Capsule Wardrobe: {The Why}

What the heck is a capsule wardrobe you say? I stumbled across the idea on one of my Pinterest binges and followed about 20 links to find out the deal. My favorite source and one of the first (I believe) bloggers to suggest a capsule wardrobe was Unfancy.  She does an awesome job giving her rationale and walking you through the process. Another blog that I really enjoyed was Project 333. They have slightly different numbers and rules for your capsule, but the blog is full of great tips and tricks, especially if you are getting bored with your wardrobe. Check out my Pinterest board for more blogs and ideas on creating a capsule wardrobe. I did a ton of weeding through several blogs and came up with my own set of rules and rationale.

BASIC RULES

1. One capsule per season (Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer)
2. 33-40 items in each capsule
3. Store/Donate/Keep/Purge each season
4. No additional shopping during a capsule unless it is for the next capsule
5. Workout wear, intimate items, and lounge wear do not count in your number.
6. Accessories do not count in your number


Next, I'll share my motivation for looking into capsule wardrobes in the first place.

1. We sold our house and would be homeless for about 6-7 weeks. Wonderful family and friends volunteered to put us up over this time which we are so grateful. However, we did not want to invade their homes and completely take them over with all of our stuff. We are a family of 6 and two dogs which is overwhelming enough without all of our clothes and such. Limiting each of our girls to just one bin of clothing seemed a bit torturous. To be fair my hubby and I put the same limitation on our own clothing. THIS WAS A BIG. HUGE. deal for me. How would I ever choose just one bins worth of clothing??

2. More than once over the years a student or two or three has commented on my wardrobe. How I never seem to wear the same thing twice (I hope this isn't true). How I must have at least 20 different colors of cardigans. How everything matches down to my shoes. I used to take pride in these comments, but as of late they are starting to sting a bit. Do I really need 173 completely different outfits? Would 10 cardigans do as much as 20? How might mixing and matching make less be more? I was also convicted on several of these fronts after reading Jen Hatmaker's book, 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess.  She goes to a bit of an extreme for my taste but her sentiments and observations during her experience hit a bit too close to home.

3. I added an ADDITIONAL closet just for my shoes and accessories. Gulp. Don't get me wrong--it was pretty and functional and just plain awesome. However, I always felt a bit guilty showing it to anyone as I strongly feared their judgement and mental gasping when they laid eyes on it. Shouldn't there be a way for me to get my wardrobe into the closet I have? This was my goal for my new house. Plus, my initial closet was so packed that despite all of my clothes being hung up, they still came out wrinkled because they were so squished together.

TIME. TO. PURGE...Check back to see the purge! FYI.....How my closet started...