Capsule Wardrobe - How to Get to Know Your Clothes

For around a year and a half now I've been reading about capsule wardrobes, but I wasn't brave enough to take the plunge. I am fashion challenged, to put it in simple terms. I'm not sure what my style is outside of casual and using ALL THE COLORS!

If you haven't already researched capsule wardrobes, you may not know what I'm talking about.
Basically it's trimming your wardrobe down to a set number of pieces and wearing only that for a season (3 months). This shows you how you can mix and match items you already have, causes you to wear what you have, shows where the holes in your wardrobe are, and helps you define your style sense. Not to mention, it saves you moolah because you're not going to be shopping for 3 months.

Donna Karan set the ball rolling years ago by setting up how to create an amazing wardrobe with just a few key, classic pieces. This has taken off again in the past couple of years and I've been sucked in by the awesomeness of it.

I first found capsule wardrobes while killing time  researching styles on Pinterest. I found myself finding things marked "Project 333" during my search so I had to go all Scooby Doo and find out what that was all about. That's when I found Courtney Carver and her awesome site, Project 333.

I read through it and thought, "OMG, cut down to 33 items in my whole closet?? Aw hell nah!" So I gave up. Couldn't do it. It cannot be borne. And thought these women were cray-cray! But I KEPT seeing it, kept reading about how much easier life was to know you're going to like everything you wear. I resisted and resisted, but deep inside I was all, "Capsule wardrobe, I just cain't quit yew!" And I was still at a stall. Part of my issue I realize now was I had SOOOOOO MANY clothes, but I didn't like the majority of them. They were either gifts that I felt like a jerk getting rid of, sizes I "knew" I'd shrink back down into, things I THOUGHT looked good on me that didn't, or just a Pandora's Box of miscellany that I figured I'd do something with because "I got it on sale!"

After months and months of "Come to Jesus" talks with myself, convincing myself that I am not built like a store mannequin, realizing that no matter how many skirts and dresses you don't magically become a girly-girl, especially if you don't wear them, and figuring out that even as SAHM I DESERVE to look and feel pretty, I decided to do a hard-core purge of my clothes. I don't even know how many bags of clothes left my house because I was too ashamed to count them. If a closet could be on The Biggest Loser, mine would have been in the finals. I also had my own Jillian in The Closet Biggest Loser, Marie Kondo. If you haven't yet heard about The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, I'll talk about it deeper in another post. The quick gist of it is I had to go through all of my clothes and ask myself if they actually "sparked joy." The joyless got donated, the joyful were now being worn instead of just being admired on their hangers.

Ok, so enough backstory... After listening to podcasts and reading articles and posts about creating a capsule wardrobe, I decided February was the month for me. I AM GOING TO DO IT!

HOW do you do it? You're going to have to be tough and truthful with yourself here for your first go. (This is a mish-mash of several CW gurus and how I personally did my capsule.)

*Inventory your closet.

*Make your piles - LOVE, Like, NO, and things that are worn out. Donate the No pile. Things that aren't in decent, donatable condition, repurpose it or chunk it. You might also want to make a list of the Love and Like piles to keep track of things easier.

*Pay attention to what pieces you wear often. Those may carry over into future capsules.

*Sort into seasons. If it's something you love and wear, but it's out of season, go ahead and store it for future capsules.

*Now you're going to pick your number for your capsule total. Most people seem to choose between 33-37 items. I personally chose 40 for my first capsule because it seemed a nice even number.

*You're going to want to include: Tops, Bottoms, Shoes, Dresses Outerwear.

Some people include accessories and jewelry, but I chose not to this time. I didn't' want to be overwhelmed and quit.

Do NOT include: Workout clothes, PJs, Undies.

*Project 333's Bonus Rules include being able to use the first week of each phase if you need it to finish up your donating and collecting for your new capsule.
And you can also have 3 additional pieces you can rotate in the next 3 months, but you have to rotate 3 other items out. 

*You're going to wear clothes only in your capsule for 3 months.

*No shopping during the 3 month period. You can start shopping for your next phase in the last 2 weeks of your season.

THINK OF ALL THE MOOLAH YOU'RE GOING TO SAVE!

Ok, so you're all thinking,"Man, she is CRAZY and MEAN!"

Crazy, yes. And I'm only mean if you run off with my favorite pens or post-its.

So to make you feel better, here's my capsule.

Let's start out with Tops. I've got 23 tops in my capsule. I live in Texas so the weather is a fickle beast. We can go from the 30s to 80 in one day, so I need some flexibility.

5 Bottoms. Yes, those are purple jeans. Shhh. Don't judge me.

9 Pair of Shoes

And this gorgeous cardi made by one of my best friends, Allison. She's also making me a Dreambird Shawl which will be included in my capsule. 

I also have a heavy coat, a hoodie for working around the house and outside, but they're not photo-worthy. And that makes my 40.

I'm also documenting my capsule wardrobe in a Bullet Journal just for it. I'll track what I wore, favorite outfits, pieces, things I'd like to add, etc.

If you're wanting to check out more info on capsule wardrobes, these are the sites that inspire me.

* Project333 

* Un-Fancy

* MomAdvice

* Little Bits of Granola 

* Modern Mrs. Darcy

Podcast Episodes I love:

* Sorta Awesome Ep. 44

* The Lively Show Ep. 36

* Dear Handmade Life Ep. 3 

* This Inspired Life Ep. 14


Where do you stand on Capsule Wardrobes? Are they completely cray or is it something you'd consider doing or maybe you already have embraced your CW.  Inquiring minds want to know.