January 18, 2015

Current Fall/Winter capsule wardrobe

I’m at month 3 of The 80/20 Challenge and it’s time for my monthly check-in.  Here’s what’s currently in my challenge wardrobe and what happened since the last month.

• Shoes: 17 pairs (1 added and 2 purged)
• Business and Special Occasion Capsule: 14 items (no change)
• Beach/Swim Capsule: 8 items (no change)
• Lounge/Sleep Capsule: 12 items (no change)
• Spring/Summer Wardrobe: 57 items (no change)
• Fall/Winter Wardrobe: 70 items (added two items; a breakdown of my current fall/winter wardrobe is at the end of this post)

Crunching the numbers

My current wardrobe total is 178 items.

To use 80% of this wardrobe only 36 item should sit unworn.  However, this is across seasons.

Taking a closer look at the current season (which is fall/winter in my area), I have 70 fall/winter wardrobe items and 4 pairs of boots for a total of 74 items.  This means that only 15 items can sit unworn for the entire season.

However, to make this slightly more complicated, I have 22 items (Business and Special Occasion Capsule and Beach/Swim Capsule items) that sit unworn for most of the year.  Out of 178 items, these 22 items make up 12.4% already!  That leaves me with only 14 items that should sit unworn between both my fall/winter AND spring/summer wardrobes or 7 items each.

70 items in my fall/winter wardrobe:

• 6 bottoms (jeans and trousers; no change)
• 17 toppers (this includes: pullover sweaters, blazers and cardigans; no change)
• 7 knits (used for layering; no change)
• 8 gear items (5 toppers [fleece, fleece, fleece, vest, vest], 2 layering knits [turtlenecks] and 1 bottom [jean]; no change)
• 7 shirts (for layering; no change)
• 3 LS T’s (for layering; no change)
• 4 tanks (for layering; no change)
• 6 thermal layers (no change)
• 3 scarves (no change)
• 6 workout items (3 tops and 3 bottoms; not shown in closet photo; added 1 top and 1 bottom)
• 3 Short Sleeve Tops/Knits (no change)

I didn’t have much progress on reducing the size of my wardrobe for this check-in.  And I see some areas that I suspect are a little overfilled (toppers and thermal layers, I’m looking at you).  These are potential areas to tackle before the next check-in.

Does your progress sometimes stall when culling your wardrobe?