Just over a month ago, I was visiting home and my mom had said something about how every time I come home, I was wearing new clothes, or at least clothes she hasn’t seen before. Now, I’m all about not being an outfit repeater (Lizzie McGuire anyone?) and constantly trying to wear my clothes in a way that looks like I always purchase new clothes, but my mom knows my wardrobe better than anyone and if she’s picking up on the amount of clothes I was buying, it was an issue. And after some research, I figured out it really was an issue. An issue that was costing me anywhere from $150-$500 a month. So I decided to do a little New Year’s Resolution in the middle of the year. How’s that for self control?!
What I was going to do was not spend a penny on clothes in the month of June. And I did it!
No good deed happens without teaching you anything, so here I am to self reflect on the time that I didn’t spend shopping this past month.
Here’s what I learned.
QUALITY OVER QUANTITY | As you can imagine, this was something that was very evident in my month. The pieces that I continued to reach for again and again were pieces that held up and kept their shape. On the opposite end of that spectrum, there were a few pieces that I would have liked to wear more than once, but they were getting worn and just not holding up well and I couldn’t re-wear them. You know how you can just tell when things are made poorly, that’s the issue I was running into because I had really been purchasing fast-fashion over quality investment pieces. Sometimes pieces will be a bit more than I normally pay (I’m a frugal shopper that’s for sure, shout-out to my mom for that), but they are worth it. And I will caveat that by saying, not all expensive pieces are good quality and not all good quality pieces are expensive! You’ve got to do your research and that’s why I prefer shopping in stores as opposed to online. You can feel the quality of an item when you touch it. You can’t do that as easily online.
TAKE CARE OF YOUR CLOTHES | As you can imagine, with a lot of clothes, its harder to give each piece the care that it deserves. I realized this as I was searching the depths of my closet for pieces I hadn’t worn yet once I neared the end of the month and everything was crinkled. I also realized how many pieces I have pinned together waiting to be sewn in or collars I wanted to starch and other miscellaneous projects I meant to do to my clothes that I haven’t gotten around to. If I wasn’t so focused on having a huge closet with tons of pieces inside, maybe I would have completed these projects and cared more about these pieces that I have to work on now.
THE RIGHT SIZE IS EVERYTHING | I’m not sure if I’m the only one, but sometimes if I love an item and it doesn’t come in my size, I’ll either size up or size down rather than leaving the item or ordering online. I’ve become so reliant on “having it now” as opposed to waiting for it to come in or just passing on the item altogether that my closet has suffered. Clothes somehow end up in my closet that are too big or too small because they’ve been “okay.” I don’t want clothes that just “okay.” I want them to be perfect if I’m spending money on them!
VERSATILITY IS KEY | I think there’s a difficult balancing act that comes into play when you’re trying to curate a closet. There’s the everyday, basic tops and the more formal/”going out” tops. And then for bottoms, its just a free-for-all. I think there’s another post that could come out of this on the essentials of every closet, so stay tuned for that. But back on topic. The struggles I was noticing this past month was that I didn’t have a good mix of tops. I had basically the same top in different colors or different materials and nothing else. I felt like I had been repeating outfits because I didn’t have that extra something to spice up an outfit. And that “extra something” can be a plethora of things, from a scarf to a blazer to a killer pair of earrings, I just haven’t curated enough of those extra oompf pieces to really feel like I was wearing different outfits. But aside from that fact, there were a few pieces in my closet already that I wore time and time again because they were versatile! My jeans from Abercrombie & Fitch (I know right?!) but I swear to you, they are the greatest pair of jeans you will ever own. My friends will vouch that I cannot speak highly enough of these pants. I own them in 3 different washes and lengths lol. Back on topic, again. I wore them so much because of how easy they were to dress up or dress down. And that is what I need in all my clothes. Multiple ways to wear it.
LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT | In this day and age (aka the Year of Instagram Fashion) we get sucked into this mindset that we have to have all the latest styles and fashions. Where this gets tough is it basically results in me, at least, always being envious of what other’s have. Its a never ending cycle and that’s not something that I want to have on my heart all day long! I am so incredibly blessed to live the life that I do and I want to make sure that God feels my love for that and not me constantly wanting some girl on Instagram’s clothes or new shoes. The rule of thumb I’ve learned from this month is if I don’t absolutely love the article of clothing I’m about to buy, I won’t buy it. I cannot count the times I have gone into a store with the mindset of “I want to buy something” when I most definitely shouldn’t have because what I bought was absolute garbage! A few months ago I read The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo and her outlook on everything in her life, clothes and not clothes, was really groundbreaking to me. So in this case, if a piece of clothing does not bring me joy, it’s out. And so, with that concept in mind, I use it when I’m shopping. .
If I truly do not love it, it doesn’t leave with me.
I think I really learned a lot this past month, all by forcing myself to take a step back on think about where my money was going. I hope that I keep this up as I head into a month where I’m allowing myself to go shopping. Maybe you should give a shopping free month a try! Maybe just a week if you’re really going crazy.
Good luck!
