Episode 174: BiAnnual Closet Audit
[convertkit form=3003230]
Show Notes
Hello. Hello. Welcome back to the show. You’re listening to Episode 174: Biannual Closet Audit. It’s kind of a mouthful. I’m going to be sharing today how our family manages our wardrobes, which is the question that I’ve gotten over the last several years. I have loved shifting to this system that works well for my family.
It’s helped our shopping for clothes. Be more sustainable. More intentional. We feel more at home and comfortable in the things that we’re wearing. We also have gained back huge amounts of time and energy. And I know that my budget benefits from having a specific system. I’m going to share the ins and outs of how I conduct my family’s biannual closet audit.
Whether the system that I share works for you, or is something that you feel like you’d be interested in. I think that listening to the way that we manage things will probably help give you some ideas of different areas in your own life regarding how you shop for and think about your closet–your clothing– that could be a little bit more.
If there’s any areas of friction or things that feel like they’re a little bit overwhelming, or you don’t know where to start, hopefully listening to this episode will give you some ideas. And if you feel like I want to dive in and try something, just like what Miranda does, I’ve created a couple of worksheets that go along with this episode that you can download in the show notes. They kind of give you an overview of how to get started.
Before I jump into the episode, I want to let you know that the registration is open and available for my upcoming spring creative camp, deep work weekend. It’s going to be April 20th through 24th in Southern Utah in a beautiful home in a small town called Hurricane.
Live Free Creative Camp was designed specifically based on some incredible evidence-based practices for focus, creativity, and efficiency. The way that I’ve structured Creative Camp is that we take care of all your most important needs so that you can take care of your most important work. The weekend includes some fun community relationship building because there’s always an amazing, magical group of women who attend.
We provide all the food daily, yoga and meditation practices, outdoor activities, professional headshots at one-on-one creative coaching session, some group masterminds, where you get all the intelligence of the group focused on your project. And most of the time at camp is spent with you having hours of uninterrupted focus ours a day where you can put your head down and dive deep into that project that has been hanging over your head or that thing that you keep thinking about wanting to work on, and you can’t quite get there within the confines of your everyday regular life.
Some examples of the projects that people have worked on at creative camp are writing a book proposal. Many women have come and worked on their books themselves. In addition to writers, we’ve also had women who’ve come working on courses for their small business. We’ve had women getting ready to launch a new company or a blog and wanting to get all the backend pieces all put together. We’ve had some women attend who simply wanted that space in time to reflect and to journal and to read, to use that deep focus time as deep internal focus and relaxation, where they could just have some space.
We’ve also had some photographers who’ve come and use that time to get caught up on sessions and rework some of the back end of their business. All the details are available livefreecreative.co/camp.
There are limited spots available, and I would love to see you there. If this feels like it would be the right fit for you.
Segment: Peaks of the Week
Now today’s segment for Episode 174 is peaks of the week.
As today’s episode is about closets and clothing. I thought I would share five of my various favorites. Some of these I’ve loved for a long time. Some of them or are sort of newish discoveries for me. And all of them are going to be a major part of my upcoming spring, summer capsule wardrobe. So, I wanted to share them with you.
Number one are a pair of classic Converse high-tops. I have worn Converse for a long time, I’ve worn and walked through several different pairs. I keep coming back to just basic wonderful classic Chuck Taylors. And right now, I’m into the high tops. For many years. I wore just the classic, below the ankle tie style. Navy blue was my favorite color.
I really think I had about three or four pairs that I walked all the way through. Ended up with holes in the soles before I replaced them with an equal pair. Just knew right now, though, I am wearing almost daily, a pair of seafoam green high-tops that my little sister died and gave to me because they didn’t fit her anymore. And I love them.
There’s something about having the high-top piece that makes them a little bit more transitional between seasons. So, they are great in the spring. Great. In the fall I’ve been wearing them all winter. I think even in the summer, the high-tops look cute with shorts. I like them with socks, sticking out of them.
I liked them with bare legs, sticking out of them. They’re very comfortable to walk in. I just wear them on our trip to Portugal. We walked miles a day up and down cobblestone streets and they’ve been fantastic. I also really think the two-layer ones are cute. So, they have like the basic sole Chuck Taylor’s and then they have the double layer ones that are a little bit platform.
