STEP 0: THE BIG WARDROBE PURGE

MINIMISING YOUR CLOSET

Emptying out your closet can be a tedious task. I mean, most of us probably hate it. I do it every year or two. I look at my closet with a mildly critical eye and donate/sell/bin any old or no longer loved items. But I've never gone through my closet with such a capsule-wardrobe-fine tooth comb. It's amazing (and not in a good way), how much stuff can a person accumulate over 12 months, let alone in 5 or 10 years.

I call it step 0, because it's kind of an in-between step. I know a lot of you will want to start the capsule wardrobe challenge with purging your closet first so you can start with a clean slate. But some of you will perhaps do the purge in the middle of the process and some at the end. So here it is, step 0, to be used whenever needed :)

*One tip: You have to be very honest with yourself, otherwise it won't work. Out with the unworn, in with the worn. And there's going to be absolutely no slacking!

There are many ways to purge your closet and you have to see what method works for you best. I did it in three instalments: 

1. First, I got out everything that I knew I wasn't going to wear anymore. Too old, too worn, doesn't fit kind of items. These went into three piles:

Bin , Give away, & Sell

That's ⅕ of my closet gone.

2. Then, I took out all the things I love love love wearing, summer or winter clothes, doesn't matter, and I put them on the bed. 

My keep pile. 

That was about ⅖. 

I still had the last ⅖ left. This was the hardest part - you have to be critical and totally honest. I tried everything on (and I recommend you do too!) and if it didn't fit as much as I wanted it to, it went either to give away or sell piles. Not many clothes from this last section went to the keep pile, but there was a new pile to be created:

3. The maybe pile. 

Everything that didn't quite make it to the love love love keep pile, but that I just couldn't part with went in here. About 20-25 individual items, for sentimental reasons, or because they are really good pieces that I don't want to wear now but might want to wear in the future. I'm going to store them and see if I use any for next capsules, and if they don't get used for a year, I'm going to have to say goodbye. It contains a few summer dresses, a couple of t-shirts and some skirts and jeans. I'm curious myself to see if they get worn.

And that's it! It wasn't as painful as I'd thought it would be. I did most of this in a few hours, but if you have a huuuuge closet, you could always space it out over a few days/evenings. I prefer to do it all at once so it's not nagging at me every time I walk past it.

Have you ever done a big wardrobe purge? Are you doing one now? Tell me all about it in the comments!

Next up: Step 1 - Finding your uniform.