It can make you throw away perfectly wearable clothes in favor of items that fit your capsule. And unless you have impeccable fashion sense, it can be hard to develop the style of your wardrobe.
My advice? If you really want a capsule wardrobe, aim for one eventually. Replace clothes with items that fit your capsule. But do it slowly. Eventually, you’ll have the capsule wardrobe of your dreams, without having to throw out everything you own right now.
Check out the resources at the end of this guide for some inspirational capsule wardrobes.
How to responsibly buy future clothes
So you’ve decluttered and you’ve worn what you already own to death. You need some new threads.
Here are some ideas about how to do that sustainably and responsibly:
Buy clothes made from naturally antibacterial materials
My husband swears by merino wool t-shirts. They’re not cheap, but you can comfortably wear them five to ten times - or more - before washing them. The wool is naturally anti-bacterial so you don’t smell and you don’t feel dirty. And yet, you save water, electricity and space in your closet. Plus just two or three of these could fulfill all your t-shirt needs.
Choose ethically sourced clothing when you can
No, it’s not cheap. But it is worth saving a little, spending a little more, and replacing cheap old clothes with well-made, ethically sourced items. They last longer, they often look better and they’re kinder both to the environment and to those who make the clothes.
If money is in issue, many large clothing stores are moving towards ethically sourced collections which is a good start.
Do you need to replace everything?
When it comes to worn-out clothes, it can be tempting to replace like-for-like. But do you have to? If you own 25 t-shirts, you probably don’t need to replace them all.
Shop in thrift stores
UK high streets are filled with charity stores and they’re a veritable treasure trove for clothes. I hear US thrift stores are of a similar ilk.
I once spent a year buying everything I could in charity stores. Not only did I pick up some bargains (like a brand new $50 sweater bought for $7 that I still wear two years later), but my purchases helped me to be picky in what I bought (not everything comes in every size). That and I wasn’t contributing to landfill or sweatshops.
It takes some effort, but it’s worth the rummage.
Use the “decide once” principle
I recently wrote about the decide once principle over on Medium. It goes like this:
The idea is to think long and hard about areas of your life that get you excited, that mean something to you.
And use the Decide Once principle for everything that’s left.
Unless you’re big into clothes, the decide once principle can be really useful.
Take shoes. I’ve never been a big lover of shoes, so now I’ve decided to use just three brands:
Allbirds for my sneakers, Blundstones for my boots, Saltwaters for my sandals.
These are all quality, ethical brands that last and I know they make me feel good. The result is that I need just three pairs of shoes at pretty much all times. When I replace, I replace like-for-like. It’s saved me time, and money and I still look at my feet and think hey, they look pretty good!
Resources
Article - A Realistic Guide to Owning Fewer Clothes (No Capsule Wardrobe Required)
Courtney Carver’s Project 333
Merino wool specialists - Icebreaker
Capsule wardrobe inspiration on Instagram - Capsule Wardrobe Diary and The Minimalist Wardrobe
Ethical fashion - Good On You (an app that will tell you how ethical different brands are)
Your homework
I hope you got on well with last week’s homework and at least a corner of your house is now nicely decluttered! Hopefully, that has given you the motivation to continue to clear the most well-used areas of your home
This week, of course, I want you to start tackling that closet. Identify that uniform of yours. Find some unused clothes that can go to Goodwill. Pack away your off-season clothes and get them out of sight.
And let me know how you’re getting on by leaving a comment.