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“Know, first, who you are; and then adorn yourself accordingly.” – Epictetus
Have you ever asked yourself, “How many clothes do I need?” or “How many shirts should I own?”
If you’ve asked either of those questions before, consider just for a moment how your life would look if you owned a minimalist wardrobe of fewer clothes:
- You would have more disposable income.
- You would have more time to live your life.
- Mornings would feature less stress.
- Your closets would be well-organized and uncluttered.
- Packing for trips/vacations would take less time.
- Laundry days would be easier (not necessarily less, but definitely easier).
Unfortunately, instead of enjoying the benefits of a minimalist wardrobe, most of us buy into the lie that more is better. And because we do, we accumulate more and more clothing each season. We are convinced that new clothes will make us more joyful, more fashionable, and more popular. Unfortunately, they just end up getting in the way.
Consider going a different route with your life. Try owning fewer clothes and creating a capsule wardrobe. You may be surprised at how much you enjoy the freedom that a minimalist closet brings.
Whether you are hoping to minimize your wardrobe to the absolute minimum or just trying to pare down some of the excesses in your closet, you will find these 10 steps practical and applicable. They are the same steps that we have used in our home to create our own minimalist wardrobes.
How to Create a Minimalist Wardrobe and Closet
1. Admit that you own too much clothing. That’s all you really need to get started.
2. Wear fewer colors. Most of us already have a few favorite colors that we wear most often anyway – usually because we like the way we look in them. Choosing to intentionally wear fewer colors means fewer accessories (shoes, belts, jewelry, handbags, etc.). It also makes too much sense not to try.
3. Embrace the idea of one. When one can be enough, embrace it – one black dress, one swimsuit, one winter coat, one black belt, one pair of black shoes, one pair of sneakers, one handbag… insert your own based on your occupation, lifestyle, or climate.
4. Donate, sell, recycle, discard. Depending on the size of one’s existing wardrobe, an initial paring down won’t take long. Make a few piles – donate, sell, or recycle. Start with the clothes that you no longer wear. You’ll be surprised how much you can remove and just how close you are to owning a minimalist closet once you build momentum.
5. Donate, sell, discard some more. Removing the clothes you no longer wear is easy. Removing the clothes that you don’t really need can be a tougher choice. Turn around all the hangers in your closet. After wearing an item, return the hanger facing the normal direction. After the season, remove every article of clothing that wasn’t worn. That should help get you started on a second round of paring down. See this article for more creative tips on decluttering.
6. Impose an arbitrary moratorium on shopping. For many, clothes shopping is just a habit – and habit always takes over for inattention. To begin breaking the cycle of purchasing and discarding (the average American throws away 68 lbs. of textiles each year), set a self-imposed buying freeze. I recommend 90 days. If given enough time, this simple exercise in self-discipline will change your view of your clothing and the stores that produce, market, and sell them.
7. Set a monthly spending limit. Pick a low number and stick to it.
8. Purchase quality over quantity. Only buy minimalist clothing that you truly love – even if it costs more. If you stock your closet full of things you love, you will have less desire to add to it, which will make maintaining a minimalist closet a lot easier.
9. Avoid the sale racks. Sales can (and should) be used to help you get a better price on something you need. Unfortunately, most sale racks are designed to convince us to purchase something we don’t.
10. Impress with your character, not your clothes. Lee Mildon once said, “People seldom notice old clothes if you wear a big smile.”
With those tips above, you should have no problem creating a more minimalist wardrobe and answering “How many clothes do I need?”
To see how owning less in other areas of life can bring even more life-giving benefits, check out my book: The More of Less: Finding the Life You Want Under Everything You Own
Jodz says
I have been simplifying my wardrobe and I love it. I only have kept things I love and wear. I was given a huge bag of clothes from my sis-in-law. I went through it and only kept about 10 items (there was about 50+ items). I cannot tell you the amount of clothes I have brought on sale and hated, but the price was to good to pass up (or so I thought).
This is the principle I now follow. If I buy a dress for $5.00 and wear it once, it cost $5.00 a time. If I buy a dress for $50.00 and wear it 50 times, it only cost me a dollar a time. So in theory the more expensive it the cheapest.
