8 Capsule Wardrobe Mistakes You Might Be Making
Everybody wants to flirt with minimalism these days and I’m not complaining. In fact, my life has centered around minimalism for the past two years. As time with by, I noticed my preferences started to change and one area in my life I focused on a lot is minimizing my wardrobe to a more functional one. Creating a capsule wardrobe has solved my clothing and shopping woes, and dressing myself became a lot easier.
The capsule wardrobe idea continues to pop up everywhere and work for the majority, but many have made mistakes along the way when not done properly. So today, I’m going to share 8 capsule wardrobe mistakes you might be making and how to fix them so you can finally the enjoy the benefits from it.
1. Being Too Focused On The Numbers
Don’t forget that a capsule wardrobe is not all about the numbers. You need to focus on what works for you. You want minimal items while enjoying the unlimited matching choices. For instance, one person will have 35 pieces whereas another person may need 50 pieces to accommodate everything.
When putting together a capsule wardrobe, knowing the number of items to include is just one of the important steps. Start with creating cohesion through a color palette, your personal style and lifestyle activities. After that, separate and reduce the items to have a minimal number that works for you.
2. Not Picking a Color Palette
It’s one of the first things you should consider to avoid any capsule wardrobe mistakes in the future. If your wardrobe has no color palette, it means you will spend much of your time trying to figure out what matches with what which is just time consuming.
Your closet needs to look simplified. The best way to simplify is ensuring you decide on a color palette. It enables you to pick the attire of choice easily. You’ll quickly get your things in order without confusion.
Choosing a color palette is not a hard task. I like to choose a color palette that best represent the essence of my style concept for the season. You need to pick up to 3 main colors that satisfy you as well as 1-2 neutrals. These are the colors you’ll be wearing often. Ensure they match and complement almost every item in your capsule. With that, matching becomes easy.
3. Not Buying Quality Goods to Save Money
Your capsule should include investment pieces that will serve you for a lengthy period and when you invest in goods, quality must never be compromised. You don’t want to end up with clothes that are worn out or fall apart after a single season.
Save as much as you can and visit the right online or physical store for quality pieces. The move will not only make you feel better, but you’ll also save money in the long run and get high-quality pieces that will last a very long time.
Some of my favorite online retailers that sell affordable, high quality goods made to last are:
4. Not Considering Your Personal Style
Your closet is a reflection of your personal style. That’s why you should never purchase clothes without considering who you are, what you love and your daily routine.
For instance, you transitioned from a corporate job to having a work at home business, but your closet is full of fancy work attire and going out pieces. That’s a huge issue, right? You might like fancy pieces but you also need to think about what you normally wear on a daily basis. Ask yourself, “Does my clothes align with the activities I do throughout the week?”
Focus on having enough pieces that align with your lifestyle activities. At the end of the day, you want to make sure you have the right balance between your personal style and current lifestyle.
5. Buying Things Because They’re On Sale
I think we’ve all fallen into this trap at least once. We find an item at a price too good to be true and snag it because it’s a high quality item from a popular brand. The problem with this is you’ll end up doing this so often that you’ll leave your closet full of items with the price tag still on it. Either you’ll never wear it or wear it once or twice and just let it take up storage.
Don’t do this!!! Obviously there’s nothing wrong with buying items on sale, but there should be a purpose behind each of your purchases. The next time you come across an item that’s on sale, ask yourself: “Would I purchase this at full price?” If the answer is no, put it down and walk away.
6. Emotional Shopping
Just because you’ve passed by your favorite store or seen a convincing ad, it doesn’t mean you need to go out and purchase the particular item. Emotional shopping is a major capsule wardrobe mistake we don’t often take too seriously. It adds items you never intended to use in your wardrobe. Maybe you’re stressed out and use shopping as a way to fix your mood.
It’s a temporary satisfaction and if you don’t get in under control, your wardrobe can get expensive very quickly. Getting any item that simply for pleasure just wastes your money and time. Continuing such poor decisions will make it difficult to fit such items into your capsule and build outfits around.
Try and limit your impulse shopping by mulling over purchases for at least 24 hours, unsubscribing from brands’ newsletters and replacing shopping with another habit like picking up a good book. It’s a lot cheaper but can also cost you nothing if you pick one up from your local library.
7. You Don’t Feel Good in the Clothes You Wear
Sometimes you make a mistake with a purchase but stuck with anyway because you just don’t want to admit that it was a bad choice from the get go. Maybe the top doesn’t fit properly or you wanted to follow a trend that just doesn’t look good on you no matter how many times you try and style it with other pieces.
Your capsule wardrobe should make you feel good and confident. If you don’t feel good in something, let it go.
8. Trying to Copy Someone Else
It’s hard to look and feel confident in what you wear when you’re trying styles that aren’t really meant for you but for someone else. You need to do you! You need to make a capsule wardrobe that’s perfect for you and your lifestyle.
You shouldn’t try and copy someone else’s style because their personal choices will most likely vary from yours. Your lifestyle is probably very different too and let’s not forget about body types. Defining a style is easier said then done but it’s absolutely necessary if you want to feel stylish and confident in anything you pull from capsule.
Which of these capsule wardrobe mistakes have you broken? Share your thoughts by commenting below!
Declutter Your Space Binder Kit
Decluttering is a great start to getting organized. But what about other areas in your life like your home? Taking the leap to declutter your home can be intimidating which is why so many people avoid it. To simplify the process, I created the Declutter Your Space Binder Kit! This 32 page printable pack will help organize the chaos in your life.
This binder kit also includes a workbook to help you build the perfect capsule wardrobe with ease.