Shopping and clothing are two of my favorite things.

I love bringing new, exciting items into my wardrobe. I express my personality and creativity with clothes, even with a simple style and I love spending quality time with my girlfriends exploring new trends and finding great deals.

I worked as a Part-Time Manager at Charlotte Russe for a few years in college and I rarely left my shift without a shopping bag in hand (the discount was super hard to resist).

When my husband and I were first married, he teased and joked with me about my shopping habit, but neither of us knew how truly unfunny my spending really was. During those first few months, we began discussing our budget and analyzing our spending.

When we started adding up numbers, I realized that my shopping habit was our second biggest expense next to our rent.

WHOA. That was a wake up call.  

I spent the next few years fighting an internal battle between a desire to shop and a desire to save. I would go on spending binges and then make large returns when the guilt hit my heart.

It was not until a few years later that I began praying specifically for God to begin to work in my heart and help me overcome this temptation.

At the perfect time, I ran across the idea of a capsule wardrobe when I was looking at fashion ideas on Pinterest. I began reading articles about radical closet transformations and minimalist lifestyles. I thought to myself “there is no way I could do that” and resisted making any real change in my life.

At the time, my clothing took up over half of our closet space and every item in my wardrobe felt irreplaceable. Adopting something like this seemed impossible, but I knew I felt God speaking to my heart.

He wanted me to dethrone this desire. To do that, He was offering me a tool to use.

I kept feeling a prompting on my heart to take action, so I set aside some time and got to work. 

One Sunday I spent a few hours going through each and every item in my closet making hard decisions. I followed and adapted for myself the basic “rules” of a capsule wardrobe, which are: 

• Take note of your lifestyle and what you wear most; decide on a basic color palette of colors that you actually wear and that compliment one another.
• Take EVERYTHING out of your closet. (This does not include work out clothes, pajamas or intimates).
• Go through each piece one-by-one and make 4 piles.
  • Absolute Keeps
  • Absolute No’s
  • Maybe’s
  • Seasonal/Event (such as shorts in winter or a holiday dress)
• Pare down the maybes, asking yourself if you really love it or not. If you don’t or it doesn’t work with anything else you have kept, it’s a no. If you love it, it becomes a yes.
• Donate the No’s and put away the seasonal. (I took mine to Plato’s Closet first, in hopes of adding funds for my next capsule 😉 )
• Then, do not shop until the next season unless you have urgent holes in your wardrobe or need to replace a damaged item. An example of this would be if you find out you are pregnant and need to purchase clothing that will actually fit.

What you should end up with is a smaller, complimentary amount of items that you love. As you build capsules for other seasons, the idea is to adopt a color palette and only purchase items that can be used in multiple settings. 

You should end up with a mixture of basics, dressy, and statement pieces. Your wardrobe will be small, but powerful. 

However, the best part of using this method is that you can create/adopt your own rules to best fit your lifestyle. Just don’t go too easy on yourself!

Four major benefits came from my experience adopting a capsule wardrobe: 

1). Curbed Spending

After that Sunday, I saw a dramatic decrease in my spending.

My lower desire to shop persisted for the next few months. I was able to get a hold of my shopping budget and keep it under a reasonable number. 

I used to just spend based on the money in my bank account (minus bills in my mind). Now I spend based on the allotment of cash I give myself at the beginning of the month.

Once it’s gone, it’s gone.

2). Less Stress in the Morning 

Getting dressed became much easier in the morning because my options were simplified. I had far less items and what was left was far more coordinated. A smaller amount of clothing to choose from meant less time staring at my clothes trying to mentally put together an outfit.

This left more time for things like packing my own food so I wouldn’t eat out. 

3.) Seeing Value in More Expensive, High Quality Clothing

This process allowed me to cultivate a mindset shift and become more intentional about the clothing I did purchase. 

I now place more value on a well-made item. They cost more at the time but last so much longer than cheaply made items. 

I reclaimed the power that my desire to fill my closet had on me so I was less susceptible to marketing tactics to drive me to impulse buy.

If it is especially expensive, I will often try something on, love it and leave it at the store. If I still want it in a week, then I go back and get it.

4.) A Changed Heart 

The reason this was so effective for me was not because I chose a minimalist strategy.

It was because I asked God to come in change my heart. The capsule wardrobe was certainly a great vehicle for the change to take root, but the real work began way before I decided to actually do it.

Praying for contentment before trying to implement this dramatic change prepared my heart to be receptive and for a real, long-term change to occur.

I have tried and struggled many times before now to overcome my temptation to shop, but I was never successful. What I did not realize is that buying new clothes was not about clothes.

It was about me attempting to fill a void in my heart that only God can fill.

I always felt like having a new item would make happy or give me joy, but any happiness I got was shallow and short-lived. Anytime I told myself I was going to  cut down shopping, I was trying to do it on my own strength.

This was the reason I always failed. 

What about you?

Whether that is shopping too much, overspending in other areas, bad diet habits, a new exercise plan or even resolving to be in the Word and pray more, invite God to come into your heart and make a change. Cover your endeavor with prayer and go into it with a teachable, malleable heart-only then will long-term habit changes take root.