I was first introduced to the idea of minimalism while scrolling on Pinterest and I was instantly attracted to it. The post was a picture of a wardrobe rack with about twelve clothing items on it and two pairs of shoes. The first thought that jumped into my head was, is that all of the clothes she has? A few moments later, I realized that as a society, many of us have been conditioned to think that more is better. I began to examine my closet and noticed that it was a huge cluttered mess and that I hadn’t worn at least half of the items I had once been so excited to purchase. That’s when I decided to start my new journey and boy, did it have amazing results.
The first thing I did was donate and get rid of everything that wasn’t of any use, such as clothes with the tag on them or styles I’d simply outgrown. I wanted a clean slate to begin a minimalist wardrobe. Another widely spread misconception is that minimalism means you can only have a few items in your closet and that you pretty much wear the same thing every day. Although that can be true for some, minimalism is definitely an open-minded concept. I think of it more as keeping everything you love and use. It’s okay to have options, but only if you’re actually using those options. Another way of looking at it is, are you always thinking to yourself that you have nothing to wear while staring at heaps of clothing? That most likely means that those items aren’t filling the basic needs of a decent wardrobe. That was a question I always asked myself prior to my journey.
I then set a number of items I wanted to have in my wardrobe. So instead of blindly shopping for things, I made sure not to purchase over a certain amount. I knew that I didn’t want more than seventy pieces (including shoes and accessories) in my wardrobe, and I was up for that challenge. Now I know that seventy may sound like a large number but trust me, it was a small number for me. I’ve followed that strict guide for about 4 months now and it’s honestly been an amazing adjustment. Something else that helped me, was mainly purchasing staple pieces that can be worn in many ways. There are so many ways to style a plain black dress or a great pair of mom jeans. Aside from that, it’s a great feeling to always have something to wear and to have a well-organized space. I’ve also been able to save money, as I don’t go shopping much anymore because I already have a reliable and versatile wardrobe. I look forward to eventually expanding minimalism to my overall lifestyle, as this was just the first step.
I highly encourage everyone to try a minimalist wardrobe, it may seem overwhelming at first but the benefits are gold.