My guidelines to perfecting my closet

My goal to have a streamline and manageable closet, filled only with items that will look great on me and make me feel comfortable, and confident at all times, can be achieved if I follow some guidelines (of course, with everything, there are exceptions).

Guidelines: 

• One-in, one-out rule - When I began this project, it was a one-in, two-out rule because I wanted the process to go faster. Now, having purged a lot of my closet, if I want to bring in something, I have to take out something.
• Improve on quality - for certain staple or long-term items, such as jackets, I am looking to trade up in quality so that these are long-lasting items that I don’t have to buy again within a short period of time, and will still look good.
• Stick with a color palette - I chose several colors as my ‘back-drop’ and sticking with them makes my life so much easier.
• Research - If I want to bring in an unexpected item, I research outfit ideas for it and see what existing items it will work with, and also make sure it will flatter my body-type.
• Track it! - each item I purchased in 2014 is logged into an excel spreadsheet where I can tally up how many times I’ve worn something so I can calculate cost-per wear, and whether it might be a future closet staple or just a fast trend.  
• Don’t be afraid to try new things

I don’t need to buy - perfume

As part of my goal towards minimalism, I have been identifying items that I feel I don’t need to own a lot of - my closet and ‘get ready’ routine contain a lot of things I can pare down on. Sure, variety is great, but some times it’s just overkill (not to mention, when you live in a <800 SF condo, you just can’t, or in my case, don’t want to own so much stuff). 

Perfumes are such a thing that I don’t need a lot of, especially since they take so long to use up. I started this year with 7 full-sized bottles of varying amounts, and have a goal to down-size to just owning a maximum of two at any given time. I currently have 5 and am switching back-and-forth between my Marc by Marc Jacobs Daisy, and YSL Parisienne.

A few of my favourite things - my Hunter rain boots

There are some items you don’t need a lot of (or if you’re like me, just hate buying) so I try to get the best quality I can to avoid (minimize) having to re-buy. I strongly stand by the fact that sometimes it’s better to pay more for an item than having to replace it often - keeps my sanity, and saves me money in the long run. Sometimes I can’t avoid a high price tag, but if the quality is there and I know I will be using it for a long time, I don’t mind. Too much. 

In this particular case, I found these limited edition Hunter rain boots at Winners for an amazing price! I’ve had them for 5 years and I still get compliments on them every time I wear them because they’re so different from the usual Hunters that are seen (I live in a very very rainy city) . Bonus - they’re navy!

A few of my favourite things - my Pandora Rings

These Pandora rings are items I wear every day. All my daily jewelry has significant meaning to me and I very rarely change out of them. The first ring, “Forever Love,” was a gift from my cousin - each of us girls (4) have the same ring. I purchased the second ring, “Princess,” for me and my mom when we had a rare ‘mother-daughter day’ outing. 

Less is more

In the last 2 years I have been leaning towards a more minimalist lifestyle so purging my clothes was in-line with my lifestyle goal. I didn’t have an insane amount of clothes to begin with, but considering it is said that we regularly only wear 20% of our clothing, it was more than enough. The more I purged, the easier it was to get dressed in the morning - I had less but was able to put together a greater number of outfits because each item was more versatile and thought out. Having less helped my confidence grow since I began to stop second-guessing my choices.

Never say never - animal print

When I was a little girl, I thought anything in an animal print was horrible and old lady-like but as I got older, I became more curious but wasn’t sure how to pull it all together. After browsing Pinterest for outfit ideas, I decided to take the plunge and purchased these cute flats. These instantly gave my outfits a spark! And I’ve never looked back - animal prints give my basic outfits a bit of edge and I don’t even have to try.

For those interested, these are by Cole Haan, purchased 2 years ago.  

Navy - my new ‘go to’ color

Blue was always in my wardrobe but it was mostly because I like the color, not because I knew how to make it work for me. I decided to go with navy as my main blue shade and bought pieces that I would use as ‘anchor’ pieces - pieces that would hold the eye. This year I added a skirt (Gap, similar to this one), kitten heels (Zara), nylon bag (Dooney &Bourke), and zip-wallet (Michael Kors) to the mix. 

The first successful purge - colors

Tips out there for people who want to purge their closet usually consist of sorting your clothes into groups of 3- “toss, donate, keep”, “get rid of, repair, keep”, “love, like, so-so”, you get the idea. I attempted variations of this but felt too attached to some items, had too many ‘what if I need it’ moments, ‘this cost too much to get rid of and I didn’t wear it enough!’ moments, or dedicated myself to lose weight and fit back into them.

Frustrated by the slow progress, I decided to re-arrange my closet and grouped my colors together just to feel some productivity. After doing this, I saw what colors I had a lot of, and what I didn’t have many of.

I assessed the low-count colors and realized that (1) I just don’t like some colors very much, (2) some don’t look good on me; and (3) some are hard to match. (Coincidentally a group of 3. Hrm.)

I instantly got rid of the items in colors I didn’t like, and those that don’t look good on me - why keep them around? It wasn’t that many items but the fact that I was able to identify what wasn’t working and why, was a great step forward.

Colors that are hard to match - I spent more time on this category. Were they actually difficult to match? or was it just me? I took to Pinterest and searched for outfit ideas and only kept items that I could make outfits with, with what I currently owned. This was an eye-opener because it opened me up to new outfit ideas, and showed me that I wasn’t a lost cause - I do have an eye for fashion but I just needed some help.

By the end of that session I had removed items from my closet that wouldn’t have worked for me in any way. Success! Not only was my closet lighter, but I identified some solid ‘don’t buy’ principles.   

Colors that don’t work for me and my wardrobe:

• Brown
• Green tops
• Orange tops
• Yellow

The start of my journey to a perfect closet

For years I spent my mornings trying to navigate my closet in hopes to put together a nice ‘outfit’ (read - if I left the house looking boring, that was a good day). No matter how amazing each individual piece was, how neutral the color was, or how ‘easy to wear’ something was, it never worked for me. I never felt I was able to express myself through my clothes and I began to feel uncomfortable, my self-esteem taking a hit.

Last year I conducted a ruthless closet purge and this year I began to mindfully replenish my closet with items that I love, work for me, and somehow allow me to pull together an actual outfit that reflects my style and actually makes me look, dare I say, stylish?   

Follow me as I continue to perfect my wardrobe - I will continue to purge, find better fitting items, experiment with trends, and learn to make my clothes work for me instead of against me.