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I digitally cataloged my entire wardrobe. I also tracked my outfits for 30 days, but I did not expect this to happen.

It’s a Tuesday morning. I’m scrolling Instagram, and I see a few posts about creating a digital version of your wardrobe. I’m intrigued, but I’ll be honest—it sounds like a lot of work. Who has the time? And is it really worth it?

But then I remember I spent the last year or so slowly decluttering my wardrobe. It’s a much more manageable amount now, so why not? Let’s give it a try.

Why digitally cataloguing your wardrobe?

I decided to do this digital version of my wardrobe because I just wanted to see everything at a glance. I also wanted to see any items that I wasn’t really wearing.

I’ve been on a minimalism and decluttering journey for the past year or so. We’ve gotten rid of probably over 50% of the stuff in our home. When it comes to clothes, I got rid of over 80% of the items in my wardrobe.

But even if it’s pared down quite a lot, I knew I still had items in my wardrobe that I was probably not wearing that much. And I don’t know about you, but I used to struggle with keeping many items “just in case” I want to wear them one day.

This method though—creating the digital version and tracking the outfits I’m wearing—is cold, hard fact.

It’s so easy, for example, to see the duplicates I have—not that there’s anything wrong with having certain duplicates, as long as you actually wear them. In my case, I know if I have five white T-shirts, I’m probably wearing one or two of those on repeat. And I wanted to be able to see things like this.

But how do you actually do this process?

Keep reading below or watch the video:

How do you create a digital catalogue of your wardrobe?

And how to do it without it taking a long, long time?

Well, I heard about the free app called Indyx (not sponsored, by the way). I found out about it from a fellow minimalist on here, Christina Micas. I love her videos, and she was talking about how she’s incorporating this into her life. So, I decided to give it a go.

When it came to incorporating it into my daily routine—remembering to take pictures of all the items and lay them all flat nicely—I really did not want this process to take a lot of time.

As a busy mom of two, I don’t really have weekends to spare to create my digital wardrobe. What I did instead was start cataloguing things as I wore them, just going along as I went.

On the app, you do get the recommendation to lay the item flat on a flat and clear surface, like a floor or a bed, you have around you. You lay it all smooth and try to get any wrinkles out. Also, look for good lighting, so maybe closer to a window.

Also, trying to have consistent lighting is really helpful. So, if you can take the pictures around the same time of day or in the same area, that’s really helpful.

They also recommend not having any hangers or hands in the pictures. This is going to make the whole digital catalogue look more seamless, as every item is laid similarly. Plus, creating outfits inside the app using the pictures works so much better this way.

So, most mornings, before getting dressed, I would lay the clothes on the floor and take pictures of them. This process turned out to not take long at all.

Then, once I had the picture, I would go on the app and upload the picture. Then the app would automatically remove the background. That would leave me with a really nice image to work with when creating the outfit afterwards.

Now, there are two tricks I did here to try and make it look better.

If the lighting was kind of off—because obviously, it depends on the time of day and whether it’s a cloudy day or sunny day, which can make it a bit tricky—I would sometimes use the Lightroom app to edit the photo and adjust the brightness. This way, I was aiming for a more consistent look across all images.

Obviously, you don’t have to do this. It’s just a little step to make it look a bit better on the app and make the outfits look more cohesive when you’re creating them.

The other trick was, for some of the items, to not take pictures at all. Instead, I would take a screenshot of the items that I found on websites. For example, if it was an H&M item, I just went on their website and looked it up. I would then simply use that picture by taking a screenshot and uploading it onto the app.

For some of the items, if I forgot to take a picture one morning, I would just look online for a picture that’s very similar to the item I was wearing and upload that.

It might not be perfect, but it actually works really well.

The 30-day outfits and lessons learned

Now, as I also mentioned, I tracked my outfits for 30 days during October. This taught me a few lessons that kind of surprised me, at least some of them.

I love my leggings

I realised I love my leggings, but I still had too many.

Using Indyx made me realise that I am wearing my leggings a lot. And yet, there were a few of them that I actually wasn’t wearing at all.

