Greetings! Several of you asked me to write about some of my thought processes regarding my 10-Item wardrobe so here you go.

I don't remember when I first heard of the 10-Item wardrobe exactly, but I recall having some interesting conversations on the forum about quality vs. quantity, which was a new concept for me. It's a well and good to talk about having a small wardrobe, or a minimal wardrobe, but when someone tosses the number ten out, you suddenly realize just how small small can be. My first thought was, "Why, that's impossible!" My second was, "I think I want to try it!" It was like my impetuous self had jumped out of a perfectly good airplane and my rational self was still aboard saying, "Nooooooooooooo!" Well we all know how that turned out.

At a certain point I read Jennifer L. Scott's blog and saw her ten core pieces. She talked about getting rid of the junk, only having nice pieces and how freeing it all was. I was down. I wanted really nice clothes too, and I was willing to buy less in order to (eventually) achieve that. Around the same time, I was packing for a trip, and I wanted to bring only my best things. I was struck by how mediocre all of my clothes were. And how many clothes I had. It was clear that up to that point I had chosen quantity. Things had to change.

I went shopping in my closet for my ten most important pieces. I chose another ten for my biz-casual capsule just in case. I moved the rest into a spare closet so I wouldn't have to look at them. I remember feeling absolutely euphoric. That was about a year and a half ago, and I have not looked back. So to answer some of your questions, I'm very happy with this (otherwise I would have abandoned it long ago) and I find it liberating as well. I've realized that when you're rotating your outfits often, I am well aware of the fit and quality of each garment. If my jeans keep sliding down, I am much more likely to get the waist altered because I will have to keep wearing them again (and I can afford to, because I'm tailoring one or two pairs, not thirty).

If a gardening clinic, funeral, birthday party or jury duty pops up, I spend a lot less time agonizing over what to wear than before. Almost immediately, one outfit seems more appropriate than the rest, so I just put it on and go.
Once I have my 10 items figured out for the season I'm able to pretty much close the book on fashion for a few months, unless something needs to be replaced mid-season due to unforeseen circumstances (I had a lot of mistakes last year, but I'm getting better at this).

Sometimes I get bored and I just want to go shopping because it was such a big part of my life before. It was something I did as a hobby, and I found shopping (especially at thrift stores) to be therapeutic and relaxing. Sometimes I get caught up in the excitement and I want what you just bought, or whatever is sweeping the forum. At these times, I generally just go shopping, telling myself if I really, really want something enough to trade out something I have that I can do it. But I am so picky that I usually come back empty-handed and thankful for the carefully chosen clothes that are already in my closet. They fit well, are decent quality and are made of comfortable, breathable/natural fibers. I used to get tired of my items before because these was something irritating or bothersome about them. For fun, I can always plan my list for the next season.

This year, I wanted to specifically add dresses to my S/S wardrobe. I was bringing back 5 separates so I was shopping for 5 dresses. I only looked at and tried on dresses. This took some discipline, but I believe it is the reason I finally found some adequate summer dresses. Some of you expressed amazement that I would spend (waste!) 5 of my 10 items on something that could not be split into two pieces, but I figured I was getting a two-fer: a top and bottom in one. Since I don't work outside the home, I don't feel any pressure to be able to create 56 different outfits with my ten pieces. I tend to wear my favorite combinations in the same ways (in summertime), although I might change the footwear.

One of my fears in the beginning was that I would run into the same people wearing the same thing without enough time in-between. I'm really trying to grow out of this irrational fear. For example, I went to visit my son on Mother's Day and five days later he and his roommate stopped by our house unannounced. Horrors! I had on the same dress. What would his roommate think? That I only owned one dress? Would he tell his mother? (Can you see where this is going?) At some point I realized how ridiculous it was of me to assume his 20 year old roommate noticed and/or cared what I had on.

Before the 10-item wardrobe, I was compelled to keep shopping because my items were inferior. I didn't want to wear any one piece that often because none of them were that great. Sometimes by the end of the day, I was ready to donate the entire outfit I had on. This led to a few years of binge buying and then purging after the season was over. After a few cycles of this I started to see the waste and feel guilty. Now I see myself holding on to my things much longer. Jeans and coats for a long time, and other things at least two years, as long as they hold up. Summer clothes, by their very nature, tend to be more disposable, so I will be happy to get two summers out of the dresses I just bought. Most of the separates I brought into the summer are many seasons old.

I didn't plan on it, but I wound up buying the clothes for my S/S capsule second hand this year. It just so happened that I couldn't find anything I really liked in retail that was in my budget. I tried to just stick to my favored neutrals, and some of the dresses were dressy and some were more casual, but I purposely didn't buy anything really fancy that I wouldn't feel comfortable wearing for everyday. Each of my dresses stands alone, without the need for a topper or another piece like leggings to make it work, which was one of my parameters. They can all be washed and drying is a snap here in Phoenix when it's 108F and 0% humidity, lol. Somehow the level of dressiness and casual came together and I seem to have enough of each to cover my needs.

Well guys, it's late, and I have written a book! Feel free to turn this thread around and talk about what works for you for closet size, or capsules or whatever you are going to try next. Thanks for reading.