An Approachable Guide To Creating A Minimalist Wardrobe

• Sort and organize your apparel, separating items into three distinct piles: Donations, Disposal, and Clothes to Keep.
• Keep only the garments you love dearly and plan to wear often.
• From the usable items, sell the items you can and give or donate the rest.
• For clothing that is damaged beyond wear, get creative and turn them into rags for cleaning.
• Don’t clear out all your clothes at once. Slowly swapping out some garments in exchange for quality pieces will be less overwhelming and more affordable.

It’s essential to feel confident and comfortable in the clothing you wear. Ditch the seasonal trends and style labels, discover your style and create unique looks you love.

An authentic and timeless wardrobe should reflect your personality and make you feel most like yourself. Ask yourself what your clothing conveys and what fabrics, colors, patterns and fits are you most comfortable wearing.

Quality apparel has a higher price than fast fashion clothing because they use sustainable, lasting fabrics and pay workers fair benefits and wages. Despite the initial cost, over time, you might save money and time as you won’t have to replace clothes too often.

To lessen the financial impact you can shop secondhand (thrift stores also have quality clothing), start small, shop deals and save for the expensive items, such as a winter coat or high-end denim, months in advance.

Fast fashion clothes aren’t made to last long, so we are less likely to properly care for them. With a minimalist wardrobe though, you’ll want to ensure you are properly washing and storing your apparel. This will protect and extended the useful life of your garments.

A few tips for care: hand wash delicates, invest in a steamer and wooden hangers and know what garments you need to take to a dry cleaner.

Sometimes we need an outfit that is not part of our everyday wardrobe - clothing swaps can help there. Not only it saves money, but it cultivates community and encourages sustainable living.

Alternatively, rental stores and sites offer an affordable and sustainable option by allowing you to rent clothes. 

It can be frustrating and exhausting to spend more time, energy and money to get something that we could easily get in a regular fast fashion store.

Rewiring the way you think about shopping can and will be challenging. But the reward is knowing who made your clothes, feeling confident and true to yourself in well-made garments, and not having a closet with clothing you can’t use and that supports unintended consequences.