After being in our current house for close to two years, and renovating for most of the past year, I have finally gotten around to a deep organization of my wardrobe. Over this past week I’ve gone through it all. I’ve sorted through my purgatory boxes where I put all pieces that I am unsure about for a holding period (some of the stuff in there had been there since before our last move, and most of it was two sizes to small), and culled about 20 pieces from there (hoping that my sisters will be interested in most of it, as I hate donating to thrift stores for fear of contributing to third world fabric pollution). I organized my out of season boxes (I have two baskets on top of my wardrobes for the most season specific items like shorts/swimsuits/flipflops and heavy sweaters/scarves/gloves/hats). As I was going through it all I decided to download a wardrobe app (I went with Indyx) and start cataloguing everything, to get a real overview of my wardrobe. I have tried this in the past with StyleBook (and to some degree Finds here on YLF), but I’ve never been thorough enough to get everything in there, and felt like starting fresh.
Anyway, this might not be interesting to anyone but me, but I thought I’d share some numbers now that I’m done. My total wardrobe size was not too far off from what I had thought, maybe slightly larger, at 127 items. This excludes socks and underwear, pyjamas (3 sets), workout gear (less than 10 pieces), swimsuits (none of which fit me and need a separate sorting through), merino base layers, and jewelry, but includes everything else (clothes, outerwear, loungewear, shoes, bags, accessories).
More specifically it looks like this:
Wardrobe total - 127 pieces
Tops - 48
- Tanks/camisoles - 7
- Tees - 11
- Shirts - 4
- Blouses - 7
- Turtlenecks - 6
- Sweaters/cardigans - 10
- Vests/slipovers - 3
Bottoms - 25
- Trousers - 11
- Joggers - 1
- Jeans - 6
- Skirts - 4
- Shorts - 3
Dresses - 5
Outerwear - 8
- Wool coats - 3
- Trenchcoats - 2
- Raincoats - 1
- Jackets - 2
Shoes - 20
- Sneakers - 5
- Flats - 3
- Boots - 3
- Sandals - 4
- Heels - 5
Bags - 4
- Crossbody - 2
- Totes - 2
Accessories - 17
- Scarves - 10
- Gloves - 2
- Hats - 4
- Sunglasses - 1
My physical wardrobe space is an Ikea Pax wardrobe in our bedroom (1 piece with double doors 1m wide, and 1 piece with single door 50cm) where I keep everything (including the uncounted items and also my jewelry box) except for the current season’s coats and shoes, which are in the hallway closet. This is plenty of space, and after organizing I have several drawers and shelves empty.
I live in a distinct four seasons climate (with a lot of weather). I rotate my wardrobe by season (with most pieces overlapping several seasons), and when sorting the pieces by seasons tags in the app I found I had 63 spring pieces, 54 summer pieces, 76 fall pieces and 49 winter pieces, which means I have between 49 and 76 active pieces in my wardrobe at any time. Thinking it through it seems like a well functioning wardrobe for me has a minimum of 60 pieces, so judging by that it seems I should focus on adding to my summer and winter wardrobes.
Out of everything there are about 15 pieces +/- that I see as placeholders. These are pieces that I wear and that serve a clear purpose in my wardrobe, but that I don’t love, and would like to replace with better suited versions when appropriate.
19 of my pieces are things that I made myself (either knitted or sewed) and 21 pieces are vintage or second hand. Both of these numbers feel low, and are way lower than it’s been in the past. Ten years ago my wardrobe was predominantly thrifted and selfmade, but in the last five years convenience have become a higher priority, sadly.
The oldest (to me) item in my wardrobe are a pair of vintage heels that I bought in the early 2000’s, I must have been around 18-20. I didn’t start wearing them much until my 30’s, but in the past decade they have been well loved. After that is a vintage leather crossbody bag that I thrifted in London in 2008, and still (embarrassingly?) wear as my everyday bag. A lot of my pieces were purchased in the last couple of years after a big lifestyle/body/style shift, but I do still have quite a few pieces from 2013 and onwards.
The most surprising category, and the least functional, is definitely shoes. I can’t believe I have 20 pairs of shoes, and yet am constantly struggling with which shoes to wear. I wear heels maybe 2-3 times a year, and still I have 5 pairs. They are all comfortable though, and versatile, so I’m definitely keeping them all, and hoping that I’ll never have to buy a pair of heels again. Out of all the shoes there are probably only 4 pairs that I wear regularly, so this is by far the least hard working category of them all. I have always struggled with shoes though. I have fussy feet (wide forefoot, super high arches, narrow heel) and wear a size US5, which is not readily available where I live. This, paired with a picky sense of style, has apparently resulted in a fairly useless shoe wardrobe.
The hardest working categories arewithout a doubt outerwear and bags. I love and wear the hell out of all of the pieces I have, and could absolutely stand to add several items here.
Overall I feel like I currently have a (mostly) well functioning, basic wardrobe. I can easily make seasonal capsules, and everything mixes and matches. I absolutely do not need any more t-shirts, tank tops, turtlenecks, black trousers or basic jeans. What I feel is still lacking a bit is the more unique, emotional, statement pieces that add interest to a wardrobe, so this is where my focus will be going forward. I feel like I have both the mental and physical space to add some more pieces, but I want to do this very carefully and intentionally, focusing on second hand and selfmade first, and high quality investment pieces second. No fast fashion.
I’m curious to know if you keep track of your wardrobes like this? All in all I don’t feel like specific numbers matter that much, but I have an analytical brain that likes to break things down, so for me it’s both entertaining and gives me the clarity that I enjoy. What size would you say your ideal wardrobe would be? Are you close to that, or do you feel like you have too much or too little? Based off my own analysis I’d say my ideal wardrobe would be around 150 pieces. That would give me seasonal capsules of around 60-75 pieces and be versatile enough to cover my needs as well as having enough statement pieces to keep things interesting, while also being relatively manageable and uncluttered in size. Would love to hear your thoughts!
