This summer has been very hectic. I’ve been moving from Chicago to Madison and traveling on top of that. Having a capsule wardrobe has been extremely helpful during this transition.

I’ve seen capsule wardrobes described various ways online. Sometimes it’s described as a very strict wardrobe where you are only “allowed” to have a certain number of pieces of clothing in your wardrobe. It can be seasonal or it can be a year-round “uniform” of sorts.

For me, a capsule wardrobe is a break for my brain. As someone with a history of an eating disorder, getting dressed in the past could stretch on for hours in distress. This was not helped by the fact that my wardrobe at any given time was just made up of all of the clothes that I owned in front of me, regardless of season.

Perhaps this is a familiar situation to you. You are getting ready to go somewhere, anywhere. It is winter and yet among the articles of clothing you have to sort through, are shorts and sleeveless tops. So even though, realistically, you should only have to worry about whether you like how you look in your winter-appropriate outfits, your brain is scanning over everything you own.

And I am certain this is also familiar. In a moment of panic, rather than sort through all the clean clothes in front of you, it is so much easier to dive into the laundry basket and just wear an outfit you already picked out yesterday (even if it is dirty).

A capsule wardrobe can change this situation dramatically. And it uses the reasoning of diving into the dirty laundry and makes it less gross.

In case you have not guessed it, the way I do my capsule wardrobe has a lot to do with the season. I live in the Midwest where this is pretty important. It is much easier to get dressed in summer when I can only see options that work in warm weather.

However, it’s not just about logical practicality. I have many shirts or pants that I can wear regardless of the season. But with a little bit of planning, I whittle down the options I give myself based on the following criteria:

Color: I like to pick a color palette for a season. Currently my summer palette consists of light pastels, blues, and neutral colors like white, olive, and camel. You don’t have to change your palette with the seasons, but I think it’s fun. Fit: This summer I am really feeling tight fitting shorts and tops. I’m really feeling myself and I am enjoying playing with that. Work: My current work requires its own wardrobe. So, I don’t really follow any rules for that other than, can this get food on it? You can think about how you want to integrate or separate your work wardrobe needs. Risk-Taking: I like to read about trends for the seasons. Sometimes I even decide to take a fashion risk. However, it has to fit in with the other aspects of my wardrobe (budget, comfort, season, color) in order to become a realistic option.

The reason I do all of that, is that at the end, I have a really cohesive collection of clothing that is really easy to mix and match. I have about 5-7 bottoms, 10-15 tops, 2-3 jackets, and about five pairs of shoes currently in rotation. And let me be clear, these are not clothes that I bought exclusively for the summer. These are clothes that, for the most part, I already owned. I selected to have them in my closet, readily available. All of the other clothes that I own, are in storage in plastic bins under the bed.

When I get dressed for a non-work day, I have a small selection of clothes that have been pre-sorted for their compatibility as potential outfits. Any of the pants or shorts that I have in my closet will go well with any of the shirts. And 1 of the 5 pairs of shoes that I have will go with the outfit.

This may seem simple or obvious or perhaps tedious. It is all of those things. However, it’s only tedious at the beginning. Once you’ve planned your wardrobe for the season (or whatever chunk of time you choose) the rest is a breeze. Packing becomes easier. Going shopping is less stressful. By planning many aspects of getting dressed ahead of time, you actually have fewer decisions to make on a day-to-day basis.

I am selling this to you now because the process to get there is not always so cute. It involves looking at all of your stuff. And I mean all of it. And then, you have let some of it go.

There is more than one way to do this. I’m going to suggest you do it the long and hard way. And I do so because I think it will be help you significantly in the long run. But I’ll give you a short-cut later on.

If you decide to try this for yourself, I suggest doing so when you have several hours to devote to it. Don’t do it while you’re hangry and it’s not a great thing to do if you’re feeling emotionally disregulated. I’m going to borrow heavily from Marie Kondo here. It was her method that initially started me on this process. I’m going to apply it to just clothes though.

Ok. So. Go to wherever you store your clothes. If you store them in more than one place(like a dresser and closet), then you can do this in stages. If you want to take it all in one go though, more power to you. I will warn you though, if you have a lot of clothes and you try to go through all of it at once, you may easily get overwhelmed. I’m not saying not to do it that way, but maybe take some breaks.

Let’s say you’re going to start with the dresser. Take all of the clothes out from all of the drawers and set them on your bed or the floor so that you can see it all. If you have things like socks and underwear, you can include them in this or you can set them aside for another time.

I suggest that you make 4 piles. Once you sort everything in your dresser, move on to the closet (or anywhere else that you store clothes).

Keep to wear in the present season

This is a pile for anything that you have that you know you like and want to keep wearing during the season you’re currently in. Usually these are pieces that you have been wearing regularly and that you feel good in. It’s not an aspirational category. It’s not something that you’d like to be wearing but for some reason you just haven’t been. This is for things that you are certain about.

