How to pick up clothes you will wear
Do you want to dress quickly and confidently while being true to yourself? Well, this is unlikely to happen if your wardrobe is overspilling with clothes that you hardly or never wear. Those clothes just create physical chaos and mental confusion.
Statistics show that:
- only 20-30% of our clothes are regularly worn
- a piece of clothing is worn 7 times before being discarded.
These numbers are averages which means that we own a fair amount of clothes that are hardly or never worn.
There are two main reasons for not wearing those clothes:
- either because we don’t have an occasion to wear them, or
- because they are not a perfect fit.
An image consultant would be the best person to help you address these issues. If hiring one is not on the agenda for now, let me share how I have helped my clients, and myself, build a wardrobe that fits while decluttering our wardrobes so you too can:
- Keep your wardrobe organised in the long term,
- Make better long-term wardrobe investments,
- Create more outfits with fewer pieces of clothing,
- Stop feeling guilty for having spent money on clothes you end up not wearing.
1: Your wardrobe should reflect your lifestyle
Our lifestyle changes, especially as women, as we take on different roles. Maybe you had children and decided to take a break from work, and spend more time on your knees playing with your child. Or maybe you’ve been working from home a few days a week since covid hit. Our wardrobes need to adjust to reflect those changes.
Let’s take my own example
Eleven years ago, I left the corporate world to start my professional organising business. The clothes I needed were:
- Comfortable clothes in which I could easily move and that I wouldn’t mind getting dirty or damaging when working in my clients’ homes – I have embraced a kind of uniform made of capri pants and polo shirts, I own 4 of each at maximum that I can easily mix and match
- Casual clothes when working from home – that were already part of my wardrobe
- Nice dresses to give a talk, conduct a workshop or attend a networking event – that were also already part of my wardrobe.
What was sticking out was the suits I had accumulated over a 20-year period and that were no longer supporting my new lifestyle. Letting go of them was not easy as it meant letting go of a successful past while trying my luck in an industry people had no awareness of. It took me months and several iterations to let go. But, in the end, I only kept one that I wear for formal occasions such as a funeral.
A simple exercise to ensure your wardrobe reflects your lifestyle
Compare the split between your wardrobe contents and how you spend your time (% work, casual, formal, exercise, etc..). Address the gaps by letting go of some pieces in the categories you have too many of. If you’re planning to go back to work after a while, put your favourite work pieces aside so that your “active” wardrobe is made of clothes you can wear at this point in time.
2: Your wardrobe should reflect your personal style
While it’s quite expected to experiment with different styles when you are young, I think we ultimately have a style that best represents our authentic selves and makes us feel good and confident. I realised the more I stayed true to my style, the better I became at putting outfits together and buying the right clothes.
Here are a few things you can do to figure out your style:
- Identify those clothes that make you feel good and those that don’t in your wardrobe – is there a common denominator?
- List 3 adjectives that best describe you (or ask your friends how they would describe you): classic, trendy, chic, casual, sporty, feminine, ethnic, edgy, bohemian, minimal, eclectic, etc. Although I aspire to be chic, the nature of my job, Singapore’s hot and humid weather and my personal preferences have led me to define my style as casual, minimal, and classic.
- Take an online quiz.
Once you’ve figured out your personal style, let go of those clothes that don’t reflect it and pay more attention to the new clothes you’ll be buying.
3: Your clothes should fit your body type
We all come in various shapes. Rather than fighting against ours, we should embrace it and figure out which clothes best flatter our bodies.
There are plenty of online quizzes you can take to identify your body type (apple, pear, hourglass, inverted triangle, and rectangle). They will also provide recommendations on how to dress for it.
Sometimes, it might just be a question of getting your clothes altered so that they are perfectly tailored to your own measurements. Having a good seamstress has made a huge difference in the number of wears I get out of my clothes.
4: The colours you wear should enhance your natural features.
There are various approaches to figuring out which colours are the best fit for each individual. They are either based on the colour of our skin, hair, and eyes (the “seasonal” approach) or based on our skin undertone (the “tonal” approach).
For example, according to the “seasonal” approach, I am an autumn. As such, I should stay away from a bright red but a burgundy red looks pretty good on me. With all that’s said, as I age, it seems that I can get away with some colours I had been staying away from such as baby blue.
Those approaches shouldn’t completely dictate the colours we wear. But they can give us some guidelines on those colours that are most likely to make us look and feel good.
Again, there are plenty of quizzes available online to help you figure out your “season” and reconsider your choice of colours.
Taking the first step towards a wardrobe that fits
I highly encourage you to carve out some time to assess whether your wardrobe reflects your lifestyle and learn what truly fits you. It will help you let go of those clothes that don’t serve you and be more intentional about the new clothes you’ll be bringing into your wardrobe. Ultimately, you’ll feel empowered and amazing, while keeping your wardrobe organised, of course!
If you’re feeling inspired but a bit overwhelmed by where to start, the perfect first step is to gently declutter your wardrobe. By letting go of what you don’t wear, you create the space you need to apply all these tips and build a wardrobe that makes you feel amazing every day.
That’s exactly what my free Quick Wardrobe Fix guide is for. It’s designed to give you those easy, actionable first steps to declutter your clothes, build confidence, and begin creating a wardrobe you truly love.
Ready to start picking clothes you will wear with confidence? Download your free Quick Wardrobe Fix guide here!
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