Let’s say you’ve gathered ever single piece of clothing you own. What do you do with your clothes now? Wear them, of course!
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to make a capsule wardrobe out of things you already own. Live with it for a month, then put the clothes away. (Uh, wash them first. Ew.) For the next month, make another capsule wardrobe from other clothes. Rinse and repeat. Easy-peasy.
“But how?” you ask. “How do I know what to choose for an entire month?”
First of all, who are you and how did you eat everything in my kitchen? Get out of that cabinet. Shoo!
Look at your Little/Big/Humongous clothing list and see if there’s a pattern. Do you own more black clothes than anything else? Boom, easy neutral to work from. Do you steer more towards warm colors than cool colors? Now you know what might not match in your collection.
Still no pattern? Great! Let’s randomize. With the magic of abundance, combinations are nearly infinite.
I like to use these games below:
- The “I’ll Have What She’s Having”
- The Holidays
- The Generator
- The Ultimate Randomizer
- The 365 System
Play around with whichever games tickle your fancy the most.
- The “I’ll Have What She’s Having”
Have you ever pined for someone else’s internetty pics of the perfectly curated wardrobe? Do you drool over capsule wardrobes featuring your favorite colors? Now you can emulate them!
Find the capsule wardrobe online that you adore, gather anything you own that looks remotely like their collection, and voila! Now you can be them. Chances are, this month you’ll discover you’re not as into their clothes or their vibe as you thought. And that’s ok. You’ve learned something valuable about your tastes.
- The Holidays
There are some months that put you in the mood. For some of you, summer will inspire pastels, or February’s St. Valentine’s Day will encourage you to wear more red.
I play this one every October. My favorite holiday inspires me to wear anything black, orange, purple, or spooky. Try this game for every month with a holiday you love, or make up your own holidays! You can make these decisions yourself. I’m not your mom. (But you really should eat your vegetables.)
- The Generator
This most random of games is, to me, the most fun. Find any online random color generator and let it choose color combinations for you. The first out-of-this-world combo that makes you go “Ooh!” is your new color theme.
Wear that shit. If it makes your eyes happy, it’ll make your body happy. Wear that shit every day, I dare you. - The Ultimate Randomizer
There’s a reason I encouraged you to number everything in all your clothing categories last post. This method generates the most random of capsule wardrobes with the power of D&D dice.
Don’t have D&D dice? Use an online one here.
We can use this number system two ways.
A. The Category Method
B. The Cliffs of Insanity Method
A. The Category Method
See my clothing spreadsheet above. Let’s say I want to pair a dress with a jacket. I’ll need an 8-sided die for the dresses and a 14-sided die for the jackets. (Or a D8 and a D20 if using physical D&D dice. Always choose dice that are equal to or larger than the number you’re rolling for.) I roll one of each die, and if the combination I roll sounds pleasing I decide to include that in my capsule wardrobe. Typically, I this method gives me surprisingly cool combinations I would never have considered before. (Or maybe I have the most horrible fashion sense. Sorry, not sorry.)
Go invent some outfits, you artistic genius! Roll for any pants/shirt/skirt/skort/sock/shoe/jacket/potato sack categories until I have enough outfits to last a whole week. Mix and match for endless fun.
B. The Cliffs of Insanity Method
Instead of numbering by category only, give every single item in your wardrobe of dreams its own unique number, you fashionista. Include accessories, too. (The above dice roller website is great for infinite numbers.) If you found out you have 356 items like I did, high-five! Less than that? Awesome. More? …OK, you might have a hoarding problem.
Anyway, take your x-sided die and go nuts. Roll it 10 times, set aside those clothes, and see if there’s something you can work with. Do you like it? Good. That’s your new bad-ass capsule wardrobe. Gather a few more complementary pieces and call it a month. Hate it? Roll 10 more times. Later, rinse, repeat, don’t drop the soap.
Back to the rest of the games….
- The 365 System
I’m doing this one now. Look, babies, I have too many clothes. So I vowed to wear a different article of clothing every day for a whole year. Simple as that.
Sure, I’ve had to make an entirely new list to help me remember which clothes I’ve worn. And, sure, I’ve fudged the system a little. But fudge tastes great and you can’t take it away from me.
Now that I’ve thoroughly confused you, the next step is yours: homework. (See, I’m not your mom. I’ve been your eighth grade English teacher all along! *lightning flash and thunder*)
I’m sure you have a few questions. Before I answer them, let me remind you YOU MAKE UP YOUR OWN RULES. I don’t know what your closet looks like, and thank goodness I can’t see that mess because I would for sure turn into your mother and yell at you.
Does all this put too much stress on getting dressed?
Yes and No.
While it did initially take some time to compile all my categories and numbers and D&D dice addiction and whatnot, it has helped decision making in the long run. Sure, I still feel like going shopping ALL. THE. TIME. and might feel a bit guilty about buying something for a category. But you know how the abundant capsule wardrobe has helped me?
Choosing what to wear is easier! I no longer feel like I have nothing to wear!
I tried this and my clothing didn’t fit my needs.
Not all pieces have to go exactly with the proper circumstances. Say you ended up with your fanciest pants this month. You know the ones: your “special occasion” pants. Aim to wear those fancy pants at least once this month. Dress up for no reason. Feel special in your fancy ass pants and take your fancy ass to work. You’ll feel great today.
And did you end up with lots of sweatpants this month? Please tell me you know the joy of going grocery shopping in sweatpants.
Maybe you just have too many clothes and you’re inventing these complex systems as a way of feeling like you have more control over your life?
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha get out.
And there it is. The Abundant Capsule Wardrobe.
Go have fun getting lost in your treasures.
