After the Purge: What to Do With all Those Clothes

I talked about my closet purge last week, but I didn't tell you what happened with all the clothes I got rid of. 

That's what the back of my SUV looks like right now. About half of the bags and boxes are going straight to Goodwill. The other half are going to a local consignment shop to be checked out. The white and green thredUP bags are headed to FedEx to be shipped to thredUP, an online consignment shop. 

Let's talk about those three options. Goodwill is the easiest, of course. There are drop off locations all over the place. You can just leave the bags there and you're done! Of course, you don't get any money from your clothes. You are simply donating them, with the option of getting a tax deduction out of it. (If you don't itemize your taxes, there is zero benefit from this option. Except for knowing that you might be helping out some people in need. Which is awesome, but doesn't help you financially.) But the best thing about Goodwill is that they accept pretty much everything. I'm donating a bag full of underthings - panties and bras that I bought but never (or rarely) wore. Don't be gross and give them super used things, but if you have gently used clothes of any kind, Goodwill is a great option. 

Local consignment shops are another option, but they can be a bit of pain to deal with sometimes. You have to haul your clothes in and wait while they sort through each piece and decide if it is something they want to sell. I've only tried this one before with minimal luck, but I'm giving it another shot for the items that thredUP doesn't accept. Which leads me to thredUP...

thredUP is actually an easier option than local consignment shops because you can find out exactly what they accept. They have a clothing calculator that is super useful. You simply look up the brand name of the clothes (if it isn't in the list, thredUP doesn't accept it) and then choose which categories. Tops, bottoms, shoes, handbags, etc. Then a price range will appear to give you an idea of how much you would get for that item. 

You may have noticed the statement below the price range. Depending on the item, thredUP may pay you upfront or they may hold payment until the item sells. Most items I plan on selling through them qualify for upfront payment, which is super nice because it means I'll get money immediately for clothes I will never wear again! If you send something that thredUP doesn't accept for some reason or another, they will simply donate the clothes for you. Or you can choose to have them send those items back to you. It is totally free to order a Clean Out bag so you have nothing to lose! (However, if you do want to have the items not accepted sent back to you, it will cost you $12.99 for shipping.) If you live locally I can totally hook you up with a Clean Out bag. Just leave a comment below :)

So those are the three options. If you have any more ideas about how to get rid of your clothes (other than simply throwing them out), let me know! 

PS: You can also buy clothes from thredUP. If you follow me on social media you'll know I've ordered a few things recently. They haven't come in yet, but once they do I'll let you know how it went. If you want to give them a try, use this link to get $10 towards your first order.  

Full disclosure: I'm now a brand ambassador for thredUP. But I was planning on writing this post long before they contacted me about the opportunity, so I promise that what I'm writing is entirely my own opinion :) 

The Purge: Step 1 of My Capsule Wardrobe

As I mentioned last month, I have decided to try a capsule wardrobe for winter. (For more info on what a capsule wardrobe click here.) Basically though, a capsule wardrobe is just getting rid of all the crap in your closet you don’t wear and leaving the pieces you wear all the time. Most of us probably wear a capsule wardrobe without realizing it, because all our favorite pieces are mixed in with all the ones that we keep meaning to wear but never do. Case in point: this dress has hung in my closet for almost three years now. Guess how many times I’ve worn it.

 Who guessed zero, because YOU get a cookie! There are dozens of pieces just like this dress taking up valuable closet space. Some pieces are vintage that I just had to have at the time but have never found an occasion to wear. Some are pieces from college days that I will never wear again. (I’m 29 years old, married, and live in a small town. I don’t need the same kinds of clothes I did back in college.) Some I have no idea why I bought in the first place! 

So before I could begin putting together my capsule wardrobe, I decided to do a giant purge of my closet. I laid out every item of clothing I own on my bed. Ok, let me be more specific. In this first round I did not include ALL the old t-shirts I own (they would have taken over. I have way too many t-shirts from high school and college still lurking about. I need to keep the ones I really like to make a quilt of and get rid of the rest. But that’s another project for another time) nor did I include the exceptions to my number (workout gear/underthings/etc). My first round of purging was just those items that were being considered for capsule wardrobing.

Here’s what I had:

 Yeah, that’s a lot of clothes. Do I need all of them? Absolutely not! So I started sorting. I started with three piles. LOVE. HATE. MAYBE. The hate pile was set to the side to either be sold or donated. I started with the Love pile. These were items that I loved and wouldn’t get rid of. I sorted these into three piles of their own. Capsule Wardrobe Ready which means that some will be in my winter capsule wardrobe, but the spring/summery pieces will go into storage until April. Too Big but Love pile will all go into storage until they are needed (I’m a realist). Too Small but Love will unfortunately also be given away or sold. Again, I’m 29 years old and haven’t had kids yet, so I’m probably the smallest I’m gonna be.

Once I took care of those sub-piles I moved onto Maybe. I took a good hard look at each piece and resorted them into Love, Hate, and Maybe again. Then I did the same process all over again. I had a few more Loves to store and to get rid of with the Hates, and then I had to go back to the Maybe pile. It was time to be ruthless. 

