7 Hacks to Simplify Your Wardrobe in 30 Minutes

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Sometimes our wardrobes can make us feel miserable. I used to open my wardrobe and all I could hear was, ‘You haven’t worn me. I cost money. You haven’t lost the weight.’

That stops today.

I’ve been on this journey to minimize my wardrobe, and today I’m taking you into my closet and sharing with you how you can actually simplify it in only 30 minutes.

Depending on the size of your wardrobe, and if this is your first time doing this, you might need a bit more time than this in the beginning to get it to a simplified state.

But today we’re doing a little sprint to get your wardrobe in a better state. To accomplish this, we’ve got seven steps to go through.

7 Hacks to Simplify Your Wardrobe in 30 Minutes (Easy Declutter)

Keep reading below or watch the video:

Hack #1: Tackle the items that don’t fit or are out of season.

Start by pulling out your seasonal items and decide what you store away for the next season, what you put in your wardrobe to wear this season, and what you sell or donate.

In my case, as we’re just switching into spring, I took all of my spring and summer items from the drawer under my bed where I store them during the autumn and winter.

Once they were out, I went through them to see what I hadn’t really worn last year, and what I didn’t really want to wear this year.

Other items that I keep in storage are three pairs of dressy shoes that I wear when I go to weddings or events. I keep them stored away because I don’t need them in my daily wardrobe.

Then I took all my autumn and winter items to decide what to put in the storage. I know this is British weather, but fingers crossed that I won’t need them for a while.

Going through my winter and autumn clothes before storing them away, I decided what items I wasn’t going to wear any time soon, like one thick knitwear. I put those items in storage, together with some coats, hats, and mittens. All the things that we’re not going to wear for a while.

Also, during this step, take out all of the items that don’t really fit you but you do want to keep for future use. I wouldn’t generally recommend this for everybody. But if, for example, you are pregnant or postpartum, or you’re in that weird phase when you’re in between sizes, and you do want to hold on to those for future use, keep them in storage.

That’s what I did with my pre-pregnancy jeans that I knew I would probably fit into one day, and I do now. I had three pairs of jeans like this, and I kept them in storage. So if you too have such items, keep them stored away, not in your daily wardrobe.

Hack #2: Pull out your favorite items.

You know, those daily wear ones—the ones that you know you wear on a regular basis.

Have you heard about the 80/20 rule?

It’s the Pareto Principle that can be applied to lots of areas of our lives. One of them, for example, is our wardrobe, in which case the principle goes like this: we generally wear 20% of the items we own 80% of the time.

Because indeed, it turns out that most of the time, we only wear a fraction of our wardrobes. That used to be so true for me too. I used to have a mountain of clothes that I rarely or never really wore. Nowadays, I keep in my wardrobe only items that I love. And this way, I end up wearing everything that’s in there.

So keep this 80/20 rule in mind when you’re going through your wardrobe.

Then pull out on your bed or a flat surface your daily or favorite items you wear. Or you can keep them in your wardrobe but just move them to one side so you know which ones you wear and which ones you’re not yet sure of.

This is how this process looked for me recently, as I went through my jeans, trousers, and leggings.

I had only a pair of jeans that I was actually wearing during this process, they were denim from Stradivarius, slim mom jeans. I love those, I think they just fit me very well.

Then I had mom jeans from H&M in different colors. I had a pair of grey trousers that weren’t super dressy, but just a little bit dressier.

All these went back in my wardrobe, and keep them folded on top of the shelves because I feel they keep their shape better this way than in a drawer.

I then went through my leggings, and it turns out I have six pair of them. I decided to keep them all because I do wear leggings a lot. I love them and they are a very basic thing in my wardrobe. Most of them are Adanola or Lululemon as I find them to be of great quality. And they are a perfect fit, they don’t cut your circulation or breathing by any means, they just feel very supportive and really nice on your body.

Then I went through my sports tops that I do wear a lot. And I have a Lululemon one and a couple of H&M ones in different colours. And because I wear these a lot, especially in spring and summer, I decided to keep them.

I also had three bodysuits from Zara. I might declutter one of them, a skin-colour one, at some point, but before that, I gave myself a challenge to actually wear it soon. If I don’t, then I’m going to declutter it.

Once I had gone through what had previously been in my wardrobe, I brought my spring and summer trousers. I didn’t have a lot of these: three or four pairs of shorts and a pair of nice and flowy trousers that I absolutely love from H&M.

Also, on the rail in my wardrobe, I have all my dresses, blazers, tops, and shirts that I know I want to wear. These are things that I do love.

Yes, I love minimalism, but I also love fashion. I love clothes. My goal is to just have a manageable amount of items, and things that I love and actually wear.

Hack #3: Do a quick run through your underwear, socks, bras, PJs.

