Field Notes

 It's been a hell of a week. I haven't been able to process much of what's going on in the news because I'm going through a lot of personal changes. 

However! I don't want to think about it right now!

Instead, I want to talk about capsule wardrobes and how I want to downsize my entire life so that it's easier to move not only to New Jersey, but to Europe after that. I'm so so annoyed with all the clutter in my life right now and I am feeling the need to get rid of all the excess shit. 

The goal: Get my entire wardrobe to fit into a suitcase and a half. 

But I don't want my wardrobe to lose personality. I kind of hate the super basic normcore minimalist capsule wardrobes. I want something unique! But that is super easily packed and portable!

Here's what I think I need: 

Clothing:

2-3 t-shirts
1-2 tank tops
2 pairs of jeans
1-2 pairs of slacks
1 patterned playsuit
3-4 skirts
3-4 tops
2-3 dresses
3-4 sweaters
3 pairs 

Outerwear: 

1 leather jacket
1 jean jacket
1 winter coat
1 cape (I already have a cape and I adore it! I will not get rid of it!)

Shoes: 

1 pair of sandals
2 pairs of sneakers (one for the gym, one for taking long walks in New Jersey/NYC)
1 pair brown doc martens
1 pair black Chelsea booties

Socks and underwear don't count. Neither does jewelry.

For whatever reason, a lot of people who do capsule wardrobes say that 37 items is kind of the sweet spot. So far, if I have the *most* amount of items, this makes 37. I'm trying to remember that extra bottoms (jeans, skirts, etc.) means way more outfit combinations. I tend to gravitate towards interesting tops when I'm out shopping, but I also ADORE leggings. I have this great pair of dark burgundy leopard print leggings that I love pairing with interesting tops. 

15 Item Challenge: 

This is basically a wardrobe challenge where you pull out 15 items that you're going to wear/cycle through over the course of two weeks. I think this would be a great way of figuring out what I actually want to wear over the course of a season, to help narrow things down.

So I don't want to just get rid of things to get rid of them at this point, but I'm not sure how else to approach this. I need to downsize A LOT before next year anyway, so I'm taking this as an opportunity to do just that. 

I started a TikTok to follow my downsizing and capsule journey - if you're intrigued, you can follow me there. It's a lot easier to be visual there than it is to be visual on Dreamwidth. My account is: @maximalcapsule