I’m insanely jealous of every capsule wardrobe, but I’ll be a monkey’s aunt of I KonMari my 50 graphic T-shirts. In all my years of attempting to declutter and get my clothing shit together, I’ve binge-scrolled through capsule wardrobes with envy. That tempting idea of garment bliss, those internet pictures of spacious, spacey space between clothing hangers and folded socks, and all the promises of well-tailored clothing keep following me.
When it comes to committing to a capsule wardrobe, I run into some problems.
Problem A. Some capsule wardrobe gurus suggest choosing 3-4 colors only. I have so many colors in my closet, I could never choose just a few. Plus, all my favorite colors clash with each other.
Problem B. Some capsule wardrobe gurus follow a rule of owning 33-37 pieces of clothing (not counting undergarments). This feels very limiting. Plus, if a specific piece of clothing works for me I don’t see why I should get rid of it in favor of another piece just because some rando on the internet told me I’m not allowed to have both.
Problem C. Anyone who wears beige all day every day is my enemy. I’m looking at you, capsule wardrobe fashionistas. I love colors. Besides, I don’t own that many boring-colored clothes.
Problem D. And some decluttering gurus advise us to keep track of what we wear by turning around each clothing hanger after we’ve worn the piece hanging from it. What if we prefer to fold our clothes instead? We’re doomed, I say, doomed!
I have the perfectly customizable way to experiment with this capsule wardrobe thing while kindly telling all the 37-item collections to stick a sock in it. Also, you get to keep as many clothes as you want. Luxury!
Here comes The Abundant Capsule Wardrobe. This was designed with a few things in mind:
- Keep what you already have and love.
- Take inventory of every single piece you own.
- You have room to buy more, if applicable.
- Invent new outfits with fun challenges.
We can declutter, inventory, and invent all within this abundance. Take note of these key phases.
Phase One: Collect Underpants
(optional) Phase Two: Pare Down Clothes
Phase Three: Wardrobe!
Phase One: Collect Underpants
To make any kind of capsule, you need to take stock of what’s already haunting your house. Your mission is to inventory. This dirty word has helped me go from feeling like I have nothing valuable in my closet to feeling enriched by what I’ve been ignoring all these years.
Inventory can be done in two ways:
- The KonMari method: Do all the laundry, then gather all your clothes in the world in one place. Feast your eyes, make a list, fold, and store.
This method works for people who are kinesthetic learners. Get your fingers all up in that fabric. - The Spreadsheet method: Make a list of all your clothes (I recommend a digital copy so you can edit easily). This method works for people who are visual learners. Making blocks of colors next to each specific clothing item helps you view each category at a glance.
Don’t be scared by the word “spreadsheet.” This Type-A concept has helped me organize so many things, most importantly my clothes. This method is also good for people who don’t feel like getting sucked into doing the laundry.
How to spreadsheet:
List items by type. I don’t mean tops vs bottoms. I mean long sleeve vs. short sleeve vs. tank top vs. hoodie. You get the idea. Be as detailed as possible. The purpose is to know exactly what you have for the sole purpose of retrieving clothes later with ease. You’ll thank me when you can recall any of your 200 most precious pieces.
Make sure to…
a. Put the primary colors next to each item.
b. Leave no category untouched. You may organize your spreadsheet however you like. (See my example above.)
c. As you do laundry normally, refer back to the list to write down anything that might have been eaten by your laundry hamper.
Phase Two: Declutter some, but not everything
Skip this phase if you don’t want to pare down your clothes before embarking on this adventure.
See the numbers in the above picture? That’s my vain attempt at limiting each category to 10 items. (I can hear my inner villain now: “You foolish girl! You thought your hoarding tendencies could be contained? Neverrrrr! *lightning flash and thunder*)
Let’s look at the first category: Dresses. I’m limiting myself to 10 dresses but haven’t actually owned that many yet, hence why #10 is blank. I used to own 9 dresses, but then I let go of #3 and simply put place holders in that spot. Now, I own 8 dresses.
This isn’t an invitation to go buy more dresses to fill my #3 and #10 slots, although online window shopping is a wonderful pasttime. This is simply a reminder that I can be happy with less. In the next category, Pants, I own 8 as well. However, I personally feel I should have a few more pairs to wear to work. If I decided to fulfill that need, I can see at a glance that I should only buy 2 pairs because that’s the limit I set for myself.
A note: The 10-item limit was set arbitrarily. I didn’t pre-measure my storage spaces to see if I could actually fit all of these. If you want to measure before making your own lists, go right ahead, you free thinker.
Now let’s look at my Skirts categories in the middle of the spreadsheet. I made two categories because sometimes I like short skirts, sometimes I prefer long skirts. As I own 10 long skirts and have overreached my limit with 11 short skirts, this spreadsheet serves as a reminder for me to STOP. BUYING. SKIRTS. DAMN IT, BETH. Also, hey Beth, think about getting rid of one of those short skirts.
You get the gist. You decide what’s best for your frighteningly overwhelming closet. Maybe you want to divide everything into more detailed categories but limit the number to 5 each. Maybe you put all your pants/shorts/capris into one lump. Or maybe, like me, you have 68 graphic T-shirts. (Yes, I know I said 50 before. These shirts procreate like rabbits.)
symbols of note:
“__” white clothing
“X” denim clothing
“-” placeholder for items I don’t have in case I go on a shopping spree and find something I just Have To Have OMG
Next post:
Phase Three: Wardrobe!
This is the fun part. The creative challenge. The part where you get to experiment with a capsule wardrobe without submitting to the limitations defined by other blog and YouTube gurus.
See you later this week for the fun part!
Befferkins, the Random 