How to do a wardrobe audit
Author: Imogene Whittle
How to do a wardrobe audit, develop your personal style, and create a conscious wardrobe of items you’ll love for years to come.
Starting tips:
Do it during the daylight hours and in front of a full-length mirror so that you can objectively see how each item looks on you.
Do it when the kids are out.
If you’re allergic to dust, take an antihistamine or diffuse some peppermint oil in the room.
Prep yourself with a coffee and put some fun music on to keep yourself in a light-hearted mood.
Step 1: Take all of your items of clothing from around your house that are not in your closet so all your clothes are in the one place. This may include items in seasonal storage or in the washing basket.
Step 2: To start, do a pre-purge.
If you know instantly that there’s items that you do not want to keep but you’ve just been pretending that they don’t exist, pull them out first as an immediate ‘no’ to make instant progress.
Step 3:
Next, pull out the clothes that you wear most often. It’s likely you will want to keep these items, but still try them on to see how they fit.
Consider what is it about these items that keeps you coming back to these as your most worn items? Remember what it is you like about them – the shape, the colour, the type of material…etc?
Consider if any of these items are very well worn and may need mending or replacing.
Step 4: Now it’s time to tackle the other 80% of your closet. This is the largest task at hand with auditing your wardrobe.
Try on each category of item one at a time. Start by trying on ALL of your dresses. Then with your favourite jeans, try on ALL of your tops. You will do this with every category of clothing that you own: skirts, shorts, long pants, jackets, jumpers, shoes, bras, belts, bags, hats etc.
As you go through each item, you will see how it fits you, if it fits you, feel whether you like it, how it makes you feel when you wear it. Be aware of the immediate mood each piece brings to you.
If it’s a piece that you don’t wear, ask yourself why. For example, consider the pieces you do not reach for time and time again. Ask yourself why? If it’s because it’s ‘too good’ to wear everyday, consider changing your mindset and wear it more often paired with something more casual. If it just feels uncomfortable when you try it on, it’s likely time to say goodbye.
Sort every item of your clothing into the following piles:
Keep – put back
Keep and wear more – put these in a more visible place and get creative with these pieces to try more combinations
Alter or mend – pieces you want to keep but they need a hem, a button, or tailoring. Give yourself a deadline to get this done by and do not put these back in your wardrobe in the meantime.
Keepsakes – try to keep these to a minimum.
Donate, sell, rent or swap
Rags – items that are beyond repair, and not good enough to donate. Reuse, recycle the material as rags before they are thrown out.
Questions: The maybe pile.
You may at the end have a ‘maybe’ pile. My professional advice is to pass it on. But I understand, perhaps you’re not emotionally ready to say goodbye, or you are currently working with a personal trainer to fit back into that dress. Put them in a place for storage and re-visit those items in 3-6 months. Go through this process again with these items. By then, it’ll be much easier to give it a hard ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
Self reflection: The items you have left to your lifestyle
What percentage do you spend lounging at home, working at home vs on site, attending functions or meetings, date nights, fun with your girlfriends and more.
Do your clothes represent the amount of time you spend doing those activities? What are the gaps or excess in any areas represented by your wardrobe?
What are the missing items from your wardrobe?
You may have identified gaps by now of items you want to replace, or styles you’d like to have more of, or missing pieces from your wardrobe.
Often through this process we identify the missing pieces, the ‘glue’ items that would make an outfit whole. It could be a basic quality t-shirt, for example to tie in your wow pieces.
Or maybe you noticed if you have many more clothes in one section of items than others? Do you have 20 dresses and 1 pair of long pants?
Lists to write:
Make a list of each of the items that you have identified as missing from your wardrobe. This will become your ‘wish list’ and will help you curate and cultivate the style you want to have.
Make a list of the shapes, colours, items, styles that you love. You’ll find patterns here for cementing your style that you may want more of.
If you have trouble with any of this process, don’t worry- we’ve got you. Spree with Me can connect you with the best personal stylist to help you.