Which are also just add, add a little height, obviously, but also add kind of a little element of edginess that I think is fun. So, Chuck Taylors high tops, Converse high tops, peak of the week number one.
My peak of the week number two are a specific brand of t-shirts that I discovered in West Texas when I was visiting one of my favorite places, Marfa Texas. At El Cosmico in the gift shop, they have a whole line of cool t-shirts.
Beyond how cool the pattern is, the designs, I noticed that the t-shirt quality itself was so high and so great. So, I did a little research by research. I mean, I looked at the tag and then Googled the name and discovered a little t-shirt company out of LA called FilthMart.
Yes. You heard that correctly. Filth F I L T H Mart, Filth Mart specializes in vintage t-shirts, and they also have a whole line of silk-screened t-shirts made on these tubular cotton tees. I bought my first one in Marfa at El Cosmico and then I’ve since ordered several. My summer spring, summer wardrobe really consists of a lot of graphic tees and shorts.
So, I love having an incredible base t-shirt that is a little bit funky, a little bit cool. I love a graphic tee and the quality at FilthMart is unmatched. They’re my very favorite t-shirts. I will say that they can be a little bit edgy and not every design would be for everyone. And at the same time, I respect that creativity and really love the ones that I’ve chosen that I have I wear on repeat and just absolutely love the quality and that kind of. A little bit kookiness of them.
Number three are my very favorite swimsuits. I have done a blog post about these, but I wanted to mention them again here, as we’re heading into swimsuit season, I know it’s coming soon. I just had a swimsuit on, in an indoor pool in Portugal, and it was delightful to remember what it’s like to be warm enough, to have a swimsuit on.
A couple of years ago, I was looking for sustainably made swimsuits and I stumbled into Summersalt, ordered a couple, and they have been my go-to bathing suits. I love them so much. I ordered two, one-piece styles and. I’m going to link in the show notes where I talk a little bit more about them in a full blog post, the fit and the quality of these suits has been so great.
I highly recommend if you haven’t tried a Summersalt suit and you’re looking for a new swimsuit this year, they’re fun, bright colors they’re made with recycled plastic bottles. So, they’re sustainably made the fit is great and they just are. They’re cute designs. Interesting patterns. The blog post shares the exact suits that I bought, one has like a lace-up sort of a nautical front and the other one has a little cutout in the front.
They’re both one pieces and they’re my favorite. So, whenever I’m just like grabbing a suit quick, that’s the, those are the ones that I grab because I know that no matter my mood, no matter how I’ve been feeling in the week, that I will feel wonderful in one of my Summersalt suits.
Number four. A denim jacket from Able. If you’ve read my book, you know that I have a history with a love for denim jackets. And I found this one when I was at a conference several years ago, Able is a sustainable brand. Everything is made ethically and with fair trade and with organic materials. This Able jacket is a little bit distressed. It’s a perfect fit. And I’ve worn it now for about five seasons. It doesn’t get old. It’s one of those classic denim jackets. I will never need another one. I absolutely love it.
And this is about the time where it starts coming out of my closet again. As we’re heading into spring, I pull it out. It’s something that I easily can toss over my FilthMart T-shirts with my Converse high tops on, so if you’re in the market for a denim jacket, it’s a good.
I love everything that Able makes too. So, I will just toss that out there as a fantastic sustainable brand to be looking at. If you are interested in more conscious consumption.
Finally, I’m going to end with my Claire V trucker hat as number five, if you’ve seen over the last six months or so on Instagram, I keep showing up with this bright yellow “OUI” hat we the French word “Yes”.
It’s from Claire V, a brand I discovered through my little sister who is ultimately fashionable. There’s something so great about just putting on a cute hat. This one has been my absolute favorite. There’s something about it being a little bit punchy, a little bit unexpected feels like it’s a perfect topper to anything that I put on.
I think a fun hat is a perfect addition to almost any outfit. So, my peak of the week, number five is having a fun, bright hat.
High tops, FilthMart tees, Summersalt suits, Able jacket, Clare V hat. Those are my peaks of the week.
