The Everyday Icon Style Podcast

Episode 160: From Chaos to Chic: Closet Transformation Tips

• Tiffany Howard

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Is your closet overflowing with clothes you never wear? Get ready to transform your wardrobe from chaotic to cohesive as we embark on an exciting journey of seasonal transitions. We kick off by sharing practical tips on setting a dedicated date for your closet edit, creating an enjoyable environment, and categorizing your clothing. By evaluating the fit, style, and emotional attachment of items you haven't worn recently, you'll be able to establish a streamlined, functional wardrobe where every piece coordinates seamlessly. Say goodbye to "one day" and "just in case" items cluttering your closet and hello to a versatile capsule wardrobe!Don't forget to check out episodes 158 and 159 for even more wardrobe management insights.

 Plus, stay tuned for my upcoming YouTube video and join the conversation on Instagram to share your feedback and requests. Let's make your wardrobe work for you, no matter the season!

Resources Mentioned In This Episode

10 Steps To A Stylish, Organized Wardrobe: https://bit.ly/3LeeB7Z

Stay Connected!

LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/tiffany-howard-8b

Instagram: https://bit.ly/3VwhNlB

YouTube: https://bit.ly/3IyGFSl



Speaker 1:

Ignite your style with the Everyday Icon Style Podcast. I'm Tiffany, your style navigator and confidant here to lead women in corporate America on the quest to discover their timeless style. Let's revolutionize your wardrobe, empower your confidence and embrace your inner icon. Are you ready to redefine your corporate chic? Then let's get started. Are you tired of feeling overwhelmed by your wardrobe? I've got just the thing for you. Download my free guide Stylish, organized Wardrobe Made Easy and discover 10 simple steps to declutter, identify key pieces and create a style that's uniquely yours. Head to the description box of this episode to grab your copy to start your journey towards a more stylish, elevated and organized you.

Speaker 1:

Can you believe that it is the middle of August already, which can only mean one thing that fall and winter are gearing up to visit us once again. Visit us once again, which also means that it is time for us to begin to transition from our spring and summer clothes to our fall and winter clothes. So I thought I would take this episode and talk to you and give you a few tips about how you can transition your seasonal wardrobes. The greatest thing about this is is this forces you to edit and clean out your closet at least twice a year, and I'm going to give you a few tips to help get you started. The biggest tip of it is I need you to select a date for you to actually do this. So by the time you're reading, I'm recording this, it's July, but you'll hear this in August. So around September maybe. But you'll hear this in August, so around September, maybe before October, of course, around September or so. I want you to schedule some time to go in and begin to clean everything out and transition all of your pieces in now so you can figure out what you're going to need. So let's get through this really quickly.

Speaker 1:

So first, I want you to take inventory and we need to assess your current wardrobe. So one we need to take inventory, schedule a dedicated time for the process. I want you to make this your day. So I want you to create a mood. I want you to create an environment music, wine, a TV show that you haven't binged in a while or need to catch up on, anything that you need to do to just make it a fun, pleasant day, however that looks for you. One I want you to sort everything. One I want you to sort everything tops, bottoms. I want you to separate them in different piles.

Speaker 1:

Next, I want you to try on items you haven't recently worn. So if you've worn things already, that's fine. I want you to go ahead and try them on. If they don't fit, tell them goodbye, just get them out of your way and let them go. And if you haven't listened to, I highly recommend, before you listening to this episode in its entirety entirety, to go back and listen to episodes 158 and 159. 58, 158 is about the 80 20 rule and the most recent 159, is about the art of letting go of your clothes. So be sure to listen to those episodes before you begin to clean out your closet and start down that fun road.

Speaker 1:

So now I want you to identify your non-working pieces. Here's a rule If you haven't worn it in six months to a year, let it go. I want you to think long and hard. I don't want you to think too long. I don't want you to overthink it. I want you to evaluate the fit. I want you to consider current style preferences. Does it match your personal style that you're developing? If it doesn't, it has to go. You have to assess its coordination. Is it a? So, nine times out of ten, if you haven't worn it in six months to a year. It's probably something you purchased on an impulse or something that you may no longer be able to fit. So let it go from there.

