“Minimalism is not a lack of something. It’s simply the perfect amount of something”.
Hey everyone,
Welcome back to my blog! Today I want to speak about a recent change in my life- working towards a more minimalistic wardrobe…
The seed was planted earlier this year while watching a video by the blogger Ambrosia Malbrough, discussing her reasoning for becoming a minimalist. She discussed how she didn’t want to be consumed or defined by her things, and how she wanted to transcend the commercialism of the day. This message really spoke to me- until she started talking about giving away her lovely clothes. I was like, Me? Give away my clothes? Nope. Not me! So I put the message in the back of my mind and didn’t think anymore about it.
Months later, I was really considering getting into blogging, and to do so, I really thought I needed to upgrade my wardrobe to be “blogger worthy.” So, I began to brainstorm about what I wanted my blog to look like, and the content that I wanted to produce. Successful bloggers I wanted to emulate came to mind, Carli Bybel in particular. I remembered Carli speaking about how she builds her posts- she finds a piece she really loves, and centers her outfit around that. In my opininion, that’s a great model to follow, so I decided to do the same with my wardrobe; building outfits around each piece I already had. When it really came down to it, I began to realize how long and how expensive that would be for me to do, in that I had a lot of clothing, but nothing to wear. I literally was one of those people who only wore about 20% of their wardrobe.
Being a college student, I didn’t really have the means to go about completing this “blogger-worthy” wardrobe, so I began to feel a bit disappointed, and told myself to hold off until I was able to afford to do it the way I wanted. You see, I didn’t just want to put any old thing on my blog, but I wanted to post quality content. But then someone encouraged me to get a Paypal credit card, especially since I love shopping on eBay so much, to fund a better wardrobe. I was skeptical at first, but the more they continued to tell me about it (zero interest, only have to pay minimum balance and will have no fees), the more I was convinced- so I signed up. And oh baby did I charge! It was all great until I got that statement back, and the statement read I had to pay the amount I had charged in FULL in order to not receive any interest. I was devastated- I felt so down on myself for falling for it, and even found out it was a completely different credit line than the one I had heard about. So, I got back to square one, feeling discouraged, not wanting to continue to try to become a blogger. But then Ambrosia’s words came back to mind.
I did some self-reflection, and thought about why I was doing what I was doing… It was ridiculous- spending hours on the phone online shopping, staying up late at night looking for the perfect pieces. I began to realize that I was starting into a vicious unhealthy cycle that would never satisfy me. So, I started looking up minimalist wardrobes, which lead me to capsule wardrobes, and when I saw this concept, I was once again intrigued! It made so much sense, and I really felt that the items they contained would really be wearable and fun to mix and match!
So this is how I came to this place; I started going through my wardrobe, getting rid of things, giving them away, and feeling fine about it. I am now building my capsule wardrobe and am already getting the wear out of my small, monthly, in-my-budget purchases that I feel great about.
If this story reminds you of yourself, consider taking a step towards a more minimalistic wardrobe. See where it might take you, and share your experience below.
Until next time,
Photo cred: Junxiang Wang
Kay's Dossier 