BiAnnual Closet Audit
Okay. Now let’s dive into a biannual closet audit. What does that look like? What’s the point? How can you get started first? I think it’s important to give a little bit of context to the idea of a capsule wardrobe or an edited wardrobe. Capsule wardrobe is a phrase that’s been used a lot to mean a few different things.
And so, in episode six of this podcast, I share all that. My capsule wardrobe, how to do a capsule wardrobe, the way I got started with that. So, if you want a little bit more of a deep dive into a capsule wardrobe itself, you can listen to episode six.
The easiest way to think about this for me is that you assemble a certain set of clothing that is going to serve you for a determined amount of time. And you use those same clothes without adding to them. For that amount of time.
When I first got started with a capsule wardrobe, I did about a full year. This was before my year of not shopping. I did about a full year with my first capsule wardrobe because I lived in Texas and there wasn’t a whole lot of seasonal change.
And I found that once I started wearing only clothes that fit well, and that I really loved it was okay with me to repeat outfits repeatedly, because I felt so much more comfortable in the things I was wearing. That it didn’t matter that it wasn’t so novel all the time.
That said a 12-month capsule wardrobe doesn’t probably work well for. Seasons or areas of the country. When we moved to Virginia, I started what I do now, which is my biannual closet audit, which essentially means that I formed two capsule wardrobes per year for myself and for my kids. This doesn’t mean that I go out and get an entirely new set of clothes for each season.
This means that I do an audit twice a year. And I determine where the needs are and where some things have outgrown or no longer fit or are no longer, I’m no longer interested in wearing. And I make those adjustments. And then I don’t think about it again until the next audit. So, for the last four years, I’ve been doing closet audits in the spring for a spring summer.
And again, in the fall for a fall winter wardrobe, this episode is going to explain kind of the ins and outs of what that looks like before I share all those details.
Benefits of an Edited Wardrobe
I want to just give a minute to explain what the benefits of using an edited wardrobe for me have been number one. I think it’s been incredible to see how when I really pared down and edited out my closet to just the things that I loved and that I wore most frequently, I started to get to know my style, my personal style in a way that I never had before.
I’ve always been a little bit eclectic. I like a lot of different things. I like color, but I also like neutrals. I like pattern, but I also like solids. And I think until I did a capsule wardrobe, my first capsule. Was in about 2014, right after Plum was born, which was a time of kind of flexibility with my style because I had just gone through my childbearing years.
I had had three kids in six years and my weight, and my shape had gone up and down of course, with pregnancy and maternity and postpartum and all those fluctuations and just a shifting and identity had left me sort of wondering what do I even like?
Like what clothes look good on me? What do I feel comfortable in? What does my lifestyle look like beyond that I had gone from? You know, years of working in a professional environment, I was when I worked as a nurse, I was a diabetes educator where I wear office clothes. I wear a lab coat, but I didn’t wear scrubs in my professional life as a nurse.
So, I had like a set of office clothes, and then I had my home clothes, but I didn’t often do a lot of casual clothes at home. You know, in the same day. So, I changed from office clothes into sort of like pajamas. And then on the weekends, I had to figure out what to wear. So, I think all the fluctuations in lifestyle in body shape and size in family dynamics left me feeling a little bit like I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to wear or what I felt comfortable or good in.
Forming a capsule wardrobe, an edited wardrobe, where I really paid attention to each piece and how much I loved it and how it felt on my body and whether it mixed and matched well with the other pieces in my closet helped me hone in on a style.
And I mentioned this in my book when I started, I pared down my closet to a third or less of what had been there. When I got rid of all at once, I got rid of all the things that didn’t fit, that I didn’t like anymore, that I had held on to, because I felt bad for them because I had bought. And even though I had never worn it, I felt like, because it still had a tag on it.
When I did that initial closet audit, and I really got rid of so many things I started wearing on repeat this very small section of clothes that remained. I started getting compliments about how nice I looked and how cute I looked, and people are saying, oh, I really like your style. I really liked that shirt.
I like those things that you are wearing. And I thought it was so interesting because these, I hadn’t bought anything new. These were all a result of me simply only wearing things that I loved only wearing things that felt confident and comfortable to me. It was a true example of how getting rid of the more, just the random more helped me feel so much better.
