The day I moved out of college, my parents remarked that I “had a lot of clothes”. And I agreed, it was a pain to move it everywhere. I did not develop a minimalist wardrobe at that time, but through the years I began narrowing down my closet. If having a minimalist wardrobe is not for you today, but you feel that your closet feels overwhelming, I’d like to propose some ideas below.
Why own fewer clothes?
- Dressing well could be connected to work success, but dressing well doesn’t have to mean owning a lot of clothes. Many other cultures, especially Europeans, have fewer clothes than Americans.
- Fewer clothes = less overall spend on maintaining them. There are fewer trips to the tailor, less items to insure, smaller loads of laundry, less packing, fewer baggage fees (or none!), less closet space, less house requirement, less rent to pay, smaller down payment, smaller mortgage…
The following are some of the most common items that I advise people to consider removing, selling, and donating from their closet, after graduating from college.
Clothing you have not worn in over one year
We hold on to so many things for sentimental value. And even though Marie Kondo says that everything should “spark joy”, let’s face it, that dress you wore once probably did not spark enough joy for you to want to wear it again. I often had a rule where if I do not ever remember wearing a piece of clothing, it does not belong in the closet.
Clothing that does not fit, and did not cost you a lot to purchase
Ever purchase an ill-fitting $10 dress hoping you could make it fit? Suddenly, with tailoring, that $10 dress becomes a $50 dress or more. In these cases, it makes more sense not getting it tailored and removing it from your wardrobe.
An item that only fits one very specific purpose that rarely happens
I used to own this Chinese traditional gown called a qipao, thinking that it would be really neat to wear it to some cultural occasions. Turns out, I ended up wearing it a maximum of two times. It was a gorgeous, custom tailored gown, but I had to let it go because there was no occasion for it.
Anything that makes you feel uncomfortable
This could be an itchy sweater. A strap that does not sit right. A skirt that keeps sliding around or pinching you in the wrong places. An item that you have to constantly shift, adjust, and look out to make sure you are not self-conscious. Life is too short to have clothing that makes you feel miserable throughout the day!
Clothing that does not match with any other colors in your closet
There was a phase I went through when I really liked the color olive green. I had some olive green shirts, olive green military backpack… but as my tastes evolved, olive green did not fit with the rest of the colors in my closet. Suddenly these olive green items stopped being worn. Hey, it’s okay when that happens, simply identify which clothes are like that for you, and remove them from the closet.
These are clothes I have recently removed from my closet
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