Maintaining a Capsule Wardrobe

Maintaining a Capsule Wardrobe

This aspect of having a capsule wardrobe may even be more important than creating the wardrobe in the first place- because who doesn’t love to just pick up cute clothes here and there? Let’s be clear, just because you’ve created this wardrobe doesn’t mean that it’s always going to be the same no matter what, you need to keep in mind changing seasons, and career changes that may change the way you dress. (Like what if you decide to be a principal one day??)

There are two main ways that you can maintain a capsule wardrobe, and the way that you choose to do it really depends on your shopping habits and how much you want to think about what is going on. Method #1 is going to be for the people that don’t want to constantly change their look and don’t find themselves shopping all the time. The second is going to be for the person that likes the simplicity of a capsule wardrobe and the creativity that it requires but likes shopping and switching things up a bit.

Method #1- Seasonal Shopper

In this method, you review the wardrobe that you have every season, or as a rule, every three months. When you review it, you take out 5 pieces that you either don’t love, or that aren’t working in your closet the way you thought they would and replace them. This way you’re still switching things up and don’t feel too restricted. It’s important to note that the items you are using to replace the other items don’t need to be the same article of clothing. For instance, I bought a black skirt at the beginning of my capsule wardrobe, but as it turns out I’m not really a skirt person. As a result, I replaced this skirt with a pair of cute jeans I would get more wear out of.

Method #2- The One in One Out Rule

In this method, you count the articles of clothing in your closet (most minimalists will say a capsule wardrobe should be around 37 articles of clothing, but this isn’t a hard and fast rule) and you decide that your wardrobe does not need to exceed that number. For me, the magic number was 42 so I keep this in mind when I’m shopping. When it comes to the method, this is where you can buy clothes as often as you want, but when it goes into your closet you have to get rid of something.