I decluttered my entire wardrobe. Again. And then I created a capsule wardrobe. Again. What can I say? I just can’t quit them.

This capsule is a little different than my previous capsule wardrobes because it’s not a season specific capsule. Instead, it’s a cold weather capsule wardrobe that will see me through the rest of fall, the entire winter and part of spring.

By all minimalist accounts, I still have a lot of clothes. A lot of stuff that I don’t wear. And while this stuff isn’t really an issue since it all fits in my closet, and I’m not striving for a certain number, I feel better when I have less stuff.

Over the past month, as I’ve taken a step away from social media and from obsessing about my wardrobe, I’ve spent time reading and decluttering my house. We’ve been slowly accumulating stuff over the past few years and I think it’s part of the reason that I’ve been feeling so unfocused lately.

I’ve been watching minimalism videos on Youtube. I’ve been particularly enjoying extreme minimalist wardrobe videos. I don’t strive to only own 20 items in total but I have great admiration for the people who do. And it really got me thinking about my own relationship with clothing. 

As a former shopaholic, I realize that it’s not healthy for me to think about clothing so much. But at the same time, I enjoy fashion and being creative with my wardrobe. I’ve viewed my wardrobe as a hobby over the past few years but I think that mindset has led me to consume more than I’m truly comfortable with. 

My most recent closet declutter brought that to the forefront of my mind. I decluttered 32 items, taking my year round everyday wardrobe from 114 to 82. Those 32 items included some pieces that were fairly recent additions. 

And the more that I’ve been thinking about having a minimalist wardrobe, the more I know I can let go of.  I will continue to declutter my current wardrobe until I’ve whittled it down to only the items that I love AND actually wear. I have a lot of items that I absolutely love, but they simply don’t fit my lifestyle anymore. And I don’t want to have excess stuff, especially when they can go to someone who can get more use out of them.

My Cold Weather Capsule Wardrobe

I created a cold weather capsule wardrobe with only my favorite pieces. These are the items that I love to wear and that I feel great in whenever I put them on. 

The majority of these items are old, secondhand or memade. Items that can be purchased currently (or similar items from the same brand) include:

Eileen Fisher Sweater (Top row, 1st item)

Lenver’s Gaby Cardigan (Top row, 3rd item from left)

Tradlands Nova Dress (3rd row, 3rd item from left) – the black is no longer available

Kordal Studio Jumpsuit (3rd row, 6th item from left) – no longer available but similar

Levi’s Barrel Leg Jeans (4th row, 5th item from left) – similar

Danner Boots (8th row, 4th item from left)

Dr. Marten’s Leona Boots (last row, 4th item from left)

If there’s some other item that you’d like info on, leave a comment below and I’ll get back to you with the brand.

The Final Breakdown

I ended up with 26 everyday clothing items. Oddly enough, this is the smallest selection of everyday items that I’ve ever included in a capsule wardrobe. My previous capsule wardrobes would consist of around 35 everyday items because after I had selected my favorites, I would then add filler pieces. But this selection makes me realize that I didn’t need those filler pieces.

Once I had my everyday pieces, I did the same selection process with my coats. I live in a place where the winters are cold and snowy. We average 30 inches (76 cm) of snow a year and around 10F (-12C) in January. So I have a lot of coats. There are 6 coats (+ 1 vest) in my cold weather capsule.

I included 6 pairs of boots in my cold weather capsule. I have also included 1 pair of grey sneakers that I have been wearing a lot this past month. I’ll continue to wear them until it snows and I’ll wear them again when the weather warms up.

I have pared my handbags down to 4 bags (you can see my previous handbag collection here) and I will be including 4 other accessories…3 scarves and a beret. I have asked my mom to knit me a wool hat and mittens for Christmas so these will be added as well.

Capsule Wardrobe Colors

I’ve never thought too much about the colors in my wardrobe. And I still don’t stick to a plan when i’m putting my capsule together. But after the pieces were all lined up on the rack, I noticed that there were some dominant colors and some accent colors.

The dominant colors are (not including coats, shoes or accessories):

Black 11

Charcoal 4

Navy 6

The accent colors are:

Cream 3

Burgundy/Red 2

Dark Green 2

I’m not horribly surprised by this. I love dark clothing. I’ve given lighter tones a try but I just don’t feel as confident when I wear them. In terms of my accent colors, I definitely prefer to stick with jewel tones. Having actually made a note of this will be helpful for any future purchases that I consider.

My Goals for this Cold Weather Capsule Wardrobe

I’ll be spending the next 6 months (roughly) with this wardrobe of 28 items. No more seasonal capsules for me. 

My ultimate goal is to have 1 cold weather capsule wardrobe and 1 warm weather capsule wardrobe. The warm weather capsule will be significantly smaller, since it won’t require outerwear.

My everyday items will be stored on a clothing rack in my bedroom so that the items in my closet are “out of sight, out of mind”. If some item crosses my mind and I can’t stop thinking about it, I will add it to the clothing rack.

My hope with this experiment is that I will be happy with dressing from these items all winter. And at the end of it, I plan to let go of the other cold weather items in my wardrobe that I didn’t wear or miss.

I’ve created a Poshmark closet to sell the items that I’ve recently decluttered, as well as previous items that I’ve decluttered that have been sitting on storage until I decided what to do with them. I’ll be adding items over the next few weeks so make sure you’re following me over there to be notified when I upload items.

Do you have a capsule wardrobe? If so, what duration do you use? If not, would you ever do one?