Maggie says
I really like the idea of turning around my hangers to see what I’ve worn. For some reason, reducing my clothes has been one of the harder things to do. Like someone else commented, clothes are tied to our identities. Odd thing is, I don’t really like a lot of the clothes I wear anyway. I think it has something to do with losing the sense of feeling prepared for whatever situation arises. I will definitely use these steps in working on reducing my closet – thanks for the ideas!
Rachel says
Maggie, I don’t know if this will help, but I did something similar in my closet. I put a plastic ring around my closet rod, on the left, and every time I did laundry I’d hang up the clean shirts on the left of the rod. I tried to wear more things from the right of the rod, over time, until I had worn everything once (or discarded it).
After a month I decided to put up a new plastic ring for each month, so that I would always know the month in which I last wore something. It helps me see what I really haven’t worn in a while (do I still like it?) and reminds me to keep wearing everything I have.
I still have 56 shirts on the hangers and maybe that’s a bit much, but the system has helped a lot.
Jessica says
The hangar tip was my favorite. How easy it makes it to dump the stuff you haven’t used. I just cleaned out my closet last week and this will help narrow it down further.
kathleen shaver says
I totally agree with you, thanks for putting it into words. I truly want to become a minimilast, but realized when I read this my closet is the place I need to focus on and will have the greatest impact overall.
nicole 86 says
Well, I have never been used to full closets and now
I find useful to buy some more tshits,topsand underwear because doing the laundry every night or two is boring, time consuming and costs a lot in energy.
Meg says
We have enough for 10-14 days around here, precisely for that reason. That’s still not a large amount of clothing, though, as the extras are mostly t’s, undies, and socks. It works out to the most efficient use of laundry time and loads large enough to not waste water or electricity. I had a much smaller stacked washer and dryer at our previous residence and weekly laundry was the most efficient then.
Willow says
The idea of quality over quantity is a key component to a minimal wardrobe. If I purchase clothing at a thrift store, it costs less but then I think I can have more clothing. And often I don’t like the thrift store item as much so I don’t wear it. So it’s a lose-lose situation. I’d rather have two great prs of slacks than even three cheaper pars I don’t love.
Mary says
Interesting. Isn’t a thrift store what we’d call a charity shop in the UK? Obviously, it varies depending on how wealthy the area is, but generally, charity shops here are one of the best places for finding once-expensive clothing, particularly for basic items for which ‘being in fashion’ is a secondary consideration.
Meg says
This is an incredibly important part of simplifying/minimalism. It’s one of the first big things I did when I began to seriously unclutter my home and life, and it has saved so much time, money, space, and raised so much awareness, that I could equate it with a major life change.
Our clothing choices are tied to our identities, and the need to buy too many things or to stay on top of the latest fashions or to buy things just because they were cheap does not say much good about our identities, does it? Getting down to the fewest things and the best quality we can afford sounds like a much classier way to go.
joshua becker says
Clothing is one of the first things that people seem to have questions about – that, and books. The questions and comments I have gotten from others led to the inspiration for this post.
jDeppen says
“Packing for trips/vacations would take less time.”
That’s funny, I just told my wife the other day how much easier it’s going to be packing for trips because I’ll can just bring everything I own (well the stuff that’s in season).
Summer = sandals so no socks either :)
joshua becker says
I left on a trip today. And literally just added that benefit after I realized how much less time I spend packing now then before we became minimalist.
Crystal Tillman says
This comes as good timing for me, the sewing bug as bitten me hard. Thankfully I’m mostly reworking my current clothes because of having lost weight. After I get done with that, I’m going to have to be careful. Thanks for the reminders.
A says
Great tips! I have a mostly minimalist closet and have for some time. I try to keep my belongings down to 7 of each type of clothes (7 sweaters, 7 pairs of pants, 7 lighter tops, 7 pairs of summer pants, and so on). In addition, all of my clothes (including underwear) are in a narrow range of colors that I can wash together – no reds to turn whites pink! Laundry day is so easy as a result because I don’t have to sort and can do everything that’s dirty in one load.
Deb J says
Great post. My mother and I love together. It bugs her that my closet is not full. She thinks I need more clothes. I’m thinking I need to get rid of a few more things. Guess I will have to do it on the sly just to keep her quiet. Grin.
Sarah says
The idea of one is key for me. If I want to buy something, it needs to replace the one that I have, and I usually don’t like it enough!