Capsule Wardrobes

I keep reading minimalist blogs and books in an attempt to inspire me to declutter - I am laughably far from minimalism, but it does help me to be a little more ruthless in tackling the clutter monster. One of the clutter zones I really need to deal with is clothing. I am not a dressy person, yet I still have far more clothes than I either want or need. Even so I waste time looking for things to wear because I can't find items that go together, or trying things then deciding they don't fit properly or feel comfortable. The minimalist blogs suggest I need a capsule wardrobe - a limited number of items which mix and match and can be dressed up and down.

The whole idea of a capsule wardrobe is daunting for me as it seems to require a much stronger sense of  personal style than I have. I am not a natural when it comes to clothes, though over the years I have at least learned some things about what works for me and what doesn't.  So how does a non-stylish person come up with a capsule wardrobe? I am trying to think about what are the items that I wear frequently and why. Last week I went through most of my wardrobe, evicted some clothes I never use and boxed up a lot more. I tried to leave the things I have been wearing most often recently, together with a few other items I thought might go with them.

A week into my Reduced Wardrobe experiment I have already discovered that some of the items I kept just don't work and need to go, and I have started wearing a couple of things that I had either forgotten about or for some reason just never worn.  I have also realised that there are gaps in the Reduced Wardrobe. A pair of black ankle boots with a medium heel would be useful, to replace the pair I haven't worn for over a year because (a) they are the wrong shape and don't work with the clothes I want to wear them with, and (b) they leak! I could also do with a smart/casual pair of blue jeans. Without any conscious effort, I seem to have ended up with a colour palette of sorts - black / grey/ burgundy, and navy / natural.  I still have some more stuff to go through, and I will also need to dig out a few summer clothes in the hope that we may eventually get some warmer weather. Maybe I should aim to move on from a Reduced Wardrobe to a capsule wardrobe for the summer months?