How To Plan Your Spring Wardrobe

Are you ready for spring? Is your wardrobe ready? At the beginning of every season, I take a look at my calendar and my plans for the upcoming season. Then, I organize and plan my wardrobe for that season. This is a fun project to me, and this week, I got my spring wardrobe all organized and ready. I do this project every March for my spring/summer wardrobe and every September for my fall/winter wardrobe.

 

 

Today, I’m going to share the process I go through and, hopefully, you’ll be motivated and ready to do your own. I’ll warn you now, I’m very detail-oriented, especially when it comes to my closet, because it’s fun for me. If you’d rather get it done quickly and move on, then feel free to skip through to the steps that you need the most.

The wardrobe project that I’m going to explain today is my plan for putting together an ideal wardrobe that works for your real lifestyle, and makes dressing well every day very simple, because once you do the planning, the day-to-day maintenance is very easy. It’s a 5 step process of planning and organizing your new spring/summer wardrobe. So, set aside a few hours, and get your wardrobe ready for a fun, busy season. 

WHAT IS YOUR LIFESTYLE LIKE?

The first step to an ideal wardrobe is to think about who you are, your lifestyle, and what your wardrobe needs are. It will be different for everybody. Everyone has different lifestyles and activities. So, before starting, write out a list of activities in a typical week. Then, for each activity, write what type of outfits you feel you would need for each one for an ideal wardrobe. For example, work-dressy, errands-nice casual, relaxing at home-very casual.

WHAT WOULD YOUR IDEAL WARDROBE LOOK LIKE?

At the beginning of each season, it’s a good idea to do a little research. There’s a lot of clothing options available, so you need to figure out what types of outfits appeal to you and work for your lifestyle. Go through magazines, catalogs, fashion blogs, store websites, and Pinterest. Write down details about the styles you like, such as skinny jeans, button-down shirts, and ballet flats. Keep these ideas together on a Pinterest board or cut out pictures and keep in a folder. This might sound silly, but will be very helpful as you plan your wardrobe and your shopping.

WHAT DO YOU CURRENTLY HAVE?

This part of the project will take a little extra time. Go through each item, piece by piece. Throw out everything that has rips, stains, or is in bad condition. Then start a donation pile for everything that won’t fit in with your new ideal wardrobe. You should only have in your closet the items that are:

• In good condition
• Currently in style
• Fits you right
• Flattering for your body type
• Flattering color
• Useful for your current lifestyle

Every item that doesn’t meet this criteria should go in the donation pile. Then, organize what you’re keeping by sections, such as dressy, casual, very casual. Within those categories, keep “like” items together such as, pants, tops, jackets. Then organize each section by color.

You now have your “starter” ideal wardrobe in your closet, neatly organized by sections, categories, and by color. The next step is to see what’s missing in your ideal wardrobe.

WHAT DO YOU NEED?

Remember the ultimate goal for your wardrobe is to have a wardrobe that works for your real life and gives you plenty of options for all your activities, social events, and special occasions. With that in mind, it’s time to figure out exactly what that will require.

Grab a notebook and a pen and get ready to plan. Start by writing at the top of the page your life area where you spend the majority of your time. Then list categories of items you would like to have for that part of your life. By categories, I mean tops, bottoms, shoes, jackets, etc. Then, think how long you would like to go before re-wearing items. For example, you might want enough for two weeks, three weeks, or a month. With that in mind, write beside each category how many you want in your wardrobe. Keep in mind that bottoms are usually basics and, therefore, can be worn more often.

Now that you’ve decided on categories of items and how many pieces you want in your wardrobe, you can add more detail, such as the styles of each item you would like to have. So, for example, beside tops, you could break it down further and write button-down shirts, sweaters, long-sleeve tees, and how many of each.