Get rid of anything that’s got holes in it, is really old, or that you don’t feel good in. Keep just the things that you love, and you can try to keep them separated. I keep everything sorted into three containers: one for underwear, one for bras, and one for socks.

Hack #4: Create your sell and donate pile and make a commitment to it.

If you are going to sell an item, take pictures right now or as soon as possible, and put them up for sale (be it on eBay, Vinted, or somewhere else). Then give that item a time frame to be sold, like two or three weeks, whatever you feel comfortable with. If it’s a higher-value item, you can extend the time frame. If the item doesn’t get bought within that time frame, donate it. Also, if the item isn’t valuable, donate it straight away.

Hack #5: If you haven’t worn it in the past season, pass it to someone else.

Going through this process, I noticed that there were some items that I hadn’t really worn much in the past season. So I didn’t store them with my autumn/winter clothes, I just got rid of them.

And you too can just get rid of anything you haven’t worn in the past season because that happened for a reason. Maybe you don’t like it anymore, it doesn’t fit very well, or it just doesn’t make you feel good. It’s time to let it go.

In my case, I had a set of loungewear that I liked and have worn in the past, but I haven’t worn it that much in the last seasons. And I felt like it didn’t warrant a place in my wardrobe anymore, so I decided to pass it on to somebody else.

I also had in my storage a pair of jeans that I had worn in the early stages of being postpartum, but they were now too big for me, so I donated them.

Another item in my storage was a pair of skinny jeans from Levi’s that I hadn’t worn in a long time. They still fit, but they felt restrictive and uncomfortable. And because it’s not my goal to lose any more weight as I feel I’m at a good healthy weight right now, I decided that there was no point in keeping them “just in case”.

During this process you might come across items that you’re unsure of, or items you’re not really wearing but can’t quite pinpoint why that is, you just haven’t worn them in a long time. Or items you feel bad for wasting money on, or you’re thinking, “Oh, maybe I’ll wear it one day.”

When it comes to such items, I have a challenge for you: try it on now and see how it makes you feel. You might identify why you haven’t worn it. Usually, when you put it on, you move around in it and you look in the mirror and you realize, “Oh, yeah, that’s why I haven’t worn it, it has this V-neck that’s too deep,” “It’s too tight around here,” or “It just doesn’t make me feel good.”

Just try it on and see if you can identify what was it that made you not want to wear that item.

Hack #6: ask yourself these questions.

As you are going through those items that you are not sure of, or you haven’t yet decided if to keep or donate/sell, ask yourself these questions:

Do I love it?
Is it something that still fits me?
Is it something that fits my current lifestyle?

Because we change throughout our life, and our lifestyle changes, we might realize, “I don’t really need that many dressy shirts anymore,” or maybe “I don’t really need dressy trousers ’cause I don’t go to the office anymore.”

Just make sure you have items that are actually appropriate for your current self and lifestyle.

You can also ask yourself:

If I lost this item, would I miss it?
Would I go out and repurchase it?

If the answer is “no”, then feel free to get rid of it.

While you’re here, you can also get rid of those items you received as a gift or spent a lot of money on, but haven’t worn. If you’re not getting use out of it, let it go, regardless if it was a gift or it cost a lot of money. If you’re not actually wearing or using it, then it’s just a waste. Of course, you can try selling it on eBay or Vinted, as you might get a little bit of cash back, and someone else might actually make some use of that item.

Hack #7: Use the container method for your shoes.

I think this works really great, so here it goes: have a place where you store your shoes, which you might already have. It might be a shoe rack at your entrance or in an understairs cupboard like we do. Just give yourself a space that’s dedicated for your and your family’s shoes. And that’s your container. That’s where all the shoes go.

If the container gets overflowing, if there are more shoes than what can fit in, that’s a good sign that you can let some of them go. And I think it’s really important to be honest with ourselves when it comes to shoes. We only wear so many shoes. Going back to that 80/20 rule, you likely have some shoes that you wear over and over again and some that don’t really get worn throughout the year.

I’m speaking from personal experience: you don’t need 30 pairs of trainers or 30 pairs of high heels if you don’t actually wear them.

For me, I’ve got a pair of sandals and I plan on getting some flip-flops this year because my old ones broke. I also have three pairs of trainers and a couple of boots for autumn/winter that I’m keeping for next year.

I’ve also decided to get shoes that are quite versatile, in basic colours like black or white, so they can go with pretty much every outfit that I have. And that has simplified my wardrobe a lot.

MORE WARDROBE DECLUTTER TIPS:

These are my 7 hacks to simplify your wardrobe, and I hope you found them helpful. Let me know, in the comments below, how you’re getting on with your wardrobe decluttering, I love hearing from you!