Case Study: THE WARDROBE EDIT Decluttering, Reorganising & Creating a Capsule Wardrobe

The Brief: "I am looking for some help to declutter my wardrobes of clothes and shoes. I have so much and yet nothing to wear so I buy more!" - Emma

Decluttering, Reorganising and Creating a Capsule Wardrobe

Many of us will admit to having too many clothes, more than we need and more than we actually wear. Nowadays, fast fashion retailers enable, indeed encourage, us to buy more than we need. The trouble comes when we run out of space; unlike seasonal fashion trends our spaces are after all, finite. In this case study, I'll explain how I helped Emma to declutter and reorganise her wardrobes and create a capsule collection of many 'new' outfits.

The Range Build

After Emma showed me the wardrobes and drawers which she wished to work through I explained that when approaching a wardrobe edit, I ideally need to understand the client's lifestyle. Our wardrobes reflect how we live and spend our time. Once I understand what proportion of the time a client spends on various activities, e.g. socialising, being outside (think dogs, gardening and generally getting muddy!), enjoying hobbies, sports, working and what they do for work, then I can understand what the structure of their wardrobe needs to be. A wardrobe edit is essentially a personal range build and after a 16 year career building ranges, I can definitely help. Range building is about understanding your consumers, in this case my client, and ensuring that the structure of the range covers all needs and functions. By taking this approach, we can easily identify any areas of duplication and surplus and any areas where additional items would be beneficial. We can review which items in the wardrobe work and which don't, which are worn very little and why. Perhaps the client always prefers other, similar items or when tried on they just don't fit quite right, so they go back into the wardrobe again, unworn. We can talk about why some items still have tags on, why they haven't been worn, whether they are likely to be and if not what to do with them. I help the client to reevaluate the value of an item long after the money has been spent. (I never offer actual monetary valuations of an item, rather we discuss how the client values the item.)

Having gained an understanding of Emma's lifestyle and the contents of her current wardrobe, I suggested that we should start with her sports clothes. Sport plays a very big part of Emma's lifestyle and I suggested that we establish how many items she needed per week, i.e. how many pairs of training shorts, how many leggings, how many vest tops, how many waterproofs etc. I then asked her to pick out her trusty favourites, the ones she would always go to first. Once we had reached the target number for each type of clothing, we could then discuss which ones to recycle/sell/donate and we created piles for each.

After we had methodically worked through Emma's sportswear, we moved onto the wardrobes in her spare bedroom where she kept clothes which she wore less often including some seasonal items. Emma found decision making about some items very easy, while other items held more sentimental value for her and required some discussion.

Coaching the Client through Decision Making

There are many reasons why we hold on to things. Items can have a lot of sentimental value. Very often we connect emotions to items. Sometimes this is because an item reminds us of a person, relationship, time, place or a period in our lives. Items can make us feel many different ways; nostalgic, comforted, happy, sad, angry, anxious. Keeping items for too long can also keep us stuck. If moving forward from a person or situation is something we need to do, keeping items that remind us of that time or that person isn't going to help. Freeing ourselves from those items at the right time can be very liberating and cathartic. Emma had some items of clothing that were special to her, reminding her or certain times and people, items which she didn't want to part with. I suggested that instead of keeping them in one of her wardrobes amongst her clothes that she wore, it might be a good idea of keep those items of clothing together in a drawer separately. This way, they aren't taking up space in her wardrobe as she isn't expecting to wear them again, but rather they are being kept all together in a box or a drawer as pieces of nostalgia rather than clothes to be worn.

Sometimes we hold onto items because we know how much money we spent on them in the first place and getting rid of them feels like losing money. For example, having a £50 jumper that you bought 5 years ago, which is perhaps now a little small or isn't on trend anymore, isn't worth the same value to you now as the £50 that you spent on it back then. Your £50 hasn't gained you anything because you haven't worn the jumper and your £50 has depreciated over that time. Holding on to items for this reason only uses up your wardrobe space. When working through whether to keep or get rid of such items, we discuss various options such as reselling and depending on the item's value, we discuss how much time and effort is required to resell vs the potential return you might gain.

Whatever the reason for holding on to items for longer than they are useful, I use coaching techniques to help the client to make decisions more easily and more comfortably.

Creating a Capsule Wardrobe

A capsule wardrobe or collection is a curated collection of clothes and accessories which is limited in number, but offers a high level of versatility. Items are interchangeable, meaning tops, bottoms and accessories work together with each other enabling you to create many different looks and outfits. Capsule collections are space saving and, if you are mindful of budget, are a great way to maximise your wardrobe on a limited spend.

What became immediately apparent to me when I started working with Emma was she had a lot of lovely clothes. Emma stated in her brief to me that she 'had lots of clothes, yet nothing to wear.' After decluttering Emma's wardrobes I showed her how she could mix and match her tops, bottoms and accessories to create different outfits. We created lots of quick flat lays (nearly 40!) which I photographed so that Emma could refer back to them in the future. Emma said that she would never have thought to put many of the clothes and accessories together and was really pleasantly surprised at how well they worked.

Working with Emma to help her fall in love with her clothes again was an absolute pleasure.

Emma's verdict: "Hannah did an amazing job in half a day to help me transform my wardrobe, making multiple beautiful outfits out of clothes and shoes I was struggling to wear and supporting me to let go of the things I no longer need. Thank you Hannah 😊 My wardrobe now feels manageable and full of only beautiful or useful things! I am very excited to wear all these outfits I never knew I had!!"

Hannah offers in-person Decluttering, Home Organisation, Styling & Virtual Declutter Coaching.

If you would like help with your own wardrobe edit, please get in touch.

Contact Hannah

To find out more visit www.simplelifespaces.co.uk