A colleague stood in my office distressed about her overstuffed closet.

“I don’t even wear most of it,” she lamented. “I need a different approach. What should I do?”

We talked about the latest trend in wardrobe organizing - creating “wardrobe capsules.” By creating a wardrobe capsule, you reduce the items in your closet and keep a limited number of things. According to Pareto’s Principle, we actually wear 20 percent of our wardrobe about 80 percent of the time.

By limiting your choices to that essential 20 percent, the wardrobe capsule creates more time for you each day and mental space. It also winds up creating more physical space in your closet by eliminating clothing that doesn’t fit into your capsule. 

An extreme example is Mark Zuckerberg’s infamous gray t-shirt and hoodie wardrobe, which dramatically reduces any thinking about what to wear.

Since most of us don’t want to wear the same outfit every day, you can create variety in your own wardrobe capsule. Just do a simple search on Pinterest, and you will hundreds of pins on creating various wardrobe capsules. You will also see there are many ways to create a capsule wardrobe, and you should do what works for you.

But how do you get started? Start by creating a small capsule, such as one for working out. Go through your workout clothes and pick out the items you like and wear, and keep enough to have a week’s worth of clothing. This includes shoes, socks, and sports bras.

Once you create one capsule, it becomes a bit easier to create another one. First, think about the wardrobe capsules you need, such as one for work and one for home/weekends.
 
Once you know what capsules you want, divide your wardrobe into potential capsules and then sort through each section. Ask yourself:

-Do you love it?
-Do you keep it out of habit?
-Do you keep it because it was a great deal?
-Does it fit? Is it comfortable?

Get seasonal. Create wardrobe capsules for each season. It makes rotating your wardrobe much faster when the season changes.

Work capsule. Aim for having two weeks of outfits. One example is to have five bottoms (pants and skirts), ten shirts, two to three jackets, and two to three dresses. Since there is no right or wrong way to do this, you can play with it and determine what works best for you.
Mix and match your outfits, and even photograph them so you can remember how you put them together.

Home capsule. Think of your weekend wardrobe. What activities do you participate in? My home capsule consists of mostly yoga pants, several shirts, jeans, and a couple of simple dresses.

Special occasion wardrobe. Go to the theater or events often? Establish a special occasion wardrobe with a few outfits and accessories so you’re ready to go. Want to change up things more regularly? Consider renting a fancy dress.

Accessories and shoes. As you pare down your clothes, so follows your shoes, jewelry and purses. Yes, I know. It’s so hard to give up pretty, shiny things, but if you’re not wearing or using them, they’re being wasted. 

Nieces and nephews. Now that you're mastering your own capsules, help the children in your life to create their own wardrobe capsules for school, playtime, special activities such as dance, sports, and other endeavors. This will help them to get ready a little faster in the morning and will help their parents see how quickly outgrown items will need to be replaced.

   -School. Have two or three weeks of outfits for them for school. If they wear school uniforms, they automatically have a wardrobe capsule.

   -Special activities. For these activities, put all of the items needed together including shoes, socks, and other special items, such as karate belts.

   -Take pictures of them in the various outfits so they remember how to put things together. They can store the photos on their phone, or you can tape them on the side of closet doors. 

As for my colleague, she spent a weekend and ruthlessly reduced her wardrobe to create her own capsules. On Monday, she reported how relieved and happy she was with her decision to reduce her closet.

Photo: SerrNovik
Published: June 22, 2016