How many pieces make an easy to use and interesting enough wardrobe? That depends on: what you need, your lifestyle, and personal preferences.

What happens in your life? Do you need special work clothes? Are you a party beast, love chique dinners, doing lots of sports? Those individual circumstances will guide you into how many pieces you need in your wardrobe.

Is your wardrobe for others or for yourself?

Do you dress for yourself or for others? Do you know that most people do not notice if you wear the same every day? There are lots of examples e.g. Steven jobs, and some fun blogs (example) about people that experimented with wearing the same for 3 weeks. Or a whole year! : The Uniform project. They all concluded that wearing the same uniform every day creates more time to think about other topics. And nobody has ever commented on them wearing the same. Nor did anybody actually notice that they were wearing the same over and over ( they asked). So, knowing this you can start wearing the same clothes more often without people noticing. It will make it easier to get dressed.

Dress in what you like to wear, everyday. Wear the same comfortable clothes over and over. Do not waste hours of thinking about what to wear every week. Stop worrying about what others think about your dressing as they do not really care as much as you might think.

Wardrobe in suitcase size

Maybe you are that person who packs his suitcase for a trip and only uses the top layer for the whole time while away? You probably do it in more extreme proportions with your wardrobe at your home. Have a lot, but usually wear the same personal favorites.

Even I, a minimalist packer wear only my few favourites. There are always at least two pieces unworn at the end of the trip.

How to decide on how many pieces you need in your wardrobe?

Find your personal ideal number

This is different for everybody. Some do with 33 items ( link), other 20 or 60. I just do with what suits me, not a certain number. In spring and autumn I need more items as the weather can be cold, wet or warm and I need to be prepared for every weather condition. This results in me using about 60 items in my wardrobe that I change from season to season. Anything I do not expect or decided not to wear I store in plastic bins. ( The number 60 is not counting shoes, accessories, underwear). At the beginning of every season I create my wardrobe from all I have in my finished season wardrobe plus what is in my storage bins.

Where to start? 

Find out what your needs are. How many pieces do you need in your wardrobe? You can print and fill out the work sheet below.

• Write down all situations you dress for: work, leisure at home, out for dinner, sports,etc.

• Then attach a number to each situation, how many days a week/4 weeks do you dress for these situations (categories)?

Example:

Work 5/20

Leisure at home 7/28

Out for dinner 0/2 (in a month)

Sports 2/8

• Now you can think about how many different outfits do you need to be satisfied. Keep in mind that it is about you, as others do not really care or notice!

What is an outfit

If you have two pair of pants with three shirts you can make three outfits with each pair of pants ( if they combine well together). You will have six combination with those 5 items (2 pants, 3 shirts). Six outfits.

Example: How to choose the number of outfits

Decide on number of outfits you need per category. Here is my example of a few years back:

Work; dress 20 times in 4 weeks, I want to have 6 different outfits to choose from.

Leisure at home; because I like variety I want a few options. In my case five different outfits is enough. I just want these outfits to be comfy and not too precious so I can cook and garden in them. I imagine myself changing into my ‘home outfit’ after work, and that might be the same outfit for three days in a row. In the weekend I like 2 different outfits, hence 5 should do me to get the variety I like. 

Dress up: I also would like to have a few nicer outfits for going to the movies/ party for example but different from my workclothes. About 3 varieties.

For sports two outfits will do. Gives me enough time to wash in between.

• Now choose your favorite outfits for all categories.

• Keep categories separate: All sportsgear together. Workclothes together. Casuals together.

• Give each category a place in your wardrobe. Sort them and make sure everything is visible.

• All you think you will not need, you store in boxes/bins, or what ever you have.

Why not to throw clothes out

Do not throw everything out on which you decide you are probably not going to wear often. Put it away in boxes/bins because you might want to wear it next season, or need to add more to your chosen wardrobe.

Changing out items per season will refresh your wardrobe without having to go shopping. Or you might have chosen a too small number of outfits and having to add a few items during the season.

Check if you did it right

If you do it right you will use everything in your wardrobe regularly. If not, there is too much in your wardrobe. Review your wardrobe now and then, read about it in my post ‘ Keep your wardrobe organised’.

Sustainability

If you do not want to hold on to certain items, sell them, give them to shops that can sell them or give them away. Try not to send clothing items in the landfill. Take note of how many clothes you bought unnecessarily and use that to review on your (hopefully not too bad) consumerism habits.

Downsize your wardrobe now:

• 1 Write down all different situations (categories) you get dressed for.
• 2 How many times a week do you dress for each category?
• 3 How many different outfits do you need for each category?
• 4 Choose this number of outfits (your favourites) for each category.
• 5 Give each category its own place in the wardrobe.
• 6 Make sure you can see each item without having to move anything.
• 7 Store what you did not choose as your favourites.