Lessons From 6+ Years of Doing Capsule Wardrobes

And why I’m not doing one this Fall

If you’re looking to save money, go low impact on the environment, and save room in your closet, a capsule wardrobe is a great place to start.

A capsule wardrobe is a small collection of clothing (between 20–40 pieces is typical) that can be mixed and matched.

A few reasons why a capsule wardrobe is awesome:

• Saves time in the morning by limiting options
• Helps with focus on other things
• Saves money while still enabling you to look awesome
• Slows impact on the environment (by buying less, you’re not participating in the massive textile waste that happens each season)
• Enables mixing and matching so you can see the limitless options in your closet and limit the never have anything to wear feeling

I stumbled across Project333 (33 items for 3 months created by Courtney Carver in 2010) back in 2013 when I started to live more minimally.

I was searching for a way to streamline my closet from 300+ pieces to somewhere between 100–150. I live in a four season climate, so I knew anything under 100 was too much of a stretch for me.

Over the past six years, I’ve done various formats of capsules- from Project333 to Unfancy’s 37 piece limit to Five Piece French Wardrobe (5 statement pieces per 6 months).

There are a lot of different formats for the capsule so it’s not a one size fits all method.

The Capsule Process

Planning a capsule is a great way to go through your closet per season instead of overwhelmingly doing it all at once.

Each season, the pieces not chosen are placed in storage which allows for a trial seperation.

A trial seperation then allows you to see if you really miss that item or can release it.

The actual season is a time where the clothing fades into the background of focus. As far as the clothing itself, it’s a great time to level up on mixing things up and trying different styling tricks.

However, the capsule’s biggest advantage is that it provides more time to tackle other things (like that Fall bucket list) or energy to finish your current wip.

At the end of the season (typically three months), you reassess and choose another 20–40 pieces for the next season.

What 6+ Years of this Process Has Taught Me

• Taking intentional breaks from shopping allows time for evaluation of your style and what works for your life and body.
• Simplifying your wardrobe is a gateway for simplifying other areas of your life. It gets easier with each area.
• My personal style has been extremely consistent for the last three years
• Clothing does not deserve the emphasis we often put on it
• Only embrace the trends you really love and can see loving past their expiration date.
• Clothing cannot give us anything past coverage. It is fun to play around with but will not meet a deeper need.

I heard these things said from minimalist bloggers before, but it took my own journey to discover they were true for me.

So… having said so many great things about the capsule wardrobe, why am I taking this season off?

It’s an Experiment

After 6 years of practicing the capsule wardrobe concept in one way or another, I want to see if it worked.

I want to see if I miss certain aspects like more space in my closet and how easy it got to mix things in different ways.

I want to see if I go back to old consumer habits of spending too much. I also want to see where my focus goes.

Finally, I have a lot of fall clothes and very few summer clothes. I want to weed through my fall closet to see what actually works.

When limited to a certain number of clothing pieces, it’s easy to keep overlooking that pile.

I feel ready to finally tackle that pile in the back of my closet.

So yes, while there is massive amount of benefits to a capsule wardrobe, I’m sitting this season out.