The Joy of Less, a Minimalist Living Guide (16 page)

Most importantly, have fun with your limits! Personally, I love seeing how many unique outfits I can fashion from a fixed number of items. Regard it as a challenge: how well can you get by with only so many shirts, shoes, skirts, or handbags? It’s a great opportunity to exercise your creativity and style.

We can purge and purge and purge—taking items to consignment shops, selling them on eBay, and donating them to Goodwill—but if we don’t turn off the inflow, our closets won’t get any emptier. Our new purchases will sabotage our decluttering efforts, and hinder our progress. Fortunately, we can avoid this problem by following the One In-One Out rule; if we offset each incoming article with an outgoing one, we won’t accumulate more than we already have.

Fashion changes faster than our clothes wear out; so if we purchase new items each season, our closets fill up quickly. Therefore, when we update our wardrobes, we must also purge them of the outdated, the outgrown, and the out-of-favor. The best way to do this is to make a like-for-like trade: if you bring home a new pair of sneakers, make an old pair take a hike; if you splurge on a new cocktail dress, waltz an old one out the door; and if you buy a new business suit, send an old one into retirement. Then, your wardrobe will be a fresh, ever-changing collection, rather than a stale archive of fashions past.

When you made your modules, you may have realized you had too much in some categories, and too little in others—perhaps you have enough trousers to last a lifetime, but hardly any skirts. This problem is common, as we tend to gravitate toward certain items, or stock up on them when we find something we like. In that case, feel free to tweak the One In-One Out rule to do some rebalancing. When you acquire a new skirt, toss a pair of pants instead; do the same for any other categories in need of adjustment. Once you’ve brought your wardrobe back into balance, you can return to swapping like-for-like.

Don’t be tempted to cheat! On occasion, you’ll be so anxious to wear a new outfit that decluttering an old one is the last thing on your mind. But you know what? If you don’t do it immediately, you likely never will. Use your excitement to wear your new stuff as
incentive
to purge the old: don’t cut the tags off that just-purchased jacket until you list the old one on eBay, or add it to your donation box. If you make it a habit, it’ll become second nature (and a whole lot easier) with time. In fact, you’ll likely find yourself shopping with a castoff already in mind.

Finally, if your old clothes are “too good” to get rid of, question if you really need anything new. What’s the point of adding to your wardrobe if your current apparel is perfectly adequate? Don’t feel pressured to keep up with fashion trends—they’re nothing more than a marketing ploy, designed to separate you from your hard-earned money. Instead of buying each season’s must-haves, invest in classic pieces that stay in style. You’ll have a bigger bank account, a more spacious closet, and a lot less decluttering to do.

In essence, a minimalist wardrobe is what is popularly known as a “capsule wardrobe”: a small set of essential pieces that can be mixed and matched into a variety of outfits. The concept is designed to eliminate the problem of having “a closet full of clothes and nothing to wear,” and involves making wise choices with regards to color, style, fabric, and accessories. Remember the Pareto principle? Well, a capsule wardrobe consists of the 20 percent of clothes you wear 80 percent of the time. By thus narrowing down your attire, you’ll save money, free up closet space, and always look well put together.

Once upon a time, the clothes in my closet ran the gamut of colors—I had warm hues, cool hues, pastels, primaries, jewel tones, and earth tones. What’s more, I had a variety of accessories to match this rainbow of apparel. Not only was my closet stuffed; getting dressed required serious thought, to ensure that nothing clashed. Then I discovered the secret to a minimalist wardrobe: choosing a base color.

The idea is to select a neutral color—such as black, brown, gray, navy, cream, or khaki—and limit foundation pieces (like pants and skirts) to that shade. I chose black as my base color—mainly because it’s flattering on me, travels well, and hides stains—and purged all my navies, browns, and tans in the process. Not only did this strategy slash the size of my wardrobe, it helped me vastly reduce my accessories. I was thrilled to find I no longer needed footwear and handbags in multiple colors! A black purse, or pair of shoes, goes with everything in my closet—which means I can get by (and still look smart) with far fewer of them.

