WARDROBE TOUR, ORGANISATION & PLANNING | Q&A

Hello everyone and welcome back to my little blog, I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and you’re all feeling recharged and ready for the week ahead.
A couple of weeks back I asked over on my Instagram Stories if you had any questions about my wardrobe and you came back to me in your droves. Whether that be for organisation tips, tips for refreshing your wardrobe, clearing out and storing your wardrobe and just general styling advise when it comes to shopping your own wardrobe, so I’m here today to answer all of those juicy closet questions.

I’m going to kick things off by saying that in our new home we’re very lucky in that we have a lot of clever storage solutions and a lot more space than we’ve had in our previous homes which I am of course thrilled to bits about.

My wardrobe has never been quite so organised and I’m finding it so much easier to work my wardrobe to create different looks with the things I already have hiding inside. However, like many of you I still have the days where I stand a little clueless in front of the pieces I’ve collected over the years not knowing what on earth I’m going to wear. But, a little wardrobe organisation goes a long way at helping to make things that little bit easier so without further ado, let’s get on with your questions.

How do you keep your wardrobe organised?
I had a lot of questions regarding this topic, some more specific such as “how do you store your bags and shoes” “how do you organise bulky things like knitwear” “how do I decide what should be folded or hung” so I’m going to tie all of these questions into one.
As I’ve said our new house is great for all things storage but I’ve commandeered one of our spare rooms to house my clothing, the one with huge mirrored built in wardrobes that you can see in these snaps here. Having had a walk-in-wardrobe set up for the last four years it’s SO nice to have all my pieces lined up in front of me like this, making it seem much easier to create new looks.
I tend to organise by category and within those categories by colour as you can see here. On the top rail we have trousers hanging together and arranged by colour which then goes into longer length dresses grouped together by colour fading into shorter length dresses which then lead onto my ridiculous blazer and lightweight jacket collection, again organised by colour. The bottom rail houses my shirts, tops and blouses which is my most satisfying or compartments as it really is like one joyous rainbow down there. I find organising by category and then by colour makes styling so much easier as if I have a piece in mind I know exactly where to go within my wardrobe to find it’s styling partners, plus, it is aesthetically pleasing and somewhat calming so doesn’t stress me out half as much as my walk-in-wardrobes of the past did.

Whilst the majority of my pieces are hanging in my wardrobe I do have a little shelf on one side of the closet where I fold my jeans, again by colour. I have a pile for blue jeans and for black jeans and then a pile for printed or coloured jeans. Jeans are my most worn piece so it’s nice to have these in front of my every day and organised in this way making for easy daily styling. On the same shelf I have all my Saturday By Megan Ellaby knitwear folded and ready for grabbing almost every day. Other things I have folded are T-Shirt’s and knitwear, however, these live in a beautiful antique chest of drawers that I sourced on eBay, I just LOVE finding beautiful furniture on eBay and this chest of drawers is one of my favourites to date. I’ve adopted the Marie Kondo method of folding for my drawers and it’s an absolute game changer. To be able to see almost all of my hefty T-Shirt collection means that nothing ever gets neglected or forgotten about and I can style up quickly in a morning. One drawer for white T-Shirt’s, one for black and another for multi-coloured or printed tee’s, it’s been a little life changing organising and folding like this I must admit.

When it comes to organising my shoes and bags this is a work in progress as you can probably tell by the images. My bags live on a little bookcase that we brought with us from our old house but it is definitely a temporary storage solution as it’s not quite big enough for all of my bags and also means my bags get a little dusty which isn’t ideal. However, I do find that housing my bags in this way means I never forget what I’ve got as they’re all lined up and I can see them all so clearly which is certainly a bonus of this type of storage.
My shoes live pretty much all over the house which isn’t ideal, with just my more investment pieces of footwear sitting within the wardrobe, I’ll update you accordingly as soon as I’ve found the perfect storage solution for both my bags and my shoes.

And finally on the topic of how I personally organise my wardrobe is the question of newer pieces, well they sit on a free standing clothing rail within my office which is next door to my wardrobe room which acts as a “note to self” to wear and hopefully feature within my content creation.

How do you plan your outfits?
Following on from my last point of the “note to self” clothing rail this is usually how I plan my outfits, particularly for specific events, trips or shooting for my blog or Instagram. I LOVE delving into my wardrobe to discover something I’ve not worn in a while and giving it a new lease of life depending on the season we are in. I plan my outfits around both new and old pieces and hang them on the note to self rail ready for a good ole try on session where I’ll then take a quick mirror photo as a reminder when packing. I often start from the feet up so my shoes (albeit scattered around the house) get the first look in and once that’s decided I’ll style from the feet up. I often always have a piece or two that I’m itching to wear so I start there until I have a look that makes me feel fabulous.

How do you know when to clear out and what to get rid of?
So I am partial to a seasonal clear out but I must admit since dramatically changing my shopping habits (read more here) these clear outs have been much less of a thing which is really great indeed. I’m adding less and less to my wardrobe which means I don’t have that awful space issue anymore, meaning my wardrobe is a much happier place to be.

However, I do think it’s good for the soul to have a little clear out from time to time and for that I use a couple of pointers that guide me through.
First of all, does it still fit? Try it on and make sure it makes you feel good, if it doesn’t then don’t beat yourself up that it no longer fits, simply hand it down to family or friends or donate it to a charity shop, or perhaps you could have it altered in someway? Either way do something about it, you don’t need that kind of negativity hanging in your life.
Have you worn said item in the last year? Can you imagine yourself wearing it in the next year? If the answer is no to both of those questions then it’s time to pass on the baton and next time you’ll hopefully shop a little bit smarter.
And finally, similarly to shopping on the high-street or online, when shopping your own wardrobe can you think of 3 ways to wear it? If you can style it up in 3 different ways that get your juices flowing then keep it. If not, let's think about ways in which you can change or alter it so that you will, or find a pal who can give it the love it deserves.

Seasonal clear outs are useful, and are usually the way I like to tackle a wardrobe clear out. Once in the spring time and once in autumn and I almost always feel totally cleansed after it HOWEVER, donation regret is a thing and the amount of pieces that haunt me from years previous is ridiculous. Particularly my days working at ASOS, man I had some awesome pieces that I truly wish I’d never gotten rid of, ask yourself all the above questions, do your trend research and buy carefully and hopefully you won’t have the donation regret that I have…

Do you believe in seasonal rotation and capsule wardrobes?
In a word no. That’s just not the kind of girl that I am, however much I would love to be. I’m the kind of person that gets bored easily, I hate routine, I dislike things being the same and I love the feeling of change, in all aspects of my life so especially when it comes to my wardrobe and how I style myself every day. I couldn’t be restricted to just 18 pieces or whatever the magic number is and in all honestly I like having a big, diverse and colourful wardrobe to play dress up in every day.  Similarly with seasonal rotations I like being able to mix in my spring/summer pieces with winter warmers to make a new and exciting look. Perhaps it’s my fave summer dress, paired with tights, knee boots, an oversized knitted jumper and a big coat and hat combo, I live for that kind of thing so if my summer wardrobe was packed away I wouldn’t be able to experiment in this way which would be something I’d miss hugely. Each to their own on this one and I truly admire those who can do the whole capsule wardrobe thing, but alas I am not one of them.

Okay so that concludes my little wardrobe Q&A I do hope you enjoyed this post and you found it useful. As always if you have any further questions on this matter or some ideas for upcoming blogposts of this nature and even of a completely opposite nature entirely do leave them in the comments below, I truly LOVE chatting with those of you who take the time to read my blog so lets keep that conversation going.

Lots of love

x M