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.