Now that you’ve got a basic wardrobe plan with a list of items categorized and preferred styles, it’s time to fine-tune your wardrobe so that it all works together. One important way to do that is to plan the colors you want in this season’s wardrobe. In the book, “The Curated Closet”, by Anuschka Rees, she gives a great method of planning a color palette for your wardrobe. I used it as I was planning my wardrobe and I came up with a color palette that uses my favorite colors. She stressed the point that if you have main colors, neutral colors, and accent colors that all go well together, you’ll have a lot of options when putting outfits together.

Do this written wardrobe plan for EACH area of your life. Each area of your life usually requires a slightly different wardrobe. You might be able to interchange some pieces, but this system works better if you plan each wardrobe separately and hang your clothing items in your closet in a different section for each area of your life.

Now, take your written plan to your closet and compare what you’ve got with your written plan. Now it should be easy to see what’s missing. The missing pieces are what you will add to your shopping plan.

WHAT SHOULD YOU BUY?

You probably already have several things in your closet that will get you started on your new spring wardrobe. Make the most of what you already have and start wearing them, mixing and matching and trying several combinations.

The next step is to add to your wardrobe, using a strategy. Go through the list of items in your ideal wardrobe plan and see if there is anything specific you dont have and need to add to your shopping list. Then, see if you have enough pieces in each category for each area of your life. You might have to start with a small number of items in your wardrobe and gradually add to it. That’s totally fine. Quality is more important than quantity.

Now, take your list and re-write the missing items in order of priority. I also believe in sticking to a budget, so at the top, write your monthly clothing budget and beside each item, write the estimate of how much you think something will cost. Your budget might not be enough to get everything on your list, but with a prioritized list, you will get the things you need the most. Just start your shopping with the items at the top and you will soon have a very functional wardrobe for your lifestyle.

 

MY ORGANIZED SPRING WARDROBE

I did this wardrobe project this week and as an example, here is my spring wardrobe plan:

Nice-Casual and Very-Casual Wardrobe

28 Tops:

• 4 Spring sweaters, long sleeve
• 3 Blouses, long sleeve
• 7 Knit tops, long or 3/4 length sleeve
• 7 Nice Tunic-style, short sleeve
• 7 Very casual knit tops, short sleeve

16 Bottoms:

• 3 Jeans
• 4 Casual pants
• 7 Capri or ankle-length pants
• 1 Capri-length yoga pants, for exercise and walks
• 1 pair Bermuda shorts

Jackets:

• 2 Blazers
• 1 Denim Jacket
• 2 Trench coats, 1 tan and 1 navy

Shoes:

• 2 espadrilles
• 4 Ballet flats: Black, Brown, Leapard print, and tan
• 3 Flat sandals
• Casual slip-on walking shoes
• Tennis shoes for exercise

Purses:

• Black
• Brown
• Red
• Tan
• 1 Very casual canvas Summer purse

Dressy Wardrobe

6 Dresses

3 Cardigans

3 Pants: 2 Black, 1 White

8 Tops (could be part of nice-casual wardrobe)

2 Skirts (Could be part of nice-casual wardrobe)

Shoes: Pumps, Sandals with heels

My Color Palette

Neutral colors – white, tan, black

Main colors – aqua, turquoise, royal blue

Accent colors – coral, pink, fuschia

MY PRIORITIZED SHOPPING PLAN

• 1 Nice casual top, 3/4 length sleeve 
• 3 Nice tunic-style tops, short sleeve
• 2 Casual pants
• 2 Casual capri or ankle-length pants
• 5 Casual knit tops
• Casual canvas summer purse
• Yoga capri-length pants
• Flat casual sandals
• Walking shoes
• New tan purse
• White tank top
• 1 pair espadrilles

My shopping plan looks like a lot but, actually, I probably won’t be buying everything on the list. That is why I suggest putting your list in priority order. I just start at the top and buy a little each month, within my budget. Sometimes, I buy things farther down on the list if I find them on sale.

I hope you find the time to work through this project and discover that you really can easily have a great wardrobe when you start with a plan and then keep it maintained each month throughout the season.

Please let me know in the comments below how your new wardrobe is working for you. 

Till next time, have a wonderful spring day!