Where to Start

Press Pause

This is a process and so it will take time. This needs to be accepted before anything else, or you will just end up making the same mistakes again, throwing away money, losing time and giving up on the process altogether. So take a moment to tell your mind that it’s ok not to have anything to wear right now, but that you are working on a solution to this problem.

Where to Start?

By this point we have all heard about Marie Kondo. So empty your wardrobe and start by going through every piece one by one. Hold it, put it on, feel how it makes you feel, and only hang back the things that actually make you feel happy and like yourself. Be mindful of comfort. Do the things you want to keep fit well or do they need to be tailored? There might be an item that you love the look of but that scratches you too much for your to feel comfortable in. Let it go.

Clothing that you decide to get rid of can either be donated or sold, and if you’re the type that has trouble letting go of things there is an in-between step: the ‘Just in Case-Box’. Get a big box that fits either under your bed or in some storage area in your house and put in the items that you end up not really wearing but aren’t ready to let go just yet. Once they’ve been out of sight for some months you may be able to let them go with more ease. On a rare occasion you might place one of these items back into your wardrobe because you’re missing it.

Treat your selection with Respect

Your wardrobe should be a place that makes you feel happy and excited for the day ahead when you open it, and you want the items that you have to last for years - even decades to come. So treat them like you know the person who made them. Clean the inside of your closet and invest in some clothes hangers so that it looks uniform and neat, while avoiding slipping clothes and shoulder dents.

Reflect on your selection

At this point your selection usually already tells you something about your preferences in style.

Try to understand why exactly you like these items that are now in your (hopefully relatively empty) closet. Try to make sense of your current style and whether it is what you want it to be, or whether you would prefer it to be something else.