“Some people look for a beautiful place, others make a place beautiful."― Hazrat Inayat Khan
I have a passion for being organized and find joy in the process of achieving it. In the act of getting organized, I find myself calling on my inner artist. For me, the intersection of art and structure is something truly beautiful.
It was in this spirit of finding joy in the art of organizing, I was compelled to read Marie Kondo's two books about transforming the way you live through practicing the #konmari lifestyle.
One of the first lessons I took away in the #konmarimethod is to tackle categories within your home as opposed to rooms. Marie Kondo advises beginning with clothing, since it’s the least emotionally loaded of one’s things. (I will share more about other parts of my home I have organized in future blogs!)
The idea of only holding on to clothing that sparks joy resonated with me. I diligently went through the process the KonMari method prescribed and got my wardrobe down to the pieces I absolutely loved. I took great satisfaction with how beautifully organized my closets were.
This was the first step I took towards being stylishly organized. I still felt that I needed to evaluate whether the items I loved in my beautifully organized closets, worked well together and truly suited my needs. I wanted to translate the joy I felt in organizing my clothing, into fashion confidence.
I began to look through Pinterest and Instagram for sources of inspiration. Wearing colours that were complimentary with my skin tone was a must. I found two good sources on this topic. The first was Justine LeConte's YouTube video on determining your skin tone. From there I utilized various tools from Jen Thoden's toolkit and purchased a colour fan to have a portable reference of the colours that looked best on me.
The next step I needed to take was to build a capsule wardrobe. There is quite a bit of advice out there on how to build one. Through my research, I found two resources that seemed practical and had a seasonal system I could follow - Unfancy and Katberries.
How do I spend my time?
This is the first place I started. What does the typical 'day-in-the-life-of' look like for me in my multi-faceted role as mom, wife, professional and friend?
This chart is based on 12 hour weekdays, and 14 hour weekend days. I excluded special events, travel events, outdoor or sport activities.
Not surprisingly I spend nearly half of my week at work (44%). The balance of my time is nearly equally spread between home (20%), running errands or kids' activities (20%), and time socializing with friends and family (16%). This information provided a lot of insight on how my wardrobe should be divided up. My first aha moment was that I had been over buying for work because it felt like I spent most of my time there. I needed to scale back on the work attire in my wardrobe and have more options for what I could wear outside of work.
What colours will be in my wardrobe?
My second aha moment occurred once I had begun to wear my first wardrobe capsule this summer. By sticking with a co-ordinated colour palette, I was able to effortlessly mix and match my entire wardrobe. Genius! Instead of feeling lost with what to wear every time I went into my closet, (which can easily become a motivation to start shopping for new things) I had very obvious outfit combinations. I am currently planning my autumn wardrobe capsule. To choose my colour palette for this season, I drew some inspiration from Jen Thoden's YouTube video about Fall/Winter 2018-2019 trending colours.
Neutral colours. #colourpalettes
Complimentary and accent colours. #colourpalettes
What's the right number?
The next decision to make is what the right number of pieces you need in your wardrobe capsule. Being quite new at this, I followed Caroline of Unfancy's advice to start with 37 pieces. My goal was to wear 37 items for 3 months of the summer season. With less than 2 weeks left of summer to go, I can confidently say the final number in my capsule wardrobe for this season ended up at 40. I will acknowledge that three months is a long time not to shop and to wear the same pieces, The third aha moment I had, is that fabulous accessories are key to keep outfits interesting. The good news - accessories don't count toward your 37 pieces! As I plan my autumn wardrobe capsule, I will once again start with the premise of having 37 pieces in my wardrobe.
Stay tuned for how my autumn capsule shapes up and how I get stylishly organized.....
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