Master Your Closet: Essential Wardrobe Basics & Organization Tips

By Closet Coach / In Closet Coaching, Fashion Tips, Get Inspiration, What to Wear / On 29 Oct 2021

This article discusses how to create and maintain a capsule wardrobe with some wardrobe essentials that will keep your closet groomed throughout the year. The hustle and bustle of everyday life make it difficult to maintain a wardrobe. You might have clothes from your past that you have not worn in years, or you may have clothes that are outdated.

male closet - wardrobe essentials

Before we get started, what is a capsule wardrobe?

A “capsule” wardrobe consists of clothing items that work well with each other and can be worn throughout different seasons. By doing this, you can reduce clutter in your closet and save time getting dressed.

Putting Your Closet Into Perspective

Your closet reflects your life. Sometimes, you accumulate clothes without knowing what to do with them or how they fit together. Having a capsule wardrobe helps solve this problem because it is more intentional than pulling out pieces that match and throwing something on.

Taking care of your closet can sometimes be difficult if not impossible because it is a changing ecosystem. To stay organized with your wardrobe essentials, it’s important not to let too much “stuff” accumulate in the first place.

Getting Rid of What You Don’t Need (and Keeping It Out)

The first step is to get rid of what doesn’t work. If you want to keep your closet in good shape, you have to get rid of old clothes, clothes that don’t fit, and clothes that are out of style. No matter how tempting it is to hold onto items that are sentimental for one reason or another (I got this shirt on vacation), if they aren’t serving a purpose then there’s no reason to keep them.

Cleaning Out Your Closet: A Step-by-Step Guide

You can clean out your closet in several effective ways; however, some prefer working with an item at a time while others prefer to work in bulk.

Here, we will discuss both approaches along with their pros and cons so that you can decide which one works best for you.

female trying on clothes - wardrobe essentials

The Bulk Approach: Take everything out of your closet and put it on the floor, or on your bed. As you go through each piece, ask yourself if you wear it often enough to keep it. Take into account the season as well.

Pros: Gets the job done faster.

Cons: Can be time-consuming. You might overlook pieces that don’t immediately catch your eye but will be worn more than you think, so it’s best to give them one more look before you get rid of them.

Once you’ve completed this method, organize what’s left into categories (e.g., shirts). Sort these subcategories by color order – lightest shade first, darkest at the bottom.

The One Item Approach: This method can take longer, but it can be useful if you have a smaller wardrobe or want to focus on one item at a time.

Pros: Taking your time to evaluate each item’s usefulness is a benefit. If you enjoy putting together outfits from scratch, this method is great for you.

Cons: It can take up more time than the bulk method above, especially if there are a lot of pieces to organize before they can be put away properly.

Fashion Tips

Wardrobe Basics: 11 Cleaning Tips

To stay in bloom, your closet needs to be pruned. Thankfully, you can do it with these 11 steps:

  1. Get four boxes or bins and label them: Keep, Donate, Sell, and Recycle.
  2. Empty your closet: Although this may seem overwhelming, it will help you determine what still works.
  3. Try your stuff on: Keep items that fit, and items that don’t fit may be placed in one of three other boxes.
  4. Find a seamstress to help you repair damaged garments, or repair them yourself.
  5. Donate unwanted items that are in good condition.
  6. You can place worn-out or damaged items in the recycle bin.
  7. Decide how your off-season clothes will be stored.
  8. Add the items back into categories.
  9. Donate to the nearest Goodwill or email friends in need of a gift. Consignment shops may also be able to buy back items that are in good condition.
  10. You can use recycled clothes as rags when cleaning. There are usually recycling bins in stores or you could consult the nearest textile recycling center.
  11. Have fun!

There’s no better way to wake up! You’ll be amazed at how fast your ritual will get.

Routine Wardrobe Maintenance

Once your closet is in good shape, it’s important that you maintain it to keep all of the hard work from going to waste.

You can avoid clutter by regularly going through your wardrobe essentials and removing items you haven’t worn in a while or at all (seasonally). It can be challenging to find extra space to keep clothes you don’t wear anymore, so it’s best to donate or sell them.