Don’t worry—this strategy doesn’t mean you have to live your life in monochrome. After you choose your base color, you get to choose accent colors. Select a handful of shades that flatter you, and work well with your neutral (I chose burgundy, plum, aqua, and teal). Stick to these colors when selecting shirts, sweaters, and other pieces to supplement your basics. For variety, you can also add a secondary neutral that complements your base: I have skirts and pants in gray, as well as black. You might choose khaki in addition to brown, or cream in addition to navy. The key is that all your colors can be mixed and matched. Ideally, you should be able to get dressed in the dark, or with your eyes closed, and still look fabulous!

After you’ve purged the extraneous colors from your closet, focus on versatility. Any candidate for your capsule must be multi-talented; you should be able to wear it in a wide range of weather conditions, and on a wide variety of occasions. Think of it like packing for travel: when you’re dressing from a suitcase, you must be able to form a maximum number of outfits from a minimum number of items—and make sure those outfits are appropriate for any climate or activity you might encounter. Use the same principles when building your capsule wardrobe. Opt for pieces that can be layered, rather than ones that are bulky: a cardigan and shell, for example, can be worn far more often than a heavy sweater. Choose simple silhouettes over fussy ones: a v-neck shirt coordinates with more pieces than a ruffled one. Select items that go with everything, instead of next to nothing: basic black pumps are infinitely more versatile than lime green stilettos.

Furthermore, favor apparel that can be dressed up, as well as dressed down. Skip the sequins and sweatshirts, and any other items that’ll be “too dressy” or “too casual” most of the time. Instead, choose the sweater that goes from the office to dinner, and also looks great with jeans on the weekend; the dress that can be glamorized with a strand of pearls, or relaxed with a pair of sandals; the shirt that works with a suit and tie, or can also be worn on its own. The more duty each item can do, the fewer items you’ll need.

You may be thinking, “That’s all well and good; but where can I add some pizzazz?” Ah, that’s easy: with accessories! Do like the ever-fashionable French, and use chic accents—like a sharp tie, funky belt, or bold bracelet—to liven up simple, classic clothes. I’ve noticed something interesting: if I add an eye-catching scarf to an old ensemble, someone will invariably comment on my “new outfit.” Such is the power of accessories—they freshen up a tired look in no time flat, and better yet, require very little storage space.

In summary, your minimalist wardrobe should emphasize quality over quantity. Narrow down your attire to your most classic, versatile, and well-made pieces, plus a few stylish accessories. You’ll look like a million bucks—with a fraction of your current clothes!

We’ve freed up space in our closets, and learned to look gorgeous with less. Let’s congratulate ourselves on a job well done! Now we just have to make sure that things don’t get out of hand again. With a little everyday maintenance, we can keep our minimalist wardrobes at their new, streamlined levels.

First of all, commit to keeping your closet tidy. As soon as you remove an article of clothing, hang it, fold it, or otherwise stash it in its proper place. By storing things in their appropriate modules, you’ll always have a good grasp of exactly what you own—and eliminate the chance that five new sweaters will sneak their way in without notice. Moreover, if you follow the One In-One Out rule—by swapping old items for new ones—you’ll never have to worry about your wardrobe expanding. In fact, your closet will only grow
more spacious
as you continue to declutter.

Second, take good care of your clothes; when you don’t have a lot of them, you can’t afford to have a crucial item sidelined by a mud splatter or a frayed hem. Use common sense to avoid potential damage: don’t wear your suede shoes in the rain, or your white pants to your kid’s soccer game. A little preventative maintenance also goes a long way: fix little tears before they become big ones, and treat stains before they turn stubborn. When you give your clothes a little TLC, you won’t need backups waiting in the wings.

Third, stay out of the stores. Don’t shop for fun, for entertainment, or out of sheer boredom; that’s when you get into trouble! You’ve worked hard to eliminate the excess from your wardrobe; but one shopping spree can put you back in the same boat. You know how it goes: you’re wandering through a department store, and a cute dress catches your eye. Forty-five minutes later, you’re walking out the door with it—plus matching shoes, handbag, wrap, earrings, and a few other pieces you picked up along the way. Better to avoid temptation: don’t set foot in a store (or surf a retailer’s website) until you absolutely
need
something. In fact, make an inventory of your clothing, and take it with you when you go shopping; if you have twenty-three shirts on your list, you’ll be much less likely to buy a twenty-fourth.

