dress: similar here / here / here • shoes: Jack Rogers • bag: similar here / here • earrings: similar here*

*I got my earrings from Shop Monarch Market, check them out, I LOVE their selection!

Okay, so! Believe it or not, I go through shopping phases. One week I might be buying stuff left and right like credit cards are going out of style, but then I also might go weeks (or even a whole month, gasp!) without buying anything. And while you might think, well um that just makes sense financially because you can’t go on crazy shopping sprees every week, it’s actually more so because I sometimes I just get tired of buying. Double gasp! I love how blogging has changed me in so many ways for the better, and one of these ways is that now I really focus on buying things that leave an impression, an impact, and make me feel something. In the early days of blogging I was buying stuff for the wrong reasons, but now I’m in a place where I make my selections mindfully. Sure I still have impulse buys, if something really strikes a cord in me then yeah, I want it! But I’m not just going to buy stuff for the act of shopping itself, so with that being said…I now bring you my best tips and tricks for how to shop your closet, which is something I’m doing a lot more frequently in the absence of shopping sprees!

If you’re confused about the idea of “how to shop your closet” you’re not alone! There are plenty of people who don’t even think you can shop your closet, but they’d be wrong! If you’re rolling your eyes right now, give me a chance here to make my case. Shopping your closet is a great way to save money (that’s obvious, duh), but it’s also a great way to fall back in love with pieces you own, pieces you bought for a reason, and if I haven’t sold you yet, I can guarantee when you go shopping in your closet you’re going to have at least one ah-ha moment of “wow, I forgot I bought this!”, which in a sense, is just like buying it all over again.

Follow these steps below to learn how to shop your closet best!

Step 1: Closet Prep

In order to want to shop your closet it has to be an inviting space. Whether you have a walk in closet with floor-to-ceiling custom shelving and a seating area (aka my dream closet) or you have a tiny little closet like me, which is also the only closet in your apartment (reality), it has to be a clean, organized space. Before being inspired to write this blog post, my closet was the opposite of inviting. It was a complete disaster, the floor was covered in clothes for Poshmark, clothes I still wear, and shoes in and out of boxes. The clothes on hangers were fine, but not organized in any specific way, and the shelving was more a space for out of season clothes rather than a really functional space in the closet.

I took one morning, blasted some music, lit a candle (I love burning candles in my small apartment! One candle centrally located will permeate through all the rooms and make the space so much more inviting.), and tackled the monster mess that was my closet. How I suggest you organize clothes: do it in a way that makes sense.

While I love opening a closet door to my clothes displayed in color order creating a beautiful rainbow, it actually doesn’t make any sense at all to do it that way. I mean, think about it, knowing I have 7 orange pieces in my closet is great, but is that really how you plan your outfits? Let me look through all my orange stuff and see if anything works from there, and then move on to blue and then… of course not! I would say 9 times out of 10 you open your closet with a piece in mind, whether it’s a t-shirt dress, a pencil skirt, or an off-the-shoulder blouse, you have a vision. So organize your closet that way! As best you can, group all your shirts together that serve the same purpose/share the same characteristics (ex. collar shirts followed by spaghetti straps followed by blouses), and then repeat that for all other articles of clothing! Keep your pants together, your skirts together, and your dresses together (although I would do a subgroup of dresses and group them by season that way you can put your out of season dresses in storage and only keep the ones you will actually wear in your closet).

So once you’ve got that all sorted out let’s move onto step 2…

Step 2: Enjoy The Process

Organizing your closet might not be #1 on your list of fun things to do, but I can promise you the reward is worth it! Enjoy the process though because it’s going to be fun and exciting whether you believe me or not. As you dig through piles of clothes you’ve been ignoring for months, you’re bound to find items you forgot to had or thought you’d lost. Yippie! Take a break from the closet cleaning and try them on, see if they still fit. Do they look good on you or god awful? Should you keep it or throw it in the donate/Poshmark pile? Deciding in that moment is only going to make your life easier in the long run. The worst thing for you and your closet is keeping useless pieces of clothing that you’re not going to wear.

Step 3: Take A Break

Now that you’re done sorting and cleaning and purging and donating your closet should look pretty good, right? Great! Close the door. You’re done for today. (That is unless you need to get something from your closet to wear, then fine, you can do that, but don’t start shopping now.)

Shopping your closet requires you to look at your closet in a different way and I can say with almost complete certainty that you’re going to be a bit tired of your closet after this little reorganizing/cleanse. What you’ll want to do instead is be proud of what you accomplished, go about the rest of your day, maybe head to Instagram or Pinterest for some outfit inspiration, save/pin some posts you like, and save the fun part for when you’re really ready.

Step 4: Get Pumped, This Is Going To Be Awesome!

This may sound silly, okay it’s definitely going to sound silly, but having the right mindset is the key to success here. Do you want to win at shopping your closet? Obviously! You’ve got to have a positive and optimistic attitude! If you look at your closet as if it’s the week-old leftovers in your fridge, then you’re not going to get very far. What you really need to be doing is looking at your closet like your favorite boutique, but better since you don’t even have to leave your house to start creating new looks!

Step 5: Be Creative

Maybe you’re thinking this is way more than you signed on for. Maybe you’re thinking it’s not worth all this trouble and fuss? Well, you’re wrong! Remember those pictures on Instagram and Pinterest I told you to save? Now is the time to revisit those and realize how many of those outfits you can recreate using your very own closet! And maybe you’ll even put your own twist on some of them!

I found this navy dress (pictured) crumpled up in a ball at the bottom of my closet, since finding it I’ve worn it at least 5 times (no exaggeration!). I love this dress. A lot. Always have, always will, the only problem is that I completely forgot I owned it! I’ve styled it up and down, sometimes throwing it over a sports bra to run and errand, or dressing it up for the office or for dinner. It’s basically the perfect LND (little navy dress).

And lastly, mix and match! You can do this in so many ways, mixing and matching unexpected pieces together, mixing bright colors with bold patterns (one of my favorite things to do!), and also mixing old pieces with new purchases! This is a great way to spice up your wardrobe and create new outfit combos by shopping your closet. I love browsing my hangers with the challenge in mind that I’ll take an older piece and pair it with something I’d recently bought. It forces you to push yourself out of those “go-to” outfits you probably dread wearing over and over again, I know I do!

Alright, best of luck with shopping your own closet! Let me know how it goes and let me know if you have any questions! I’d love to hear from you!