Getting To Know Your Personal Style
So having some confidence, getting to know your style. Really acknowledging what you like to wear and what feels good on you and being okay if that’s different from the trends being okay. If that’s different from your friends being okay, if that’s different from what you’re seeing in the magazines or on Instagram, knowing that it’s okay to have a personal style, it’s okay for that style to feel like you and no one else.
And I wouldn’t say that my personal style is even very identifiable by someone because I really, I wear a lot of casual clothes. I wear a lot of jeans and t-shirts and sneakers, and yet I feel very much like myself in my clothes. So even if someone wouldn’t say, oh, she has this style, I know what I like wearing.
I can put on something and immediately tell if it’s something that I would wear often or not. And that’s a skill that I’ve learned through years of really giving myself permission to only wear things that I love only wear things that feel good to me and to get rid of things that don’t, and I don’t know why sometimes we feel like we need permission to get rid of things that we don’t like anymore, or that don’t fit anymore, or that we bought.
Maybe it’s because of that investment of, you know, initial time or maybe someone gives you something and you feel like you should wear it because they give it to you. I love the idea of just giving yourself permission to only put on your body things that feel good. So, we go from that place of a really edited closet to some of the natural factors of yes, of course, body shifting over time.
Also, seasonal factors of shorts and t-shirts, aren’t going to work all year in Virginia because we have fall winter that it gets cold. And so, I’m going to need pants. I’m going to need boots. I’m going to need sweaters. Some of the regular refresh for comfort and fit and yes, even style, you know, my core style has remained essentially the same over the last 10 years.
And I do notice, you know, some embracing of the trends a little bit here and there. Fringes of my wardrobe. So, a biannual closet audit gives me the flexibility to have a regular refresh for fit, comfort, style, desire, and quality without doing a full overhaul. And really this is the key without spending my whole, the periphery of my whole life thinking about clothes.
I open the flood gates for a couple of weeks in the spring and a couple of weeks in the fall. And other than that, I don’t think about buying clothes. I don’t pay attention to what is coming out. I don’t wander through the aisles at any clothing stores. I don’t shop online. I buy clothes twice a year during our biannual closet audit, and other than that, I’m free from having to think about it. And that is so empowering.
Okay. Okay. You get it right. It’s great. It’s confidence building. It gives you back time, money, and energy. Flexibility. So how do I go about this process? What does the bi-annual closet audit look like?
[convertkit form=3003230]
The Closet Audit Process
That is what I’m going to explain right now. We’re heading into this season over the next, probably in about a week or two. I’m going to start this process and I do it with myself and with each of my kids, Dave manages his own clothes. I don’t worry about what he does. He always looks great and I’m happy for him to wear.
Shop for his clothes. However, he sees fit. I love managing it for myself and me also, because I assume the responsibility in our home for our kids’ clothes, it’s something that I do together with them. One at a time over a, about a week period, each the first step in the closet audit is to take a clear inventory of what is already there for the season.
So, I have one box of spring, summer clothes that are strictly spring summer. A lot of the things in my closet sort of mixed between seasons, like some t-shirts, for example. And then I have some things that I, I don’t ever wear a pair of shorts in the winter unless they go on vacation. So, my spring, summer clothes live in a box.
Open The Box, Look At Each Piece
And at the beginning of this audit, I’ll open the box and take a full inventory of what is there. And I will try it all on. Try it on for fit. Try it on for comfort. Look at myself in the mirror and ask myself, do I still love this? Is this something that I still want to wear this year? Do I see myself being able to mix and match this well in this upcoming season, once I have an inventory of what I already have, that I love, then I can?
Try It On
Evaluate what is missing. If there are any holes in the overall wardrobe for the season often, I’ll have a little bit of an idea of something that I think I would like to wear. And often this is one of those fringe trend things. For example, when I was recently traveling, I was wearing my high tops a lot, and I love my high-tops.
And I also started seeing these platform high tops, and I thought, you know what? It could be fun this spring summer to wear a pair of those platform, high tops. That might be a fun mix to add in with the other things that I already have. So, I’ll look, and I like to have a basic outline. For the things that I think that I need, I don’t have this written down, but in the worksheets, I, I outlined a general idea of about what I think works for me.
