Building equity into your wardrobe, part 1: start with what you own

Storage, garment care, and how taking care of what you already have is the first step in building your dream wardrobe.

We’ve all been there, you wake up on the wrong side of the bed, to a giant closet full of clothes, and you have nothing to wear. Getting dressed can be such a tool of empowerment, but on the wrong day, it’s your achilles heel. It really has the power to send you out the door in all of your power, or make you fall apart completely before your day has even started.

Often times, we think we need to look outside ourselves (or in this case, wardrobe) to find a solution to the thing which is bringing us down. With every spring cleaning, you find one of your old favorite pieces again and think “where has this been all this time?!”, a reminder that you already own several pieces that suit you… because “fashionable” or not, you have been dressing yourself your whole life, and only you know what you feel good in.

I have spent the last 5 years building equity into my closet, long before I had a giant community online, I was pining over slow fashion pieces, planning how to get my hands on them, and slowly creating my little dream closet. It was nothing in comparison to what I have now, but back then it felt like everything! It felt special to me because I’d worked so hard for it, over the years I had managed to purchase —mostly a lot of second hand — pieces from my favorite brands.

Those pieces are still my favorite pieces I own. I take really good care of them because I worked so hard for them, and if I’m honest, owning them and using them for my content is what helped me become a fashion content creator in the first place. So if you’re interested in knowing how I did this, I’ll be sharing a few more of these, in sequential order, as a guide to building your dream closet… but more importantly, building equity into it. Because owning pieces which re-sell well, means you’ll eventually get to a place where buying into slow fashion or higher price points will cost you less. Your clothes will fit you better, they’ll stand the test of time and hundreds of wears, and you’ll feel that joy that I’ve felt: looking into your wardrobe every morning and thinking “I have loads to wear”.

START WITH A CLOSET ROTATION

Before you go out and buy anything new, rediscover the pieces you already own. Do a try-on of all of your pieces and decide what you still love. The rule of thumb is: it has to be something that makes you feel good (even if you don’t think its fashionable or cool) and it has to be something you see yourself wearing in the next 5 years. Otherwise, it might be time to start thinking about donating or selling it. Important considerations about donating vs selling:

• Donate: if it’s pilled beyond repair, or in generally bad enough condition you wouldn’t want to wear it. Fast fashion brands have a much lower resale value and your time is probably not worth the 3 bucks you stand to earn on certain pieces, that’s for you to weigh out.

• Sell: if it has slight imperfections but it’s vintage, you can typically get away with selling your item. Otherwise anything with a decent brand name can get you good resale value, you can check your item against similar items on Vinted or Depop to see what other users are listing them for and then decide if its worth it to you.

  Selling tip: I don’t have time to be shipping out my vinted orders every day of the week, so typically I’d upload items in bulk, ship what I sell in the first couple of days, and then go on “vacation mode” until I’m ready to upload a few new items. The way the algorithm works on these platforms is that “new listings” get pushed harder than pieces that have sat in your storefront for a couple of days, so normally what sells will normally sell pretty quickly. Stay tuned for a more comprehensive guide on buying and selling on vinted and other apps.

Put your seasonal pieces away, I swear by these storage boxes from Ikea for my clothes and these shoe boxes are great for space saving. I also use drawer liners inside my storage boxes to avoid that musty smell and these ones from The Clothes Doctor are scented with vanilla and cedarwood, which is a great moth-deterrent, you could also use cedar blocks or these lavender bags are a great and affordable option from Ikea. I rotate my closet every 8 weeks mainly because I own A LOT of clothes, and it gives me a better view of what I own, I’ll donate or gift some pieces to my girlfriends and family as a way to lighten the load!

CLOSET ORGANIZATION

A lot of you guys are probably already familiar with my bedroom since I shoot most of my instagram content there, what you don’t see is just how small my built-in wardrobes are and how little space I have for my clothes. As someone who literally gets dressed for a living, having easy access to pieces and not being overloaded with options is really important in my day-to-day.

My room has two very small built-in wardrobes so after a whole year of putting all of my extra clothes from various brand projects and gifting I receive on a rolling rack (which I would roll in and out of my bedroom every time I shot a reel), I decided to invest in a couple of racks from Ikea. After spending months scouring the internet for the right thing, I went for Elvarli storage system, it’s floor to ceiling mounted with a pair of parallel poles which are connected through rails and shelves. I had planned to put curtains up around them but honestly I prefer to have my clothes on display as it makes it easier for me to pick what to wear while filming my reels. In fact, I film them from the doorway between the racks!

