Casual

Shopping My Own Closet

One thing I’ve been personally working on more is to shop my own closet. I usually treat my closet with two extremes. I either wear the same four outfits over and over again. OR I stare at my closet and feel like I have “nothing” to wear. This is also the WORST time for me to be thinking about clothes. I’ve done this for the past few years, but because I’m so uninspired weather-wise (and it’s a tough time inventory-wise for weather appropriate clothing), I don’t shop for the first month or two of the year.

That shopping-ban combined with the weather is when I start going for the same old, same old.

To avoid that this year, I’m trying to shop my closet a bit more. Sounds pretty straight forward and it is, but I have a couple of tricks that are helping.

The first is that I’m trying to spend time on Sunday (when I do laundry!) peeking through my closet. I’ll look at my calendar to get a sense of what’s coming up, and then pull a few items that I want to keep in mind for the week. My weeks are always different, so doing this with my calendar makes a huge difference. I know exactly what kind of outfits I have to plan for (business-appropriate for meetings in the city? most casual for low-key work from home days? an event or special dinner? etc.) and then I can go from there.

The biggest thing though is to keep things rotating. As you know, my closet is pretty small. (Well, I think it’s a normal sized closet, but it’s a far cry from rooms-turned-closets you see on Pinterest!) Because it’s not that spacious though, as I put clothes away, if I put them on top, then they’re again the first ones I reach for. Kind of like, first in, first out. But then, if I’m in a rush or feeling lazy, the clothes I reach for first are the same ones I most recently wore. So I’m trying to be better about rotating through what I keep in the guest room (my secondary storage unit at the moment, ha) and what I keep in my closet. And then within my closet, I put things away on the bottom (of the shelves) or the back (of the rack) to keep the things front and center new!

Again, nothing crazy but I have had far fewer moments where I feel like I’m just wearing the same things. And I’m feeling way more excited about the clothes I do have. It’s great.

This is one of my shopped from my own closet outfits! Feels brand new because I’ve never worn this combo, but they’re all tried and true pieces from my existing wardrobe.

Striped Tissue Turtleneck

Carly the Prepster J. Crew Looks We Love

Carly Heitlinger

Shirt // Jacket // Jeans // Shoes // Bag (c/o) // Headband

 

Shop My Outfit

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

12 Comments

Audrey | Brunch at Audrey's

I felt pretty proud of myself for being “thrifty” and shopping my mom’s closet, but I’ve never tried shopping my own closet before. By January I’ve definitely fallen into a repetitive winter uniform as well, so I’ll take a cue from you!

Reply
Vanessa

Fascinating. What are examples of ‘business meetings’ you have in the City? Are you actually wearing business formal clothes to coffee catch ups with brand reps?

Reply
Brigid Devney-Rye

That’s such a cute outfit and I have those same pieces (well, almost) that I have not put together in that way either. I will be twinning. 🙂

Reply
Supal // @supaldesai_

My closet is long and I usually end up just wearing what is in one part of my closet all the time. I essentially started doing the same thing last summer when I was feeling “stuck” with my outfits (especially for work). I would just pull a few things and leave them in the part of the closet, I always go to when I need to put together an outfit. It’s a great way to spend less, feel content, and reduce waste essentially.

Reply
Jessica

I love when I am able to come up with a new combination of things to wear from my wardrobe. It makes everything feel new.

Reply
Victoria

I sort my clothes by color and find it not only easier to find things but it keeps me from wearing the same thing over and over!

Reply