What Is Missing for the Season?
And yours could be very different. I generally, for myself. In the spring summer, like to have about five pairs of shorts, about five summer dresses. I like to wear dresses a lot. In the spring summer, I have five to six swimsuits. I like to have two to three pairs of sandals, two to three pairs of sneakers.
I have about 10 to 15 t-shirts and tank tops that I will rotate and wear often two to three sweatshirts. One to two fun hats and a couple specific swim cover-ups that I can’t really wear as dresses. I have a couple that are like translucent or things that I can’t wear as a dress that doesn’t really count as a dress, but counts more as a swim coverup that, and that’s kind of what works for me.
Evaluate For Fit, Style, Comfort, Quality
So, I’ll take everything out to check on the fit and quality evaluate the styles. Like, am I still going to wear this? Do I still like this? If I don’t, if I try something on, I think I’m kind of over it. I don’t really like it anymore and it doesn’t even have to be that it doesn’t fit. It can simply be that I’ve, that I don’t love it anymore.
I’m kind of tired of it. Number one, I pay attention. What is it that I don’t love about it because I want to prevent in the future? Adding things to my closet that I don’t love for very long. I’d rather have something that I love for a long time that I can wear multiple seasons and multiple years in a row.
Pay Attention To What You Donate: It Teaches You
And so, if I, the things that I get rid of, I like to pay attention to what is it about them that I don’t love so that I don’t repeat that. Purchase those types of purchase. This has really informed my style. It’s really informed the way that I mentioned earlier in the show that I can try something on and say, oh, this is so cute, but I know I’m not going to wear it for very long.
And that helps me choose things that are more sustainable, that are longer lasting, that are better quality that I’ll often wear many of the things in my closet. I’ve had for years, many of the clothing pieces that I wear, I’ve worn over and repeatedly. And I get excited to see them when I pull them out in the spring.
In fact, I was looking for a pair of sandals for our trip to Portugal. And so, I opened, opened my spring summer box, which I haven’t for months. And I got a little rush of excitement seeing. Some of the clothes that I have that I wear during the spring summer that I really like, and I’ve kind of missed.
And I thought, I mean, of course I think I was excited that it’s going to be time to wear shorts again soon. I also really like the things that I have, and that is so fun to be excited about clothes, not only be excited about new clothes that I go shopping for but be excited about the clothes that I have in my closet.
Love Getting Dressed Every Day
Be happy to get dressed every day. That feels so fun. It feels so good. So, I get to this point where I’ve tried on the clothes, check the fit and quality, gotten rid, or donated the things that I don’t love anymore. Evaluated the styles, determined the holes of what are the things that I need or that I want.
And I’m totally okay with like one or two trend pieces that will probably not stick around for forever, but that I will kind of update the look of the whole wardrobe. For example, last fall. I bought a pair of boots cut jeans, which I hadn’t worn boot cut jeans, probably since high school, I’ve worn skinny jeans.
And I have skinny jeans that I love, and I’ve worn, you know, for 10 years. And then boot cut jeans started to make an appearance again in the last couple of years. And I thought I would love to try a pair of boots cut jeans again. So, I bought one and I wore them all winter and I loved them. And I don’t think that that’s going away.
So, I have a pair that when I wore my boot cut jeans with one of my sweaters that I’ve had for five years, It updated the whole outfit. It just, you know, helped things kind of feel a little bit more present. And so being able to add a couple little pieces to refresh, the whole thing feels fun.
Make A List, Set A Budget
After this process, I list out my needs. I don’t only think about what are the things that I need or what are the holes in the closet? I, I list them out. I write down two graphic t-shirts I write down one pair of leather sandals. I write down. One cozy sweatshirt and I have a list what it is that I need.
And I also like to create a budget. How much money do I want to invest in these pieces for this season? After I have gone through those steps, and I have a list and a budget. That’s when I do my shopping and I do my shopping with intention. I like to shop first from secondhand sources. There’s a great couple consignment stores here in Richmond that I will go to first and see if they have.