When organizing your wardrobe the most important thing is to make it feel like your favorite store, give space to each item of clothing so that you can see and browse everything clearly, (think more luxury boutique and less sample sale). I organize my clothes by type, rather than color or from long-sleeve to short sleeve.

I use these rope hangers from Peppermint which make it impossible for me to overfill the racks. I only have out the clothes that I regularly wear with the addition of some creative or special pieces that help pull me out of my comfort zone. Everything else is kept in storage boxes in our storage room.

GARMENT CARE

Taking care of my clothes makes me love them more and there’s actually a term for this called “the IKEA effect” where you give more value to something that you have put effort into: it has to do with effort justification: there was a study done on individuals using Ikea products that showed they were willing to pay more money for pieces they had assembled themselves over ones assembled by a professional. This goes to show that every time you wash delicates by hand, or spend an afternoon steaming your clothes, it really makes a difference to how you feel about those pieces meaning you will reach for them more.

I’ve listed my favorite tips and products for cleaning and storing my clothes below, especially knitwear which can be so delicate, and now’s the perfect time to do it with the warmer weather creeping in.

Freeze your clothes

Freezing clothes works by killing bacteria and neutralizing odors without damaging delicate items with shrinkage, color-fading or pilling. It is also a very effective way to destroy any potential moths or their eggs before you store away precious knitwear. In nordic countries, it’s common for people to bury their jumpers in the snow at the beginning and end of winter as a way of washing their knitwear. If you’re doing this at home, pop the items in a plastic or reusable bag and leave them in the freezer overnight. You may need to do this in batches depending on how much freezer space you have.

Wash less frequently

Washing ages clothing so if it’s not dirty I prefer to air clothes after wearing them and use sprays like this knitwear mist from The Clothes Doctor to keep clothes smelling fresh in between washes (the lavender fragrance is also a great moth deterrent).

Wash at lower temperatures

As a mother of 3 boys who love football, I get my fair share of dirty laundry and sometimes its impossible to get certain stains out at lower temperatures, but where possible I try to wash at lower temperatures or handwash really delicate items to avoid shrinking and fading, not to mention it’s better for the environment. I always use a delicate detergent for handwashing, this one from The Clothes Doctor is great or this option from Attirecare is made from 100% natural and biodegradable ingredients.

Handwashing knitwear

For handwashing there is a specific technique that I use for delicate and knitwear items which I swear by, I discovered it on YouTube a few years ago and it has revolutionized how I wash my knitwear. The drying technique is so effective your knits will come out nearly dry.

Step 1. Add cool (not warm) water to a washing up bowl and add the delicate detergent to the water following the instructions of the particular brand for the quantity of detergent.

Step 2. Add your item of clothing to the bowl of water (one piece at a time) submerging it completely and pressing it down gently for around a minute and leave to soak for up to 30 minutes to remove any dirt or odours.

Step 3. Remove the item from the bowl and rinse with cool water gently pressing the water out (don’t wring it out!)

Step 4. Lay the item out flat onto a towel and roll the towel, like a jelly roll, then kneel or stand barefoot on the rolled towel to remove any excess water.

Step 5. Unroll the towel and lay your item flat onto a drying rack to air dry naturally.

Air dry where possible

Living in Spain we get a lot of opportunities to dry clothes outside and it definitely makes a huge difference to the longevity of my clothes, it’s also much more economical. Just be sure to keep items out of the direct sunlight to avoid bleaching.

Steam instead of iron

Steaming clothes is a much gentler way of getting out creases compared to ironing, it’s faster too, I use this handheld one from Steamery.

De-bobble before you store

I always de-bobble my knitwear before I store it away so it feels fresh when I get it out of storage. I love this fabric shaver from Steamery but you could also use a wool comb for smaller areas.

Fold your knitwear

It’s so important to fold knitwear in order to maintain the integrity and original shape of the garment as it stretches easily. If you don’t have folding space and have to hang knitwear, use a gentle hanger like the ones I listed earlier!

Make do and mend

Small tears or loose buttons can be repaired really easily with a simple sewing kit like this one. It increases the lifespan of my clothing and is particularly useful for my kids clothing which I often find with holes and tears, especially at the knees.

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If you’re still waiting to do your spring cleaning, I hope this post will fill you with a positive motivation to get working on it, to rediscover what you already own and take care of your favorite pieces, and to make room for potential new pieces. I’ll be posting a guide to buying and selling soon to help you achieve your wardrobe goals!

Please let me know in the comments what else you’re interested in reading about.