October Capsule Wardrobe

Hey guys! I'm trying something a little new this year. Have you heard of a capsule wardrobe? Ever tried one? I've been casually reading about them for a few years now -- like never searching them out, they just pop up in blogs or magazines I read, and for a myriad of reasons (mostly motherhood/exhaustion) this is the year I decided to give it a shot. 

So, what is a capsule wardrobe?

This part is easy. A capsule wardrobe is a significant paring down of your closet. You pick a handful of staple pieces that can be mixed and matched together and forget the rest of your closet exists. 

Seriously though, the idea here is that you have a few integral pieces. You wear those and nothing else. 

Why create a capsule wardrobe? 

Why though? I am a cultivator and this closet is a historic collection of great finds and impulse purchases and everything I bought from Forever21 in 2006. 

That's why. All the sequined and size pre-baby junk that I think I might wear, but never actually do, is clouding my judgement. And that's the stuff that gets in the way every morning when I have seventeen things lying in a pile on the floor and I'm fuming that I have nothing to wear. 

This removes the complication. I know I'm going to wear one of five shirts, so just pick one and grab one of the three pairs of pants in the capsule. 

Okay, so how do you create a capsule wardrobe? 

Yeah, so this is the fun part because it might call for some shopping. And if there's a "might" involved, you can be sure I'm going to turn it into a "definitely." 

Step 1: First, I purged my closet. If I haven't worn it in the last year, it had to go. I sold a few items on ThredUp and banked about $20. 

Step 2: I took some time to consider a color palette. If you only have a few things to wear, you'll need them to all work together. I've been really into burnt orange for a few months, and fall is a great time for that, so then I just went from there. I like sage-y green and figured tan and stripes would work well as neutrals for both of those. 

*Side note: I read a lot of different perspectives for how many things should be in a capsule. Some said 37 (which is weirdly specific), some were up to 50 and some were as few as 10-15. I just sort of winged it and grabbed what I thought I'd need for work and pleasure without getting too deep into a creative rut. 

Step 3: I invested in a few staple pieces. I already had a lot of things I wanted to wear this season, so I scooped up a tan and gray sweater, a couple of blouse-style shirts for work, and a couple basic tees from Target. 

Here's what I ended up with -

I found a ton of stuff on ThredUp, which kept the cost down a lot. I searched for brands that I already love and have worn enough to know my size well and went from there. J.Crew is one of my go-to brands and I found the red buffalo check shirt, striped tee, green chinos and leopard print wedges on ThredUp for less than a hundred bucks. The green skirt is LL Bean and was like, $6.99. The jeans are American Eagle.

Obviously I'm not famous enough to be sponsored. I just really like ThredUp and think that buying secondhand is a nice way to care about the earth and also do what I love: shop.

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So that's it! I'm doing this particular capsule for all of October and right now I'm 12-days in and still like everything enough that I haven't been tempted to deviate.

Please tell me if you'd done this before or if you've considered trying it. I'm definitely interested!