Begin Shopping: Second Hand, Sustainable, Small Shops
Something that fits the need that I’m looking for. If they don’t, then I’ll look online at Poshmark or a thread up and see if I can find it secondhand online. If those sources say don’t work out the next, I like to turn to sustainable ethically sourced shops. So, places like Able, places like Summersalt for swimsuits, I have an entire master list of conscious companies on my blog.
And I will link that in the show notes. If you’re looking for a little bit more sustainable way to shop, or you don’t know where to start with that, there’s a whole list that I put together of companies that I really love that have more sustainable practices. And then finally, I will look at local boutiques or smaller shops.
I try to go through that list in that order. And then very last look at major retailers like going to Nordstrom or going to. Somewhere like a big shop. I, if I can, and because I’m only doing this for a small amount of time twice a year, I really have this focus time where I can spend the extra intention of looking, you know, kind of doing a treasure hunt and looking for secondhand sustainable and small shop pieces that feel more intentional to me that aligned better with my values and.
That I feel like make a positive impact outside of just my closet and make a positive impact in other ways as well. If I were shopping all the time throughout the whole year, it would probably be harder or feel like a much heavier burden to spend the time. And it wouldn’t be as convenient as like picking stuff up at target.
Shop With Intention, Then Stop
For example, because I limit me. Closet audit and shopping to a couple specific periods during the year. I feel like I can pour in that level of intention. And that feels good to me. It feels fun to focus on it. And then once I’m done and I’ve got everything that I need, I close it up and say, that’s it. That’s the spring summer wardrobe. That’s it. I just mix and match it and I enjoy it and I wear it and I love it. And I don’t think about clothes again, other than putting them on and taking them off until the next audit six months later.
Fundamental Beliefs
If this sounds crazy to you because your regular habit is to just sort of browse or, or if it’s part of your routine to wander through the aisles and pick things up that are cute or to drop by the mall. That’s totally. Okay. I want to tell you that a couple beliefs, fundamental beliefs that help me in this process are:
Less, can be better
I want to put what I love on repeat
It’s okay for me to like things and not buy them
It’s okay for me to see something when I’m, you know, going to target to get band-aids and I see a cute dress it’s okay for me to say, wow, that’s so cute. I love that. And to leave it on the shelf or to leave it hanging up, I don’t have to continually be adding things just because I like them. I allow myself to spend a lot of time for just a week or two focusing on this and building a wardrobe that I love.
And then to acknowledge that I’m going to see things for the next six months that I love and that I think, oh, that’d be so fun to have that. I would love to wear that. And, to remember that I already have a closet full of clothes that I love, and I don’t need to continually be adding to it. In fact, my life is better and easier and more simple and more manageable.
And I have more time and energy and money available because I’ve consolidated. This process into this by annual closet audit. It benefits me. I don’t feel like I’m depriving myself. I feel like I’m adding to my life. Like I’m giving myself more confidence, more style, more intention, more time. I’m more confident in my clothes.
I feel more like myself because of this process. So, I know that it wouldn’t work for everyone. And I am not sharing this to tell you that this is the way that I think that people should shop, because I don’t believe in that there’s no should, there’s no one right way to do this. And if you feel like you’re a little lost, if in your closet, if you feel like you’re spending way more time, money, and energy on clothes than you want to.
And yet you still don’t feel like you have anything to wear. If you don’t love getting dressed every day. You may want to try something like this. You may want to give it a, give it a go and see if it doesn’t improve your lifestyle to focus with intention and then close the door and not continually, you know, dribble, energy and money and time and thought across the whole year went on something that you could do in a little bit tighter.
Similar Process with Kids
Process. So, let’s talk for just a second about how I do this with my kids. It’s very similar to the way that I do it for myself. I am managing some hand-me-downs between my oldest and my middle a on a lesser degree between my middle and my youngest. So, I usually start at the top. I start with Milo, and we pull out all his clothes and he try them all on.
And usually because he’s growing so fast, most of them don’t fit anymore. By the time we’re getting to the end of the season, I noticed I just came home from vacation and noticed Elliot was wearing a pair of Milo’s pants. And I said, oh, did Milo give this to you? He said, yeah, they don’t fit them anymore.
So, we really are coming up on this time where Milo spring, summer wardrobe is going to be. New clothes that are a different size than before. And with kids. This is often the case about every six months, it’s time for an upgrade. I mean, of course, if you have a little tiny one, it’s like every two months that they grow out of their clothes.
