Photo credit: ClosetMaid
However, with all of those clothes, you’d think we’d be more satisfied. The results of this survey of 1000 women revealed:
21% of our clothes are unwearable
12% of our clothes have never been worn
33% of our clothes are too tight
24% of our clothes are too loose
10% of us are depressed every time we open our closets
So, how many clothes SHOULD we own?
Additionally, how can we make the most of every garment we own?
Let’s start by talking about how many clothes we need.
As much as I want to give you a straight number, it really varies from person to person and your lifestyle.
It doesn’t matter if you have 50 garments or 500.
It all boils down to this ONE QUESTION.
For example:
Do you open your closet and say, “I have nothing to wear.”
Do you spend more than 5 minutes in the morning choosing an outfit?
Do your clothes fit your CURRENT lifestyle?
Do you buy more special occasion outfits OR everyday outfits?
Do you hold onto clothes for sentimental reasons?
Do you have clothes skinny or fat clothes in case you lose or gain weight?
Do you feel depressed when you get dressed?
Do you have any clothes that need to be mended or altered?
If you answered YES to any or all of these questions, it’s time to re-evaluate your closet!
The problem is NOT that you have too many or too few clothes in your closet.
It’s that you don’t have THE RIGHT clothes in your closet for your CURRENT lifestyle.
You see, whenever we have a lifestyle change, our clothing needs change as well.
We tend to hold on to those old clothes either for sentimental reasons or because we think we’ll need them in the future. We also hold onto clothes for when we lose or gain weight.
Holding onto clothes, we don’t wear only creates visual clutter that we have to look at every day. single. morning. Ugh.
It doesn’t have to be that way.
Let’s fill your closet with clothes you need, feel good in, and love to wear every day.
Create the Closet of your Dreams
Just by making a few simple tweaks to your wardrobe, you could:
Have a closet filled with clothes you love to wear.
Get dressed in a cute outfit in under 5 minutes.
Have clothes that fit you.
Have clothes you feel good wearing.
Have an organized closet with a place for everything.
Get compliments every time you go out in public.
I have been helping people create closets full of clothes they love to wear and fill good in for decades, I’m excited to help you, too!
With this simple 3-step process, you’ll be able to have a closet full of clothes you love and feel good in every single day.
Step 1: Weeding Out
Go through your closet and remove any of the following items. You can resell them, donate them, or have them mended/cleaned/altered if necessary.
Clothes that don’t fit you today including too big, too small, or need to be altered.
Clothes that don’t fit your CURRENT lifestyle.
Garments that you’ve never worn.
Anything you don’t feel good or look good wearing.
Clothes that are stained, ripped, torn, or worn out.
Things you are keeping for sentimental reasons but don’t ever wear. This includes prom dresses, first date outfits, wedding dresses, etc.
Any clothes you haven’t worn in the past year.
It sounds counter-intuitive to remove items from your closet when you are trying to have a closet that works, but as you can see from the survey above…often times we keep clothes for the wrong reasons.
When we remove those items that aren’t working for us any longer aka. visual clutter, we’re left with a closet full of clothes we love to wear!
Step 2: Organizing
Now that you’re left with only clothes you love and look good wearing, it’s time to organize them.
Organize your closet by classification rather than by outfit.
For example, group all of your clothes like this: t-shirts, tank tops, blouses, sweaters, skirts jeans, pants, leggings, jackets, dresses, pajamas, socks, etc.
The reason for grouping your clothes by classification rather than by outfit is to allow you to look at your clothes as pieces that can mix and match rather than by outfits that can only be worn one way.
Step 3: Adding the Right Garments
How many times have you stood in your closet and thought, if I only had a red t-shirt for this blazer and jeans. Or I’d wear these shoes more often if I had a brown belt to coordinate with them.
When you find these gaps in your wardrobe, WRITE them down.
Then the next time you go clothes shopping, you’ll have focus and add garments that enhance your wardrobe rather than buying one offs that don’t build on the clothes you already own.
Let me know how this works for you in the comments below.
I want you to have a closet full of clothes you love to wear every day! If you have a question or comment about how to improve your wardrobe, please let me know.
