It’s only April, but I’m already declaring 2015 the year of purge. I’ve been on the war path, purging everything in the house.  I did a clothes purge, but still had too many clothes. Most of them don’t fit and are old or stained. The other day my friend posted a blog post about building a capsule wardrobe. I heard about this 3 years ago, but I was in between pregnancies so it wasn’t the right time. Now seemed like the perfect time, so I tackled it while the little ones played (buying a slide for the playroom was my best idea ever!).

It’s a little overwhelming at first, but Unfancy has some great guidelines and tips. First, I took all of the clothes out of my closet and organized them into four groups:

• Love it – items I wear all of the time, fit, and that I feel comfortable wearing
• Maybe– items that I’m not really ready to get rid of, but I don’t wear them a lot
• No– items that are damaged, stained, too big, too small, why the hell did I buy this, etc
• Seasonal– the easiest pile-items that are for a different season

I tried to organized these piles quickly and tried not think about it too much.  It’s amazing how many damaged or stained shirts I have kept.

Why am I keeping 3 $5 stained Old Navy shirts?!

Then, I packed up all of my seasonal and maybe items because I had plenty of love it items.  I also bagged up 3 garbage bags worth of no items. The great thing about this project is that I’ll change my capsule wardrobe every 3 months.  So if an item didn’t make it this round, I can always include it in the next round.  If I don’t use those items by the end of the season, then it’s time to get rid of them.

Then, I started going through the love it pile and tried to pick out the items that I love the most and are the most versatile. I have seen several different rules about how many items you should have in your capsule wardrobe. I decided to go with Unfancy’s rules, but I adjusted them a little bit. Unfancy suggest 37 pieces which include 15 shirts, 9 pants, 9 shoes, 2 dresses, and 2 jackets/coats. I wear more dresses in the Spring/Summer, so I decided to do 5 pants and 6 dresses. Dresses can always doubled as skirts too! You don’t have to include hats, scarves, jewelry, purses, workout clothes, pajamas, and lounge wear in your 37 items. I also didn’t include my rain boots or running shoes because I consider them a necessity, but not part of my wardrobe.

I’m excited to build a nice and cluttered-free closet! As a SAHM, I have felt like I only deserve the $5 stained Old Navy shirts. However, I’m learning that building this capsule wardrobe can build confident and style.  I usually buy cheap clothes that don’t last long. I would rather go for quality, not quantity now. This doesn’t mean that I won’t shop at H&M or Forever 21 anymore. However, I feel like I can buy nicer clothes because my closet is very minimum.  I’ll probably even save money!

Again quality over quantity…

So that’s it for now!  I feel very happy with the progress that I’ve made so far.  I do need to buy a few staple items before I reveal my capsule wardrobe.  I know it sounds overwhelming, but I feel so much better about my closet and myself!

I’ll be back next week with an after picture and what’s in my capsule wardrobe!