The Minimalist Closet: Dress with Less

For me, a successful minimalist closet means being able to cut laundry time, refrain from buying clothes that I don’t need and being able to throw all the clothes I own into one backpack and leave for anywhere.

Clearing out my clothes was the very first step I took into my minimalist journey. I recommend starting with the closet because for me, it was the space where I completely owned every item, as opposed to other living areas where I had to consider the ownership rights of others. Also, I definitely felt the immediate change and gratification of being a minimalist when I donated nearly all of my clothes. Getting rid of so much clothing is a very daunting task. Here’s how I broke it down into manageable steps.

1) Envisioning your closet.

First, I got myself a blank page and wrote:

 For me, a successful minimalist closet means being able to cut laundry time, refrain from buying clothes that I don’t need and being able to throw all the clothes I own into one backpack and leave for anywhere.

Envisioning myself doing these three things constantly eased the purging process tremendously. The process of throwing out my clothes lasted for weeks and without a clear vision, I know I would have been too overwhelmed. My attention span is very short.

2) Categorise your clothing.

Under my vision statement, I drew a table that resembled the shelving spaces of my wardrobe.

Closet layout

Table resembling shelving

Once I had drawn the table, I knew where to put all the clothes I wanted to keep.  From left to right, it was roughly underwear, accessories, outer clothes, inner clothes, sleeping clothes.

Once I had drawn the table (a.k.a. the road map for my closet), I filled in the pieces of clothing I needed off the top of my head without looking at my closet. I found that looking at my closet overwhelmed me and tempted me into keeping things. My mantra was ‘If it’s not in your head, it’s not important enough to keep’. Also, I had a colour palette in my head. I wanted to dress mainly in primary colours (mostly dark blue with highlights of red and mustard). That way, all my clothes matched and there would be no excuse of ‘I need to buy something else to match with this shirt’.

After I wrote down the individual pieces, I decided on the number of pieces I needed. I knew I couldn’t stick to just one magic number (e.e.g The 333 Challenge) so I figured out my number based on need. For underwear, I chose 7 for bras and socks because I could wear them two days in a row if I absolutely had to (a.k.a. didn’t do the laundry) and 14 for undies because I definitely cannot wear them two days in a row. Most things I kept at just 1 or 2 with the exception of T-shirts (need at least 1 clean shirt for every school day), formal dresses and jumpers (I created memories in the dresses and jumpers and often wear them=justified).

3) Setting boundaries.

Before I went to my closet to start purging, I wrote:

I will only own 67 pieces of clothing and not one piece more.

To own 67 pieces of clothing may be a lot to some people and not a lot to others. I determined 67 to be the number for my minimalist closet because it meant…being able to cut laundry time, refrain from buying clothes that I don’t need and being able to throw all the clothes I own into one backpack and leave for anywhere.

4) Cull, cull, cull.

Finally, I went to my closet with my table in hand. If anything wasn’t on the table, it went straight on the bed to the ‘to donate’ pile. The table helped to take the emotion out of de-owning and stop the ‘what if you need this for_______’ calls. This is in fact, the simplest step of all if you have done all the planning in the steps before it.

In the end, I gave away 5 bags of clothes to my local thrift store. I felt so liberated when I physically handed the weight of my clothes over. Moreover, I can finally live the vision I had set initially. Before the purge, our laundry load was two rounds worth and now, we’re able to get away with doing the laundry once a week if needs be. When I go to the mall, I really don’t feel the need to get more clothes because I don’t to mess with the magical 67 and also, I’m asking myself if the new thing is better than the one I have at home. The answer is ‘no’ almost all the time. Being honest with yourself is key to being disciplined.

To anyone out there embarking on this journey, my advice is to take your time with each process. Personally, it took around two weeks to complete all four steps. The longer you spend envisioning and planning, the better you will understand your needs and how minimalism can benefit you.