Capsule Wardrobe My Way – A Year Without Shopping Challenge March Update

Just recently I was interviewed about my little challenge. It was great and opened my mind a little more thanks to these questions. This few are what stays and what I’ve been thinking about the most.

1. What do I expect from this challenge?

To have a smaller wardrobe, to look good every day and feel comfortable in clothes what I own. And to use everything that I own.

2. Why I started this challenge?

I started it just for a simple reason. To use clothes what I already have and not to buy more. If it is possible to save money, great, if not at least I know I used the clothes the most as I could so my money was well spent. And in the future make better decisions and not a ‘ want to buy something, anything’ decision.

Jeans, Sweater, T-shirts,/ Striped Tee, Coat/ Trainers/

3. Am I only one in the family who does this challenge or did I included my children and husband as well?

I did not want to include any other members of my family. But simply it came, my children are included as well. My daughter has clothes what she can wear for a season and after, it will be passed down to her younger cousin to use it as much as she can. And my son wears mostly the clothes after his sister ( She wore unisex baby clothes ). I just bought him a few boyish items, like trousers and jumpers.

4. If I think I am a minimalist?

I think I am a minimalist but in my own way. In the way what works for us. Not such a strict minimalist. Minimalism shouldn’t be stressful but make a peace in our lives. We still have quite a few stuff around the house and in our wardrobes, but all of those items are what we need, not just now, but even in the short future. I think it wouldn’t be clever to toss something just because we don’t need it at the moment and in a few months time to buy exactly the same item. It wouldn’t be about saving money and enjoying life, but about spending money and had to go shopping again.

5. Do I let my daughter get everything or does she has some restrictions?

And the last but not least: No I don’t allow my daughter to get everything that she wants. She needs to think and make her own decisions. We actually started to teach her, with her own money. She is paid the ” wage ” for going to a Nursery ( like pocket money – 1£ for a day ) she is paid every Friday, same like being at work. We use this as a point of learning when she wants something, we always tell her she can buy it from her own money or she can save this money. Most of the time she saves. She put them in ” a Bunny ” to save. Also, we use money as an example to teach her value of items, for example, if she is being naughty and wasting food, paper … on purpose, just because she decided to do so, we ask her for a little money from her savings. She needs to pay us back on Friday.  We noticed it works really well as an education. She thinks before she does something naughty or starts bagging in the store. Now she recognizes the value of items, she knows we need to work for it, to buy it, so she can have it and enjoy it.  The big benefit for her is, she saved quite a bit of money already since she started a Nursery last September 🙂 Until she finishes school she could have a bit of saving to even put it up front for her own living.

Anyway, you probably wonder how is my shopping fast. I can tell, sometimes it gets harder, I had to walk away from the shop, because you know they had that perfect t-shirt which you always need and goes with everything but you have 10 similar ones at home already. Thankfully I started to think and at the moment I really don’t need it, I still have 5 unworn t-shirts in my wardrobe.

To clean my wardrobe I sold some items, made some money and invested it to improve my website. And hard to believe but I didn’t buy anything at all, I don’t mean only clothes but to the house as well.

If you wonder if it was easy to go through the first months you can read it here and here .

Outfit Inspiration

I created outfits from similar pieces what I was wearing. It was perfect to hide a baby weight and for a school runs. This kind of outfits won’t let you down in any situation.

Would you do a year without shopping to make your wardrobe and life better? Let me know in the comments.