Take Out And Try On
But I feel like once kids are stable, like four or five, it’s about every six months that you really need to do an update and the sizing of their clothes. So, this has worked out well. Because I’m not often going to buy new clothes mid-season anyway. Um, they’re usually if we’re sizing them appropriately, a pair of pants will last from September, until February.
Even if they’ve grown, if we bought the correct size. You know, of course, as just a caveat here, a little asterisk, if your child grows in the middle of a season, it’s a good idea to buy clothes that fit them. And in my experience with my three kids, I haven’t had to do a whole lot of that because we’ve been able to assemble their capsule, seasonal wardrobe, and then not worry about it again until the next season.
And my kids really look forward to this. Been a fun part of the way we interact. And Milo has been talking about the types of clothes that he wants to wear this spring summer. And he knows that we’re going to go and choose some new clothes and he gets to have a say in what they look like and how they feel and what style he wants to explore.
Check Fit, Quality, Style, Comfort
So, the steps are the same. Take out all the clothes, check for fit, quality, evaluate the style. Do they still like it? Do they not? Donate or set aside for the next child, what doesn’t fit, what they don’t like anymore, determine what they need for the upcoming season. And for growing kids, it might be like a whole list of things.
Make A List of Needs
So, for my boys, I think about seven to 10, t-shirts five to seven pairs of shorts, a pair of tennis shoes, a pair of socks. Three to five swimsuits, two to three sweatshirts, church clothes, course, underwear, and socks. And you know, if they have specialty, they’ll soccer clothes or whatever, that’s about what we do per season.
And for plan, the only changes that we, she loves to wear dresses as well. So, we add in dresses for all the kids. I like them to have a sun hat, a pair of sunglasses, you know, some of those extra things per season, we can sort of reevaluate and audit and make sure that they’ve got that. So, they’re all set for when we go to the beach or whatever.
Set A Budget and Shop
And we’ll have this list. And I do the same thing that for the kids that I do for myself, we list out their needs. We determine a budget and then we go shopping and we do the shopping.
First, second hand, we go to the consignment store. We go to the secondhand shop and then we look at sustainable sources H and M has some great, eco-conscious clothing. They have like a whole line of eco-conscious clothing; Tea Collection has great sustainable practices. Hannah Anderson has a great sustainable practice that we like REI, Patagonia. Those are places that we, we like to find some of their clothes and if we can’t find them secondhand and then we’ll go to a fun local shop.
Choose a couple of pieces there and fill in the rest of the holes with major retailers. So same process that we go through the differences. When we get to my second child, he not only has his own clothes to go through and evaluate, but we also then look at all of Milo’s clothes. So, the secondhand clothes coming down from his older brother, we add that to what he’s looking at this year and for the, for the upcoming season.
Make It A Date!
With each of the kiddos, we have their list and we make this kind of one-on-one affair. It’s fun where I’ll take them individually on sort of a capsule wardrobe date. And we’ll go look for some of the things on the list. It’s a fun math process to math project because they have a budget. And so, we are sort of subtracting from the budget and they’re evaluating, you know, do I love these for that prep?
How am I going to be able to fit that in? And, uh, we all take them to lunch. And then at the end of this whole process, this is kind of a silly thing, but it’s been so fun for us that the end of the whole closet audit process. My kids will each do a fashion show.
Seasonal Fashion Show
We’ll get home. And after all, three of them, we’ve gone through this process, and we’ve put away all their winter clothes, you know, if we’re talking about spring summer, which is coming up, we’ve put away the clothes that, uh, that you know, long pants and sweaters and jackets and things that they’re not going to wear for the spring summer. They have their new capsule collection and them. Do a fashion show and we all watch as they try on and mix and match the things that they’ve got.
It doesn’t take very long because it’s not like this overwhelming amount of clothes. It’s so fun to celebrate this new season and they’re, they’re fun clothes and their identity is going into the, in, into the next six months. They get excited about all the possibilities ahead. We’ve thought through some of the activities or if we’re going on trips, or if we have any special things that are coming up so that we can plan for those.
