Simplify Your Wardrobe: Part I of III

Okay – show of hands, even though I can’t see them…. How many of you have done any of the following in the past 90 days:

  • Put on an outfit only to realize you liked the top or bottom but did not have a matching top or bottom that you liked to wear with it, and thus changed out of it?
  • Tried on more than 2 outfits for a single event?
  • Tried on something in your closet only to discover you no longer like the way it looks, but left it in your closet anyway?
  • Argued with a child (or had a long conversation) about what they were going to wear?
  • Scrambled to find a matching outfit for your child?
  • Wanted to wear something only to discover it needed to be mended, ironed or dry-cleaned so chosen to wear something else?
  • Have a pile of clothes that need repairing, ironing or dry cleaning that have not moved forward in any of the aforementioned processes in the last 3 weeks?

This week’s challenge is geared toward your personal wardrobe, but I strongly encourage you to do this with any children’s wardrobes if you are responsible for getting them dressed in the morning. It is simply amazing how much time we spend putting on and taking off, searching for a missing item of clothing or a ‘match,’ running errands to dry clean or mend, ironing, pre-soaking, taking something off in frustration and then adding it to a pile we will later have to fold so we can repeat the process later!

Since dressing is something we do daily, it is important to tackle on the simple path. When we don’t have good routines and practices in place, what should be a simple task becomes a source of stress and lost-time. Not to mention, it isn’t a great feeling to put something on and decide you don’t like how it looks first thing in the morning!

We will approach this in three phases–

Phase I: this week we will do the ‘prep’ work
Phase II: We will go through pile 1– the most important!
Phase III: We will sort through the remaining piles and create some
guidelines for your personal wardrobe management plan

Step One:
First, wash and repair everything you own so everything is clean
and ready for a clear decision. Remove all special occasion clothes
that you need to keep but don’t wear on a regular basis. Store them
at an end rod of your closet, or better yet in a different closet.

Step Two:
Begin with three piles …

1. Your favorite items: You wear them a lot, you feel good in them and they are comfortable.

2. Things you don’t wear for whatever reason.

3. Things that fall in between 1 and 2 – you don’t love them, but you wear them.


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