The great closet purge of 2017 just happened. I will never be a true minimalist even though family definitely jokes about it, but clutter stresses me out a lot. I love getting rid of things.
I’ve known for a long time that I wanted to go through my closet and really only keep the things that were suited best for my personality and life. I thrift store shop a lot and I’ve been fortunate to be able to have a lot of pieces all the way from high school. However, I realize it is time to move past sentimentality and have a closet that represents the young creative professional I am in my late 20s (how in the world am I 28?!). The older I have become the more I have also cared about cohesion in my wardrobe as well; my logic is that the more cohesive my closet is then the more things I can mix and match together to have better use out of every item.
Like all things that I tend to do, I spent a few months researching everything out. Before I began purging my closet, I wanted to establish some basics:
- What colors look best on me
- Why exactly I love something
- What I need to get rid of
WHAT ARE MY COLORS
I have had people go back and forth my whole life about whether I am warm or cool toned. I am cool toned, but I wear yellow gold very well. You can see my color experiments below where I tried each season! I ended up being professionally typed and I don’t clearly fit into a seasonal palette. I lean more towards bright winter, but I am apparently a “bright tonal palette.” This means I can wear highly saturated colors from most seasons, but I do lean to the cool side of things.
↑↑ People always used to say I am a winter.
↑↑ I can wear a lot of these colors well, my guess is because of my eye color having a lot of warmth. However, we’re not quite there yet.
↑↑ This is spring. Spring is okay, but it doesn’t really make my skin shine.
↑↑ This is a summer palette. I thought this would line up more, but my skin looks a little colorless next to the colors.
RESOURCE FOR YOU:
While these colors are great for me, yours will likely be different. A great resource I found on figuring our your best colors is this free e-book! There are tons of videos along with it and the writer does a great job breaking everything down super easily to help you figure everything out 🙂 .
WHY DO I LOVE SOMETHING??
I mentioned in this post a few months ago that these were the things I noticed I liked the most in my closet.
- Clothing items with texture (lace, knit)
- Classic cut items with small unique details
- Layering items
- Vintage accessories
WHAT I PURGED
This might make you laugh, but clothing items that I didn’t think I would keep I put into a box a few months ago. I realized over those months that I never thought about them once! Obviously, this was a very confirming way for me to know that these items were not needed. “The box” is one tip I suggest if you are the sentimental type. However, the following are rules that I came up with to decide if I would get rid of additional items:
- Items that were worn out
- Items that became discolored beyond repair
- Items I have not worn in years
- Items that weren’t a complimentary color
- Items that were too tight or too big
- Items that didn’t reflect my personality
- Items that I just didn’t love
I’ll be completely honest, I’ve found my husband’s opinion really helpful. Devin isn’t attached to my clothes so if I found myself questioning, I would hold up my clothing and he would confirm what I was afraid to say. He helped me get rid of a lot of items and I’ve found through this whole Dressing Your Truth process that Devin is actually more in tune if items are tints, hues, tones, or shades (I’ll just be honest, he was good with the system in general because it gives you rules).
I also ended up making a replace pile for staples that we had that were just too worn out to go on, but also for them to serve as a visual reminder that these items have to be replaced. Items that I put in this category are mandatory items like:
- Underwear for both of us
- Tank tops in neutral colors for me (because leaning over students
- White button up dress shirts for Devin
- Jeans for Devin (he only has two pair and they both have holes)
If you’re realizing that there are also other necessary items that have to be replaced, these items may include: a certain type of shoe, belts, clothing based on your location’s climate, clothing based on a hobby, and etc. You’ll know better than I do what is an absolute mandatory for you.
I’m now proud to say that I purged over 200 (yes, 200!!) items out of our closet together. My husband was a great sport letting me go through his closet as well. I feel a great sense of relief going into my closet and now only having items I absolutely love, fit, and look great on me. I have a lot of empty hangers now, but as I budget and plan for the future, I plan on buying higher quality items, replacing past items, and potentially creating a capsule wardrobe.