And then we all put our clothes away and just enjoy. We just enjoy him. And don’t worry about adding more until the season changes again. That’s the basic process.
The bi-annual closet audit is a system for making sure that we have everything that we need to wear and feel comfortable and confident in our clothes and to do it in a way that we, it takes the least amount of time and energy possible.
It frees up the rest of the year to just enjoy being and to not think about clothes and not think about adding things to our closet and not think about shopping all the time as a hobby. It allows us to use the focus and intention that we want to be specific and to be thoughtful about what we’re adding to our closet.
The “What If?’s”
And then to just relax and be done, thinking about it. Whenever I do an episode like this, I get a lot of what ifs these scenarios of: Well, what if my child needs something. What if I realize, you know, I get invited to a black-tie event halfway through the season, and I don’t have a black-tie event outfit.
All of those, what ifs are so personal. And you can, I mean, there’s always solutions to that. Number one, this is a process, like a personal process. And so, if we go through this process and then as an outlier, there’s an opportunity to go to a fun event and I want to buy a dress for it. Then I’ll do that. I don’t feel bad about that.
The System Should Create Ease
The purpose is to make my life easier. The purpose is to make my time feel freer and to not have so much of my focus on like a regular, weekly, or monthly basis be on clothing because I know that we’ve got that covered. And so, then we’re done. I don’t want to have the system be managing me. I manage the system.
I create the system to create ease in my life. And so, for any of those, whatever, The choice is up to you. I mean, if your kid grows out of a pair of shoes midway through the season, I’d probably buy him a new pair of shoes and not feel too bad about it. But also, I remember that there are so many benefits to this, the way that I’ve managed the system in our family over the last several years.
I don’t, I personally don’t want to be shopping all the time for clothes. I don’t want to have a monthly budget for clothes. That I’m, you know, out looking for, what is the new thing or what’s on the shelf right now, or that’s going to look so cute on her. That’s going to be so, so cute on me. I don’t want to think about it all the time.
I Want My Clothes to Work for Me
I want to know that my clothes are working for me and that I don’t have to think about it all the time. That works for me. And it’s been so fun and wonderful. And if there’s a random thing on this trip to Portugal, I saw sweater in a little shop that I loved and I tried it on and I was like, this is so cute.
I love it. And so, I bought it and I’m going to wear it all spring and then I’m going to put it away and I’m going to wear it all fall in winter next year. And then the year after that, probably it’s okay to have exceptions to your own. There is no right or wrong way to do this. This is just the way that it, that has created such ease and confidence in my life.
And in my family’s life helped as a mom to have a system around the way that clothes come in and out of my kids’ closets so that their, their wardrobes don’t feel. Out of control for me, they always, I know they have what they need because we just looked at it, you know, no more than six months ago by before I’ve looked at every piece of clothes that my kids have.
And because we have an edited system where they don’t. You know, unlimited amounts of clothes. It’s a really, it’s a simple thing to do. We spend this chunk of time managing it and then we let it roll. And then we go back to it six months later, and then we let it roll. It’s been great.
Hopefully You’ve Learned Something
I hope that in listening to the process and listening to the way that I think about our closets as a minimalist, intentional family, that you’ve gotten some ideas of how something like this or pieces of it, or even beliefs around it may serve you and help you in your family life, in your personal life, helping you feel confident about what you’re wearing, helping you, uh, give yourself permission to only wear things that you love.
To allow yourself the space, even if it’s only five shirts that you put on repeat, but you love them. All that feels better to me than 25 that I sort of feel mad about. I would rather only have things that I love when you only have things that you love. You wake up every day, happy to get dressed. You you’re excited to put your clothes on.
And that excitement and confidence then can blend or blur into other areas of your life. That feels good because this episode did kind of walk you through the steps of a process. I have worksheets, like I mentioned a free PDF downloads available on the show notes you can download those and use them as you’re thinking about the way pieces of this war, or this process might work for you and your family.
I hope that you’ve enjoyed the show. I hope that if you try out this process or you’ve gleaned any wisdom from it that you will let me know, you can send me a message on Instagram at live free Miranda or comment on the show. Now. I always love to hear what you think about the things that I’m sharing.
And I hope that you have a wonderful week. I’ll talk to you soon. Bye-bye.