Keep in storage for the future

This is where you will stack things that you like and want to keep but aren’t going to be wearing in the next 3 to 6 months. You can also use this for things that you are a little indecisive with. You know you like it but you haven’t been wearing it lately. It feels tough to decide, right now, whether to keep it. In that case, don’t decide yet, put it in this pile and store it for another season. The catch here is that you have to like enough to warrant taking up valuable storage space.

Keep, but needs to be altered/tailored

You need to be selective with this pile. If you have a piece that you love the look of, or fits really well in one aspect but not another, you should consider getting it tailored. However, you have to take into account reality. If it’s been in your closet for over a year and you have still not gotten it tailored or if you know it’s just not in the budget, consider selling it or donating it. It’s not doing you any good sitting in your closet.

Give away, sell, or recycle

This can be a difficult one. And this pile can also be broken down into three sub-categories once you get through everything else. But, if you have not worn it in over a year, it doesn’t fit, and/or you don’t even like it, it’s time to let it go. Put it in this pile and come back to it later to decide whether you want to donate, sell, or recycle it. Later in this post I will share resources on how to do any of these things.

SHORT CUT

If you are looking for a short cut, only worry about the first two piles. Don’t worry about deciding what to get rid or get tailored. Only pick what you want to be wearing right now and store everything else. An easy way to do this is to consider everything that you have worn in the last 2-4 weeks. Everything else, put it away (look for paragraph below on storage options). If you find that this does not leave you with enough to wear or that you are missing certain things, you can pull them back out of storage one at a time. You can repeat this every few months and go “shopping” in your storage.

As you continue this process, there are many questions you can ask yourself. Marie Kondo, who I mentioned earlier, suggests asking yourself whether your things bring you joy and then letting them go if they do not. That could be a helpful question for you. For me, I prefer to ask less philosophical questions. Take these questions for example:

Do I like this item? When was the last time I wore this? Does this fit me? How would I feel if I got rid of it? Do I have any other items that are similar?

I find these questions helpful because they give me the information I need to assign clothing into the four piles listed above. They are not necessarily rigid, but if you don’t know whether something fits anymore, you should try it on. If you don’t know how you would feel if you got rid of something, put it in the donation pile and see how you feel.

While I acknowledge that this is a tedious process and it takes some time, the decisions you are making should be quick. You want to access your in-the-moment reactions. If you notice that you are agonizing over every single decision, put the task aside. It’s best to do this when you are clear headed and can be decisive.

If decisiveness is not your strong suit, enlist some backup. If you have a friend or partner that you trust, it can be helpful to have a second opinion. You can even make yourself a fifth pile for everything that you want to run past someone. Ideally this is someone that knows you and your sense of style, and who can help you make choices.

Once your clothes are sorted into those 4 piles, take a deep breath and congratulate yourself! The hard part is over!

Now you can put away the stuff that you are keeping for current use. Fold or hang everything nicely and notice how it looks to have fewer things in your drawers and/or closet. Good job!

As for that pile of clothes that you are going to store, you have a few options. A space-saving way to store your clothes is in giant zip bags. They make these specifically for storing clothing. Once you have them filled, you can squeeze the air out of them and seal them and they fit pretty neatly under a bed frame or on a closet shelf. I also have some flat plastic containers under the bed with some of my clothes. Depending on how much closet space you have, you could also dedicate part of it to be just for clothes that are for a different season. As long as it works for you and you can keep your current wardrobe distinct enough to be easily accessed, then it will suffice.

Anything that you are keeping to take to a tailor you should place in a bag somewhere near the door. You should do this so that the next time you leave the house you remember to take them with you and drop them off at the tailor. Maybe you’re not quite ready to take them in just yet, and that is fine. But if you find that you are really reluctant to make an immediate plan for how you will get these clothes to the tailor, perhaps you should reconsider whether it is worth keeping them.

I want to take a second to make a note about why I am harping on getting rid of stuff. It’s certainly not to shame anyone. It’s because beauty standards are real and financial insecurities are real too. And having reminders in our closets of how we might not meet a particular beauty standard (clothing that does not fit perfectly off the rack) and how we may have spent money that we now wish we still had, can really mess with our heads. Getting dressed is hard enough. If there is something in your closet that is making you actively stressed and you can’t wear it for whatever reason, fuck it. Get rid of it and let it bring someone else joy. You don’t need that stress. Live you life!

If you are getting rid of stuff, you have several options. There are online resources for selling, donating and recycling. Here is post from InStyle that walks you through different services. Some of these don’t even require you to leave your home. Some will send you pre-paid shipping bags and some will even send someone to pick up items from your house. Of course if you have access to a car, you can also look locally. When I was in Chicago, I regularly donated to the Brown Elephant and sold clothes at Crossroads Trading Company

If you sell your clothes and can stand to save the money you make, I’ll have some ideas for you on how to spend it in the last part of this series. If you’re looking at everything you decided to keep and have no idea what to do next, don’t worry! That’s all in part 2!

So this first step was a heavy lift. The next two steps are more fun, I promise. Post number 2 will be coming up to get into how you curate looks from the clothes that you are keeping.

For now bask in the glory of having made space in your life and having a clean closet.

Stay cute.