Speaker 1:

When you're going through this whole entire process and trying to create and figure out what it is that you're going to keep and what you're not going to keep and oh, did I forgot to mention you're doing this first on the clothes that you're putting up. So these are gonna be your spring and summer clothes, because I don't want you to put all of these in here. There's a method to this whole madness. So you're going to do this for your spring and summer clothes. You're gonna put your spring and summer clothes away. Then you're gonna bring out your fall and winter clothes and you're going to do the exact same thing before you put them in the closet. We don't want to put things away that you have to look at next year. No, we're gonna get rid of them right now and then, when you bring the new, the clothes out for fall and winter, you're gonna do the same thing, because none of this stuff is going to go into your closet when you're at the end, when you're putting everything into the closet, so I wanted to put that out there right now, right here, at the beginning.

Speaker 1:

I want you to ask yourself also can I create at least three outfits from this piece? So can you create three separate outfits from each item? If you can't let it go, that means it doesn't fit. What we are trying to create is a cohesive style and a cohesive wardrobe to where everything goes and everything is a mix and match wardrobe to where, no matter what you pull out, everything goes pretty, for the most part, goes with everything. This will make getting dressed easy and a breeze every day.

Speaker 1:

I also want you to be honest about your emotional attachments to clothing, and I think we overlook this or we don't talk about it at all. Is it a sentimental item, something like a concert t-shirt or something that a scarf, a loved one gave you? If they are sentimental, good, how many do you have? We don't need an abundance of them. If you have like two or three, you can easily get something and put them in a keepsake. You might be able to turn it into art in your house If you have an office space or even your bedroom or a sitting lounge, something to where you might be able to put it in a frame, use it that way, depending on how big your closet is. If you have an empty wall, you can hang them up no more than two or three pieces. Anything else that's time to get rid of. It's something from like college or something. Yeah, it's definitely time to let that go.

Speaker 1:

I want you to also think about the just-in-case mentality. I think we've always been taught and told to have something just in case. I went into a little more detail about this in the last episode, but I want you to think about do we really need this, just in case? Those are the pieces that probably stay in our closet the longest. So I want you to think about when's the last time you went to a networking event? Well, no, that's a bad thing, because we go to networking events and things like that. But say, the last time you went to a gala, the last time you went to maybe, a sporting event I don't know, do you really need it? When's the last time? Here's a good one. When's the last time you really dressed up for church? Right, we really don't dress up the way that we used to dress up per se. We are more of the business casual type dress for work, but we're not dressing like church formal anymore. That's the easy way to describe it. So when's the last time? Um, just in k, only just in case. Well, the only just in case I would probably keep with maybe say b for like an interview suit. But other than that, really think about your just in case mentality. I also want you to think about the mentality of one day, and one day is I'm going to wear this one day? No, we're not. It's time to let it go.

Speaker 1:

One day, outfit items are items that you have been holding on to for the past three to four years, for whatever reason, or something you purchased that said, one day I'm going to wear this and it still has the price tags on them. I want you to get rid of those, because the one days it's the one days and the just in cases those are the clothes that's kind of, for the most part, are always in our closet the longest because it's oh, you know what. I'm gonna hold on to this because, just in case, or one day I'm finally going to wear it. Those probably take up a bulk of our closet. It's time to get rid of those as well, especially if you have an abundance of them. It's time to let them go.

Speaker 1:

So, once you've kind of done that initial part, now I want you to think about identifying versatility and year-round pieces. So this would be your capsule wardrobe, so to speak. Now your capsule wardrobe is only 15% of your closet. If you've been around, I've been introducing my concept of a wardrobe pyramid where 70% of your wardrobe is your core wardrobe, 15% is a capsule wardrobe, meaning these are the classic, essential pieces that you always have, which actually go with everything in your core wardrobe. And then you have an additional 15% which are trendy pieces, which can be a little tricky because with this type of trendy piece, these are pieces that could possibly be the accent to your wardrobe a whole entire wardrobe but they're trendy, but they can lean towards classic pieces, core wardrobe pieces. If you want me to go into more detail about my pyramid, let me know in the comments under my instagram post for this episode here.

