Moving house last month prompted a very much needed clear out in our household, and I think the biggest de-clutter of all came from my wardrobe. When it actually came to looking at everything, I was astounded by how much I'd actually held on to that I was never going to wear again, whether that be because it was now too big, or I just didn't like the piece anymore. By the end, I had over two huge bin bags full of clothes to go to charity - what a massive waste of space! I decided that going forward I was going to be much more ruthless with my wardrobe and curb my shopping habits a little too, just by following these simple rules, with the aim of having items in my wardrobe that I'll actually wear, not a pile of stuff I'm holding onto "just in case".
1. Question every purchase. Do I have anything I can wear with this?, Do I already have something similar at home?, Am I likely to get enough wear out of this? should all be questions that run through my head before I buy any item of clothing, no matter how cheap it is! I tended to have a habit of just wandering around the shops, grabbing anything I saw that I liked, and then figuring out what I'm going to do with it later - which a lot of the time meant absolutely nothing! I didn't really have a plan for anything I was going to buy, I just knew I wanted it! From now on, I'm always going to make sure I know exactly how I'm going to wear a piece before I buy it, and obviously to more uses I can find the better!
2. Try before you buy. I love shopping in Primark, but it can be pretty chaotic most of the time, I just want to grab my items, pay for them and get out! If there's one thing I've learned recently though, it's that buying all of your clothes in one size does not mean they are all going to fit you! Even in the same shop (especially Primark!) different styles of clothing are going to fit in different ways, and half of the time I don't try stuff on until I come to wear it for the first time and I've already cut the labels out. So many items that I had in my wardrobe I would've expected to fit me but were either swamping me or a little snug around the hips. After going into the changing rooms on my latest shopping trip I discovered that I needed an size 8 top - woohoo! Having tried on the 10 too, which I would've just grabbed beforehand, I realised it would've been way too big for me.
3. Keep the wardrobe organised. In my old wardrobe, everything was crammed in in any random place it would fit, I couldn't really look at anything properly, so always came back with the same problem - lots of clothes, nothing to wear - as I just couldn't find anything! I'd end up wearing the same accessible clothes again and again, whilst the rest of my things were neglected. Now we have a bigger, and much better, wardrobe, I intend to keep it organised. I've got everything arranged by category; dresses, skirts, shirts & nice tops, jumpers, cardigans and lastly jackets. My big drawer underneath has trousers at the front and casual tops at the back. That way, I know where everything is and it's much easier for me to pick out an outfit.
4. Have regular clearouts. If even with having everything laid out much nicer, and thinking about the purchases I'm making, I'm still not wearing an item of clothing much if at all, it needs to go. My tendency would've been to hold onto it just in case I found something I was going to wear it with one day, but more often than not that day would never come. I am going to be much more ruthless and get rid of the things I don't love anymore, otherwise I'm eventually going to end up in the same situation as I was at the old house. I'll still be having my big clearouts at the end of every season, but the idea is to have smaller ones in between too.
So hopefully, by sticking to these rules, I'll have a much more wearable wardrobe and save myself some money too. Do you have any rules that you stick to when it comes to clothes shopping?
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