It took a couple hours, but I finally had all the pieces sorted. I had bags of clothes to get rid of, boxes to put in storage, and the pile of Loves ready to be placed into my capsule wardrobe.  

I gave myself a little break after getting my closet sorted out, and then I did go back and attack those things I excluded initially. All those accessories, underthings, shoes, workout gear, outerwear, etc. I’ll spare you the blow by blow on each, but let’s just say it took awhile to get through everything. I used the same Love, Hate, Maybe system though, and it worked swimmingly.

Now my closet is looking lean and clean and I’m loving it. I’ll be sharing the pieces that made the cut soon. If you simply can’t stand the anticipation, you can follow me on Instagram and see my daily outfits. I swear, I’m going to start posting them regularly!

A Capsule Wardrobe and the KISS Concept

Hey y'all! Some of you may know that I’ve been putting together a capsule wardrobe for winter.  If you haven’t heard of a capsule wardrobe before, here’s the scoop.  Essentially it is a mini wardrobe made up of really versatile pieces that you totally LOVE to wear. That definition comes from Unfancy, one of my favorite capsule wardrobe blogs. (That’s right, this is so popular now there are multiple capsule wardrobe blogs.) There are several different ways to do a capsule wardrobe. Caroline of Unfancy chooses 37 pieces, Courtney of Project 333 chooses 33, and so on. Most people seem to choose between 30 and 40 pieces. Some people include accessories (bags, jewelry, etc) some don’t. There are no hard and fast rules for a capsule wardrobe. You gotta make it work for you.

And that’s what I’m doing! I’ve decided to let myself have 45 pieces in my winter capsule. That sounds like a lot compared to the other blogs I’ve mentioned, I know. But since I work in a corporate setting, I have two very different styles. Most days I’m wearing black pants or a skirt with a top along with plain black heels, but after work I change into more casual wear like jeans/boots and often a different top. Some capsule wardrobe gurus recommend having two separate capsules in situations like this. But I'm trying to follow the KISS concept in my life these days.

So to keep things simple, I expanded my total number of items for my capsule. 45 pieces of clothing it is! Now, let’s talk about what is included in that number. You can do it any number of ways, but for my project I am choosing NOT to include accessories in that total, nor am I including underthings (underwear, bras, camisoles, leggings, etc) or coats/jackets (because Oklahoma weather is totally unpredictable, I may need my parka coat one day a light jacket the next). I may choose to include some of those in future capsule wardrobes, but for this first go around I’m not. Also, I am not including work out gear or lounge wear/PJs in the capsule wardrobe number. I know Caroline of Unfancy does her own little capsule wardrobe for those, but I’m not worried about them at this point.

 I’ve been working on this capsule wardrobe project since the end of 2014. I actually spent New Year’s Day starting my big closet purge (more on that another day) and I’ve been dressing out of my capsule wardrobe for about two weeks now. I wanted to give myself some time to get used to the idea before I started blogging about it. It’s actually been incredibly freeing to go into my closet and only see that small segment of clothes. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve changed up my style much so far. I’m wearing pretty much the same things I was wearing before, but now I don’t have to wade through all the other clutter that was filling up the rack. I’m sure as the days go on I’ll start mixing things up a bit more now that I can’t reach for those one-off items I used to wear every so often. But that’s the whole point, right?

 Well, not entirely. There’s another point of this project. To stop spending money on clothes! 2015 is going to be a year of simplifying and going back to the basics (I’m reading Essentialism right now and loving it!), but this year I’m also planning some big financial changes. I’ve lived paycheck to paycheck for way too long, and it’s time to stop. Cutting back on shopping is only one way I’m going about it, but I think it will be a huge help. I am allowing myself a few exceptions. I ripped my favorite pair of jeans and I need to replace them, and my go-to black heels I wear to work are starting to wear out. So if I can find reasonably priced and well-made replacements for those, then I will buy them. Other than that, I’m keeping my cards in my wallet where they belong.

 There is one more exception to this capsule wardrobe: I’m going to DC next weekend, and while I’m there I’ll be going to a pre-Broadway show of Gigi at the Kennedy Center as well as attending an event on Saturday night that calls for a much nicer dress than anything I have in my capsule wardrobe! I’ll be renting two dresses from Rent the Runway for these events. I paid for them back in 2014 so technically I suppose it isn’t cheating, right?

 So that just about sums it up: 45 pieces of clothing, not counting underthings, outerwear, or accessories. No shopping for three months (with small exceptions). Wear all 45 items in as many ways as possible to learn more about my own style. Pair things I’ve never tried before. Make Stacey London proud. Keep it simple.

 I’ll be doing regular updates throughout the project, and I’ll try to do daily Instagram pictures of my outfits. I’m not a fashion blogger by any stretch of imagination, so don’t expect Kendi Everyday here (she’s a fabulous fashion blogger for those who don’t know). But I’m going to do my best! The real goal of this project is to discover my true style, simplify my wardrobe (and life), and save money, not magically transform into a fashion blogger :)

Have any of you tried a capsule wardrobe? Would you ever consider doing one?