Speaker 1:

So, when you're thinking about your key versatile items, these are going to be like your classic button downs, your blazers, your dark wash jeans, the little black dress, trench coats, things of that nature you really put on your full winter clothes, or before you put on your full, like it will help guide you into transition into from spring, summer to winter fall that you can kind of incorporate with those. If you don't have any of these key pieces, I highly suggest that you make a list and make a note of it and, with these pieces, to make sure you go out and you make those purchases so that you have them in your wardrobe. Your core wardrobe is something that you can always set to the side and it's part of the transition that you don't necessarily that you don't have to transition like. Those can stay in your closet all year round. It's the other pieces that you cut, your style pieces, your more core wardrobe pieces, that you want to transition out the most. So you want to think about those and you want to make a list of, like I said, do you have them? If you don't, if they need to be updated, do I need to change them out? I want you to also go in and change them out as well and start with those pieces, because those are the pieces that will get probably the most. They're the most versatile, most functional part of your wardrobe through all four seasons.

Speaker 1:

So when we're doing this, you want to think about, too, styling across the seasons and I think I touched on that a little bit because, for example, for the summertime, you can tuck into a white button-down shirt. You can tuck into high-waisted shorts with sandals. In the winter, you can layer it with a sweater and a blazer with wool trousers. So these are kind of I would probably say a workhorse-ish type of clothes for the capsule wardrobe. That's a great way to that's. I just thought about that. That is what we would call the capsule wardrobe. That's a great way to that's. I just thought about that. That is what we would call the capsule wardrobe portion, but kind of like be an extension of your actual workhorse items that you have in your closet. With these, you want to think about the quality of the fabrics, because this part should definitely be quality over quantity when we're talking about this. So make those and keep all of those in mind when building out and cleaning out your closet and create a space in your closet that's just for your capsule wardrobe pieces, because in this way, if you can't find anything or you need to layer something you know, a sweater over your button down, it's already there for you in your closet space that you can have.

Speaker 1:

So how do we actually begin to say edit everything that we need to do. Of course we have the time to transition. So you want to start a month before the season changes. So you're hearing this in August. So guess what? Well, if you're listening to it, once it first downloads, it's August. September is a great time to transition from fall, to transition from spring summer, fall, winter. So to transition into fall, winter, september would be a great time. And then for spring, summer, you're probably looking at about, I would say maybe about April-ish, yes, april-ish, I would say about April-ish, yes, april-ish, I would say about April-ish. Or, if you can count, even if you do six months, so it's September, october, november, december, january, february, march. So it puts you about the March, middle of March, beginning of April, timeframe. This way, you know every single year when to do the transition and you know to mark on your calendar to mark that date to where you can just go in and begin to do this every single year, because this will also help keeping your clothes and everything at minimum and you will always know that it's time to go in and edit and clean out your closet on a yearly basis, minimal twice a year when you're doing this I want you to create three piles when you're cleaning out your wardrobe to keep, store, donate or sell.

Speaker 1:

When you're doing this, you're going to designate each pile for each thing. Once you're done, especially the donate pile you want to put them in the car and you want to take them off. If you have places I know there are um places to where that will actually come and pick up your donations. Schedule it ahead of time for the date that you want them to come pick up your donations. Schedule it ahead of time for the date that you want them to come pick up your donations and they'll become and take them for you. If you're going to sell them online, you want to set aside some more time to sell them and get everything together. You're going to want to take photos, but that's going to be not during this time frame. You want to create a space for your clothes. So if you also have to do any updates to your closet, if you want to do new hangers, if you want to I don't know add mirrors or things like that, you will actually want to do that as part of the pre-planning. But I don't want you to think that it's just about clothes. It's more so just creating and building a space that is yours Now with all of this.

Speaker 1:

I know this was a quick, fast, probably even gibberish overview of things, but here's the thing.

Speaker 1:

If you want me to go a little further, what I can do is and I did a video about this on my YouTube channel many moons ago what I can do is and I did a video about this on my YouTube channel many moons ago If you want to see an updated version of that, let me know.

Speaker 1:

Let me know in the comments section of this podcast episode on my Instagram channel, and I will be more than happy to add that to the list. To know that I will have to do it before September. I will go through and I'll create a YouTube video on how to edit and clean out your closet for the transitioning of the seasons and I'll walk you through how to do that process, or actually show you me actually doing and transitioning out my clothes and doing my closets for the season. So if you want that, let me know and I'll be more than happy to add that to my list of videos to do for you. So, with all of that being said, I hope you guys have an amazing rest of your day, stay healthy, stay safe and, as always, I will see you next week in the next episode.