It’s a typical morning as I stand in my closet looking for something to wear for the day. I want an outfit that is cute and stylish, yet comfortable at the same time. I flip through hanger after hanger of tops, pants and dresses not quite finding anything I like.

This top is too small.

Those pants don’t fit right.

That dress is too worn out.

The list goes on and on.

Ever buy some fun new clothes, but end up wearing your old favorites anyway? Me too. Ever go to your closet and feel like you have nothing to wear, even when your closet is filled with clothes? Me too!”  – Caroline  from Un-Fancy.com

Why do I have a closet full of clothes that I don’t like, will never wear again or are so worn out they are embarrassing to wear in public? I think back to an episode of Oprah I watched years ago where she talked about shopping for clothes and how she wouldn’t buy anything that she didn’t absolutely love and feel great in. This helped her to create a closet full of clothes that she loved and wanted to wear….at least that’s what she let us believe anyway. I thought I had followed that rule all this time, so how did I end up with a closet full of nothing to wear?

I read an article a few days ago from a blogger out of Austin who writes about her daily outfits and 37-piece Capsule Wardrobe on her website Un-fancy.com. When I saw how amazingly cute her outfits were I was intrigued. How was she able to always look so put together and stylish with such a limited wardrobe? I did a little more reading and this is what I discovered about creating a Capsule Wardrobe:

(photo courtesy of un-fancy.com)

I have to admit that the idea of only having 37 items in my closet both excites and scares me! How on earth will I not look like I am wearing the same thing all the time. Well, after reading the full article, I realized that it really wasn’t so scary after all. For each season I would get 9 pairs of shoes, 9 pants, 15 tops and 4 dresses/skirt or jackets. This can me modified if needed, but the goal is to stay as close to these numbers as possible. The amount of accessories, workout clothes, swimsuits and pajamas are not limited….but it can’t hurt to clear out some of that clutter as well.

I decided to give this Capsule Wardrobe idea a try. So armed with a few trash bags, a glass bottle of wine and a few kid free hours I started emptying everything out of my closet to begin the narrowing down process.

This is what my closet looked like in the beginning (keep in mind that I do a yearly closet cleaning as is so my closet isn’t as scary as it could have been). I have a lower rack filled with pants and skirts, a middle rack with tops, jackets and dresses and a seasonal rack at the very top with clothes I am not currently wearing.

So my first item of business was to remove EVERYTHING from my closet. This might have been the most difficult part of all! I piled everything on top of my bed until there wasn’t any room left. Every item of clothing, every pair of shoes, every scarf, hat and belt…..it all came out! (this was taken mid-clean out so ignore the shoes up top!)

This is where the painful fun part begins. I went through every item and placed it in one of 4 piles – Love it!-Keep , Love it!- Wrong Season , Sell  & Donate. This part of the process took the most amount of time since I tried several items on, had arguments with myself over letting items go and just had a TON of clothes to weed through. In the end I had 12 tops, 7 pairs of shoes, 3 pairs of pants, 2 dresses, 1 skirt and 1 jacket that I felt confident putting back into my closet for the the Spring/Summer Capsule. Since I live in Texas and we don’t have normal seasons, I am starting out this experiment with a combined season Capsule. This means I still have room for a few more items and a trip to some local boutiques is in my future. (side note: I plan on doing a blog series on a few local boutiques and shops so keep an eye out for those coming soon!).

I took the ‘Love it! Wrong Season’ pile and hung those on my upper seasonal rack. They are still accessible if I need them (random cold day) or when I am ready to swap out seasons.

The ‘Sell’ items were placed on hangers so I could photograph them and plan to sell them online to help pay for the new clothes I will need to add to my Spring/Summer Capsule.

The ‘Donate’ pile was placed into trash bags and boxes and taken to a local donation center.

Overall I am really happy with my new closet! I love that it now contains only items that I know I love and feel good in. I am going to do a little shopping to reach my 37 items, but then I plan to refrain as much as possible – which shouldn’t be too hard since I rarely have time for shopping anyway. My plan is to stock my wardrobe with staple items that can be worn in a variety of ways, using accessories to dress them up or down.  Give it a shot! It nothing else, it will help you weed out the clothes you never wear and make room for new ones.

I would love to hear what you think about the Capsule Wardrobe idea. Leave a comment or send me pictures of your closet!

 

*disclaimer – all images in this post were taken with my iphone – they do not reflect the quality of images I usually place on my site.

 

 

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*Kendra Swalls is the photographer behind Paisley Layne Photography, and is a boutique portrait and wedding photographer in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. She specializes in, beauty, senior and family portraits as well as wedding photography. Kendra’s style is fun and personality-driven while still retaining the timeless features of photography that create family heirlooms. She currently lives in Justin with her family: a husband that keeps the family laughing and a three year old daughter who can put together a puzzle faster than anyone I know!.  Kendra is currently booking 2015 & 2016 Portrait Sessions and Weddings in Dallas, Ft. Worth, Denton, Flower Mound, Southlake, Keller, Lewisville, Argyle and all of the North Texas area.