So, I decluttered some of those leggings. Now in my wardrobe, I have four pairs of leggings, whereas before, I had about seven.

Recurring patterns in my outfits

For one, it made me realise that when I’m wearing leggings, I usually like something a bit more oversized on top or something maybe a bit longer, a bit more flowy—that’s kind of the style that I seem to go for.

And then, when I’ve got jeans on, I actually prefer a top that’s a bit more fitting.

This process made me more aware of the type of uniform outfits I tend to wear regularly. This is now very helpful when I go shopping, for example. Or when I’m thinking about decluttering or about adding new items to my wardrobe. I have a much better understanding of exactly what I tend to gravitate towards and what really fits my personal style and my lifestyle as well.

I actually have 44 items in my autumn wardrobe

Another thing I learnt through the process is that I actually have about 44 items in my autumn wardrobe.

Now, as winter is coming, I’m going to start taking out some of those thick coats. Then I’ll put the thinner ones away, so I will kind of swap them around.

I have mainly digitally catalogued my autumn wardrobe so far. I’ll try to do this every season to keep track of all the items I have in my wardrobe.

And even though I am on this journey toward minimalism, I never aimed for a certain number of clothes. That was never my goal. I never felt like I needed to be extreme in any way.

Some people might consider I’m not even a minimalist. Some would say I still have too many clothes, but that’s not my goal here. I’m not in a contest to win whoever has the least amount of items. 44 items is just a random number I seem to have gotten to.

I didn’t repeat items that much

I realised that, even with owning only 44 items in my autumn wardrobe, I didn’t repeat outfits as much as I thought I would.

Even though it was the same kind of uniform outfit, like jeans and a fitted top or leggings and an oversized jumper, it wasn’t the exact same outfit. Sometimes the shoes would be different, sometimes the accessories, sometimes the jacket or the coat.

So, even having a limited amount of items in your wardrobe doesn’t mean you’re going to be super restricted on outfits. It also doesn’t mean that you’re going to repeat the same outfit every single day.

This doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with that—I love being an outfit repeater—but I just thought it was an interesting thing to notice throughout the process.

I decluttered more

This process also made me declutter as I started adding things to Indyx. Any items that I didn’t feel like putting on the app were ones that I analysed to see if I really wanted them in my wardrobe.

I also realised how many leggings I have, how many jeans I have, how many T-shirts I have—all of these little categories. I actually decluttered a few cardigans and jumpers that I wasn’t really excited to have in my wardrobe or wear this season.

And because I can see them on the app, I have a much better view of exactly what’s in my wardrobe. I think this process really made me more intentional with the items I have in there.

Moving forward, I think any item that I don’t end up putting in my digital wardrobe might be a good one to declutter because, obviously, I’m not really that interested in it. I don’t really like it or wear it a lot, and if it’s not featured in my daily outfit, I can simply get rid of it.

And I think it really helps me with that thinking of, “Oh, maybe I want to keep it just in case or for one day,” because I’ve got facts now. I can see it on the app—I haven’t worn it in the past 30 or 60 days or however long—so, obviously, it’s not an item I really cherish.

Create capsules or packing lists

Another thing I love about Indyx is that you can create capsules or even packing lists straight from your outfits.

So, I created those 30 outfits—or even more now. If we’re travelling for a week, for example, I can simply go on there and pick seven outfits that I want to wear that week. I can select the outfits, and it will automatically create the packing list for me. The app will then show me which and how many items I have to pack.

I think that’s a really cool feature that’s going to come in handy whenever we travel.

More confidence

I also think I got more confidence throughout this process by just knowing that in my wardrobe I have items that make me feel good, that I truly love, and that I can style in different ways. Finding new outfits to wear with the items I already have has been a really fun process.

If you want to see all of those 44 items I have in my autumn wardrobe, I shared them all in this video on my YouTube channel.

Digitally cataloguing my wardrobe has been such an interesting journey! I’d love to know if you’d ever consider trying it too. Do you think it would help you get more intentional with your outfits or just feel more organised overall? Let me know your thoughts in the comments—I always love hearing from you!