sustainable living tips: building and maintaining a wardrobe
Confession: even though I do have a notion of post ideas for this blog most of my most recent posts have been spurred by conversations I’ve had IRL. Today’s post was prompted by a conversation + experience I had with my friend Nhia before she moved away from NYC 😞. I went over to help her pack, but our conversations naturally led to her getting rid of a bunch of old clothes. During the process, our conversation threaded a few different things from the natural and thoughtless ways we already practice sustainability to the difficulty of balancing the love of dressing up while also being sustainable and caring for the planet—in short, is a capsule wardrobe compatible with fashionphiles? Now my friends all know that I do love clothes but I also have very few clothes but they’re all of higher quality, and that’s extremely intentional. Years ago (around the last time this was purely a sustainable fashion blog so easily like 10 years ago) I decided to build a wardrobe that I loved (and one full of well-made and mostly natural materials). I maybe buy a max of 12 articles of clothing a year (outside basics like underwear). One that I felt reflected me and worked with my lifestyle. This is an extremely long process. It’s forced me to have more discernment in how I spend my money and what I put on my body. The nice thing about sustainability is there are tons of ways to practice it and you don’t have to do everything all at once you should pick one thing and try to turn it into a habit. The easiest ways are simply buying less and using what you have already. You can trade or borrow things from friends and family, just really reducing those new purchases and retraining your mind to just not feel compelled to always need more stuff and just rework what you already have. Sustainability is truly about mindset and lifestyle changes not necessarily buying new products or looking a specific way. This is truly one of the biggest ways people get turned off from sustainability but I promise sustainability works with pretty much every aesthetic.
Now for some of my tips some that some of my friends already know but I want to share them again because thankfully my community has grown but also not everyone knows my approach. So you want to buy fewer but nicer things but don’t feel like it’s in your budget? Calculate what you’ve spent on whatever category let’s say clothes in the past year. You don’t include things like underwear and socks, basics like this I exclude. The number might shock you but realistically you shouldn’t be buying more than like 10-12 new (to you) garments per year. If you want to spend less money on clothes reduce that budget to a number you’re comfortable with and then divide that yearly total by 10-12 and that’s how much you can spend per item. Obviously, you can divide this number by a number less than 10 but honestly, I would not go greater than 15 I promise you don’t need more than 12 in a year. It’s really a lot of items. The price per item you’ve calculated is maybe higher than you’ve spent on any single item for everyday wear before and that’s good! It will allow you to shop and support brands you thought were too expensive before but maybe had better quality products. I’m pretty sure I bought maybe max 15 items last after buying close to nothing the previous year.
tip 2! Wait. Seriously just think if you actually need or truly love the item(s) you’re considering. Love is a commitment to care and wear. Learning to properly care for your clothes will increase their longevity. Generally:
- wash in cold water
- use the right amount of detergent (it’s way less than you think! you generally only need a tablespoon of detergent especially if you’re using a high-efficiency (HE) washer and HE detergent. Any more and your clothes aren’t actually getting clean because by the time the cycle is done all the soap hasn’t washed out.) If you’re worried about disinfecting your clothes you can use vinegar (cleaning is preferred but standard white will work too) or tea tree oil.
- don’t use things like scent booster, fabric softeners, or dryer sheets they are literally coating your clothes in a film that doesn’t come out and make the clothes less breathable and harder to clean. You can spray your clothes after they’re dry or while they’re airdrying (you should always air dry clothes! the dryer is murder on clothes. it weakens and wears out the fibers so you have to replace them sooner.
Think of the garment as something that has to be cared for (because it does) do you want to commit to that? More importantly, does the item fit into your aesthetic either the one you are trying to maintain or curate? Some things we like even though we think we love them but they’re not really for us. Sometimes we make mistakes and that’s okay, you don’t have to be perfect, just genuinely try. I give my purchases some marinating time. I try really hard not to impulse buy and if I lose out on an item it was not meant to be and that will eventually be okay.
tip 2.5 or 3, really it’s in conversation with the previous tip. Use Pinterest! seriously even if you don’t have one, make one it’s super helpful for staying organized. What you want to do is make a board, it can be public or private (mine is private but I’m sharing a screengrab) . Create sections for different garments (i.e. pants, skirts, dresses, tops, knits, accessories, etc) and catalog everything you own (again outside of underwear unless you really want to it’s your board). I do a ton of online shopping when I buy things so it’s easy to add new items to the board, but sometimes I buy things in stores. Regardless pretty much everything is online so you can find photos of items to save to your board or add your photos if you want. Now when you’re shopping or trying to plan an outfit you have your entire closet at your fingertips. You can add notes and comments to all of your pins to it’s great if you want to be really granular. You can cross reference if the item you’re looking at is similar to something you already own (so you might want to skip it) or even if it will go with things you already own and therefore a smarter purchase because you can mix it with existing items. The other beautiful thing about this is that when you go through the process of adding all the items you can see if you want or need to get rid of anything. Bring a friend over and you could even swap clothes! It’s super chill and can be fun.
The beauty of the board is that it will also allow you to easily visually compare it to a separate Pinterest mood board that you create. The board can also help you create a capsule wardrobe (which is really a separate post that I started writing years ago but never finished 😕 I will though and will share sooooo soon, but quick takeaway capsule wardrobe doesn’t have to consist of any set items or in a singular monochrome color palette is just needs to consist of clothes you will wear and can mix and match to your personal style). I personally use this board as type of closet management, as you can see there are sections where I move or pin things I want to sell or replace, you should customize your board to best serve you! I also save multiple pins of the same item from different views because many of the items I buy are funky or have open backs etc.
These are my big tips. Obviously, support small creators and designers, buy stuff made of natural materials (they last longer and they’re breathable), learn how to care for your clothes, and just buy less. It’s not a race.