Routine Wardrobe Maintenance

To keep your wardrobe maintenance routine on track, keep clothing neatly folded in boxes as a way of storing items that you plan to wear again soon. Avoiding clutter and making clean-up easier will benefit you.

Also, don’t overfill each box, or you may end up with wrinkled items. If you’re going on a long vacation, this is a good idea.

Label each box with the corresponding season, and then place it in the appropriate place in your closet (summer clothes go on the top shelf of your closet).

You’ll be able to put together outfits much more easily because you’ll already know where all of your wardrobe essentials are hidden! Now that you’ve taken the steps to maintain your wardrobe essentials, you can enjoy a squeaky-clean space that’s always ready for showtime.

Closet Essentials: Keep or Toss?

Staying on top of your wardrobe essentials can be challenging, but it’s worth it to have a clean closet. It also helps you avoid accumulating more clutter.

What To Wear On A First Date

Having gone through all your pieces and sorted them into the Keep, Donate, Sell, and Recycle categories as described above with the bulk method, it’s time to go over what you kept to make sure that it’s still useful.

Among other things, you should check if any garments have mold (you shouldn’t keep anything with mildew – throw that away immediately), whether zippers work properly, etc. Also:

  • If an item of clothing or accessory has stains that appear impossible to remove with regular laundry detergent, place it in the “Donate” or “Recycle” bin.
  • If an article of clothing lacks a button, has torn seams, holes in the armpits/crotch area, or is otherwise damaged, it should be placed in your Donate or Recycle box immediately to avoid further damage and potential accidents. Repair the damage if it is small enough.

If doing all these steps seems overwhelming at the moment, at least make sure what you kept is neatly folded, with all buttons secured and zippers functioning before putting them back into their respective places. You’ll thank yourself later when everything is easy to find and manage throughout the year.

Capsule Wardrobe Guide

Known as the Pareto principle, the 80/20 principle states that 80 percent of all results come from only 20 percent of our efforts. How can we apply this to our capsule wardrobe design? If you apply this rule to your wardrobe essentials, the 20 percent you wear 80 percent of the time will determine your capsule wardrobe.

Capsule Wardrobe Guide

These are the pieces you reach for time and time again, which represent your personal style and are the foundation of your wardrobe. Use these pieces as a reference for all future purchases. Individuals can benefit from the simple approach.

Having a few pieces that you wear no matter how often trends change also helps streamline your daily routine by removing the stress of trying to figure out what to wear. It is also possible not only to avoid buying unnecessary items but also to save money by using this closet organization approach.

Organize A Functional Wardrobe

Regardless of how much space you have in your closet, it’s important to organize everything by type or function. Keep the 20 percent of items that you wear most frequently within reach.

If you open your closet, your favorite shirt should be one of the first things you see. It shouldn’t be tucked away or buried.

Do not stack too many items on top of each other to prevent overcrowding. Let air circulate and flow through your wardrobe essentials by leaving some space between hangers. Over time, this will also prevent creases and wrinkles from forming.

Online Fitting Room

Keep shoes at the bottom of the closet, since they are often dirty and take up too much room if placed higher in a closet with clothes hung vertically. If necessary, purchase a shoe rack.

Handy Wardrobe Accessories

Here are a few wardrobe essentials that can help keep your closet in tip-top shape:

Handbag Hanging Organizer

Smart Fashion

New Luxury Handbag Hangers

Handbag Hangers

by: closetly – Shop Etsy

Tie Hanger

Tie Hanger

by: TarasLaserCreations – Shop Etsy

Boxy Concepts Hat Rack

Boxyconcepts

by: BoxyConcepts – Shop Etsy

Now that you know how to create a capsule wardrobe, it’s time to put it together! Shop for your new wardrobe-essentials. Shop Size Wise to find an even wider selection of some of your favorite brands and styles.

We want to remind you once again not to worry about having too many clothes since you now know how these different items will pair together throughout the year. Happy shopping!

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