Finally, declutter with the change of seasons. Fall and spring are wonderful times to reevaluate your wardrobe. When you’re hauling out your coats or sweaters in preparation for winter, take some time to go through them. Our tastes change, our bodies change, and so does fashion. That jacket you loved last year might look worn, outdated, or unappealing to you now; or those skinny jeans may have become a bit
too
skinny since you last wore them. Perhaps your cashmere sweater acquired a moth hole, or that “it” item you bought is now hopelessly “out.” Purge anything you don’t think you’ll wear, and start the new season with some extra closet space!

Now we’ll get down to some serious work: decluttering our offices. We’ll dig out our desks from the mountains of paperwork, and devise systems to prevent future pileups. It may sound daunting, but we’ll take it one step at a time—and I promise, it’s a lot more fun than paying bills or doing taxes. Furthermore, the rewards will be well worth the effort: your new, clean, magnificent space will make you a million times more productive and efficient!

Imagine that you’re sitting at your desk, hard at work on an important project. You’re humming along and making good progress, when you suddenly find need for a specific document. “Uh-oh,” you think, eyeing the piles of papers scattered on your desk. You clench your teeth and dive in, praying it’ll somehow materialize without too much effort. No such luck. You page through the stacks with increasing desperation—in the meantime uncovering a bill that needs to be paid, a form that needs to be mailed, and a receipt that needs to be filed. You take care of these matters, then resume your search; when you’re about to call the document “lost,” you spot it in another pile, across the room on the printer. By that time, however, your concentration is broken and your time is short; the project will have to wait, unfinished, for another day.

When your space is clear, your mind is clear—you can work without distraction, and be more productive. A sloppy desk, on the other hand, is a veritable roadblock to progress; it makes finding things, doing things, and keeping tabs on things more difficult. In fact, if your space is too chaotic, you may not get any work done at all!

So how do we Start Over? Here, more than anywhere, we’ll benefit from breaking the task into smaller pieces; otherwise, it could be simply overwhelming. Rather than move our desks, bookcases, and filing cabinets into the hall, we’ll attack the
contents
of these items first. If we can reduce them so much as to eliminate a piece of furniture, fantastic! However, papers and office supplies are small and numerous; one drawer, or one file folder, may be all you’re able to tackle at once. Don’t be tempted to rush through it, in a bid to see instant results; take the time to be thorough, and your efforts will have much greater impact.

Totally empty out the drawer, file, or shelf on which you’re working. Instead of picking out an item or two to purge, channel your inner dump truck and completely upset its contents. Once everything’s laid out across your desk, table, or floor, you can give each item due consideration—and decide whether or not it’s truly worth keeping. The process itself can be cathartic, giving you the upper hand over the clutter that torments you. If you’ve ever fantasized about playing an all-powerful deity, here’s your chance: the fate of hundreds of staples, paperclips, pens, papers, and rubber bands lies in your hands. Work your divine magic, and create a minimalist paradise!

In the process, think carefully about how, and where, you store your paperwork and supplies. Just because your stapler has always been in the far left corner of your second drawer, doesn’t mean it has to return there. Starting Over is a wonderful opportunity to mix things up, and try a new configuration—a chance to design your work area for maximum ease and efficiency. Your decluttering should free up a lot of extra space, so you’ll have plenty of new places to put things.

First, start with the easy stuff: get rid of all the junk mail, catalogs, and magazines that have accumulated. The vast majority of this stuff has little importance in the grand scheme of things; that is, the world won’t end if you toss that plumbing flyer—even if your pipes spring a leak next week. You can find similar information in the phone book, on the Internet, or through the recommendation of a neighbor; there’s no need to hoard a pile of solicitations. Ditto for the credit card applications, sales circulars, catalogs, brochures, leaflets, and pamphlets. If it’s not important enough to act on
now
, show it the recycling bin; if you change your mind down the road, another mailer will surely arrive in the meantime. Don’t labor over decision making here, just go on and purge like nobody’s business. It’s highly unlikely you’ll live to regret tossing a piece of junk mail!