Firstly we really want to hear your experience – do you practice it? Have you tried it? Was it functional? Did it actually contribute to your lifestyle and consumerism change? Meaning did it last, are you still practicing it? Or if not, how long did it last and what made you go back or stop practicing it?

Here’s my experience: I lived on a capsule wardrobe for a few years by necessity. I didn’t even think of it at the time, just called it minimalism. We lived in a 35 m² apartment, with room for only one closet for all our clothes. Moving in wasn’t a problem not having lived in a large space before, so my wardrobe needed zero minimising to begin with. My clothes consisted of: basic cotton shirts (sleeveless also doubled as under shirts), 3 blazers, 2 pairs of trousers, 3 pairs of jeans, one skirt, 3 dresses, 5 knit sweaters and some sports clothes (hoodies, shirts, hiking and climbing trousers). Outerwear: 2 coats, 1 soft shell jacket, 1 trench coat. Everything in colours white, beige, grey and black.

Shoes, pairs of: 2 black boots (flats and heels), 2 hiking shoes (low and high), running shoes, 1 black ankle boots, 1 black »regular office« shoes (something between loafers and sneakers), 2 all stars (low papyrus and high black), 1 dancing shoes, 1 flip flops. Bags: 2 black, one large and one small. Belts: 1 black, 1 brown waste belt for dresses and sweaters. Jewellery: wedding rings, a necklace and some lace jewellery. Pijamas: 2 sets of warm. I don’t buy pyjamas, I just use old shirts, but this apartment was so cold, that I needed these 2 sets throughout most of the year. Still have them now in the house and use them occasionally.

That was it. It was completely functional, everything matching everything else. The only down side was, that I occasionally ran out of a single piece, say white cotton shirts and had to adjust accordingly (wear a black one). The upside was the no-brainer in getting dressed, whatever was taken out, matched everything else.

Looking back now, it’s clear that it’s simple to live with this little. But to be sincere, I prefer more – just a bit more choice and a bit more colour. I have space now, actual wardrobe space, a dream come true. Looking at the whole thing, there definitely is more, mostly I added the sports clothes (which is the rack on the right with more colours). 40 % of items in the photo below I didn’t buy myself, but got from friends (we exchange or just give each other clothes regularly).

»At home« pile

A question for you first – do divide your items and make piles with items you only wear at home?

Upon purchasing any item of clothing, shoes or accessories, I carefully consider what I need and would wear and only buy what checks all the boxes. Thus I wear out everything I buy, with very few exceptions. Through usage the items eventually become inappropriate to wear in public, but still useful, that’s where the »at home« pile comes in place. These are the clothes and shoes I only wear at home and around the house. I don’t ever leave our premises wearing such items. These clothes and shoes I then wear on repeat, thus wearing them out in a about year or two as they go through washing cycles weekly. Eventually these pieces become so damaged and torn, even with repairs, that after being worn out, I cut them into cloths and use for cleaning, thus extending their usage as most as possible. The latter, the usage extension, being the whole point of these designated “at home items”.

These piles are visible in the photo above, on the shelf below the hanging clothes.

It’s worth a try

To compose, capsule wardrobe is very useful, simple and helps with time-managing immensely. There are pretty much only pros to it. The only down side is that you can sometimes run out of a single piece of clothing (like shirts, specially in the summer). A thing that can be resolved the easiest, just have a few more items of the same piece (for example, T-shirts), there’s that problem gone.

It also gives enables us to see how little we actually need and how little we can live by. And consequently, can save us a lot of money.

Having lived on a capsule wardrobe for years, I can only recommend it. The reason I don’t currently run one now, is simple, as explained above – I have room and I like my choices, but I carefully curate the items I let in (and out).

Capsule wardrobe can absolutely and so easily be implemented in our lifestyle. The size of the capsule, of course, depends on the part of the world we live in, the climate (seasons), our daily life (the different activities we practice), the work we do, the space we have available and at the end, our personal style. It can and does simplify our daily life significantly.

If you think it may improve your life, or if you just want to try it, do. However, I don’t do the capsule wardrobe just for the sake of it. Take caution, don’t throw anything out immediately, at least for the first year. The whole meaning would thus be counterproductive, if removed the items we thought we didn’t need and then having to repurchase some because we removed them too soon.

See how it works for you, can be a lot of fun, only wait a year (or less of you don’t live in a climate with 4 seasons) before removing the items you see you don’t need.

If you need some inspiration, there are pretty much endless number of YouTube videos addressing this topic. I found my inspiration here.

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