I am not ditching my previous capsule wardrobe plan. I have enjoyed having a more paired-down wardrobe; it makes dressing in the mornings much more effortless. However, through this process I realized that I actually don't have that many clothes. Don't get me wrong, I have waaaay too many clothes, but they are actually pretty spread out and minimalistic in style. The issue is just that I have clothes for a very large range of weather. The DMV gets warm and fairly cold every once in a while (we seem to be getting snow every other year), but I also have a tendency to be in Canada during winter and Arizona during summer (maybe not the best vacation plans). I also enjoy traveling, so generally I think it is alright to have as many clothes as I do. Additionally, the DMV does actually experience all four seasons, so the half-season wardrobe works very well. I just think having the 10x10 and 30x30 wardrobes is too much work.
I am not ditching my previous capsule wardrobe plan, but...I'm ditching my previous capsule wardrobe plan. So, like I said, I am not getting rid of it altogether, but there are some tweaks that I'd like to make. Just a little bit of background, I have two closets in my bedroom (it's nice being a single person living in a room designed for a couple sometimes). A main walk-in closet is next to the ensuite bathroom, and a standard reach-in closet is next to my bed. Originally, I only used the main closet and stored empty boxes in the reach-in, but when I started my capsule wardrobe experiment, I took those boxes out, and the small closet became my everyday closet. The other one was basically just clothing storage at this point. Now, why am I bringing this up? You see, I like having a small, pared-down closet for quick decisions when getting dressed in the morning, which is basically the whole point of a capsule wardrobe. However, I do not like switching my closet out every few weeks; it's just a lot of work, and I'm busy. Though there are merits to a seasonal closet.
The New Plan
I actually don't have too many clothes. Well, I still have a lot of clothes, but it isn't as bad as I thought. When I switched to the two-closet system, I also reorganized my clothes. Since my capsules are built based on separate work and casual clothes, I also split the large closet this way. Then, I organized within each category based on length and warmth. After going through a few capsules, I realized that when looking at the clothes that are appropriate for the weather, I don't have too many clothes. In fact, I am actually missing quite a few items. However, I am not interested in filling in these gaps just yet.
I don't see a need to continue my capsule wardrobe plan as we go into summer. I found that I only wear two types of outfits for work: a short-sleeved/sleeveless button-up shirt with a pair of jeans/trousers or a dress. Though I do not have many business attire dresses, I try to wear only dresses when it is too hot to wear pants. As for my casual attire, I wear a crop top and shorts. However, when I started to put together my "Early Summer" 30x30 I realized that I didn't have a large number of summer tops, and since the "Late Summer" 30x30 has the same composition, there would be a very large overlap between the two. So I'll just move the whole category (i.e., short-sleeve/sleeveless shirt, short-sleeve/sleeveless crop top, etc.) to my everyday closet. Additionally, while I have enjoyed the short 10x10, I don't think I'll keep it up. During the week of the 10x10, I find I have to be more creative with the few pieces I have so I am not entirely outfit repeating. However, I find that I have to layer a lot, which isn't always amenable to the weather. With that in mind, I don't think a summer 10x10 will be easy. I will probably just have to wear the same outfit for most days, which isn't ideal and defeats the purpose of the 10x10. It would likely work out better if I didn't have to split up my closet for work and pleasure. Usually, it just means that I end up wearing a more work-appropriate outfit on my weekends (or just staying home in loungewear).
So, just to recap, I'm going to stop doing the capsule wardrobes. I will still be using a pared-down wardrobe based on the season/weather. With that in mind, below I have included how my closet is separated so you can see what types of "categories" I will be moving in and out of my closet. I'll probably switch these categories out about as often as I was doing the capsule wardrobes, i.e., every 2 months or so, depending on the weather. There are some exceptions. In my capsules, I planned for some classical winter items to be used in summer. Specifically, the long-sleeve shirts are used as my work shirts for a good portion of fall, winter, and spring. In summer, I use them as layers. As I have many of these shirts, I don't want to keep all of them in my summer closet, so I'll just select 1 or 2 that would be used as a summer layer.
Wardrobe Organization
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