Closet Inventory

Why inventory your closet

There’s a lot of talk these days about sustainable and slow shopping. As much as I love the idea of living more sustainably, I have to admit that it’s not my top reason for curating my wardrobe. More than anything, I’m just tired of opening my closet doors and seeing a bunch of clothing I don’t like and don’t enjoy wearing. I know, first world problems, right?

One of the main reasons I decided to inventory my closet was to assess where I should spend my time and money and where I shouldn’t. If you’re anything like me, you enjoy fashion and shopping for clothing but you’re tired of buying things that are subpar and not really what you want.

If you don’t enjoy shopping, a closet inventory is still very practical and worth your time as it will help make your shopping experience more efficient and effective. Either way, knowing what you own will keep you from spending any more money on unnecessary items.

The number one reason to do a closet inventory, saving time and money!

But time and money isn’t the only concern here, at least not for me. I enjoy curating things, even my closet. I really just needed a shopping strategy that was more useful and mindful of my wardrobe intentions. As I inventoried my closet, I realized a few tendencies that were keeping my current wardrobe forever in limbo between what I wanted and settling for just okay.

Closet Inventory tips

I’ve tried to make this inventory process as simple and straight forward as possible. The goal is to make your life easier and more beautiful, not busier and more stressful.

Here are a few suggestions that will help you to be efficient and focused, while still enjoying the process of going through your closet.

1 | Getting Rid of Excess

Before diving into the closet inventory, definitely get rid of what you can. You may choose to get rid of more after doing the inventory, but do get rid of items any you are sure you don’t like or want any more, first. This will reduce the amount of items to add to your list, and why inventory a bunch of things you don’t like and don’t need or want.

2 | Organize your clothing by season

In order to avoid inventorying items you aren’t currently using and creating a lot of extra trouble for yourself, it’s best to first divide your wardrobe into seasons and store what’s not in use.

If you live in a moderate climate like I do, you probably won’t have a ton of autumn or winter clothing and your spring and summer clothing may be pretty similar. Just consider where you live and what you tend to wear during the year and when, and organize your clothing into those groupings.

When I start to notice the seasonal change, I’ll pull items as needed from my seasonal boxes. During the fall/winter months, I store away most of my spring/summer items and vice versa. I haven’t made it very complicated for myself, but storing clothing that isn’t needed all year round has been very helpful to reduce clutter in my already smallish closet that I share with my husband.

I found some great breathable clothing storage boxes made from a synthetic fabric from IKEA that have been amazing. I’ll be sharing those and more in my February 2022 favorites post.

3 | Inventory only what you are currently wearing and using

There’s no need to inventory your seasonal clothing items alongside that which you are currently using. Instead, plan on doing an inventory as you’re swapping out your seasonal items, that way you’ll only spend a few hours instead of days going through and inventorying the items in your closet.

Using the Closet Inventory

Once you’ve done some general organization, it’s time to dive in and see what you currently have and whether or not it is useful and desirable to you.

The Closet Inventory handbook above is broken down into two general areas: inventory sheets and assessments.

First, you need to know what you have in your closet. Secondly, you want to make a few decisions about what to do with all of it.

Here are a helpful few tips for tackling the inventory pages:

1. Inventory categories of items all at once. For example, if you have 5 pairs of white tennis shoes, don’t label them individually even if they are different brands and have different purposes. Count how many tennis shoes you have and write that number down, but definitely note the color. You’re just trying to get a general idea of what you have, not an in depth breakdown. If, however, you’d like a more detailed summary, make a running list on a separate sheet of paper and keep it with your inventory for review on a later date.

2. Do get detailed with certain items. Measure your belts. Note bag/purse sizes. Note the length of your pants, sleeves, and other noticeable differences, as well as the number of items you have for each. Pay attention to the colors you tend to buy. For example, you may have an excess of white tennis shoes and a deficit of brown dressy shoes or perhaps, like me, you have too many small belts and not enough larger sized. Sometimes, you don’t realize what you need until you see what you have too much or too little of.

3. Print extra blank inventory sheets. Depending on the size of your closet and the number of items you currently own, you may need to print off or duplicate (if you are using a pdf reader) a few extra blank inventory sheets. I created blanks in case you needed some extra. I primarily used them for overflow, but perhaps you have some items I didn’t create a list for. The blank sheets are great for either.

After you’ve finished pulling out your clothes, shoes and other items to inventory them, it’s time to assess. Here are a few tips for using the assessment sheets:

1. Make some notes about what you’d like to keep and what you’d like to get rid of. There are spaces for your thoughts within the handbook. Think in both broad and more detailed terms. Do you hate jeans but you have a ton of them because, for some reason, you thought you were supposed to buy jeans? Do you like the v-neck tops but never wear the round neck tops? Just take a minute to think about what you noticed as you made your inventory.

2. What did you learn and what now? At the back of the handbook is a quick assessment with questions to help you take your next step. Just knowing what’s in your closet isn’t always enough. It’s also important to make the changes that will improve your wardrobe and allow you to carefully curate each piece.

Curating a wardrobe you love doesn’t have to be complicated or overwhelming. Just take one small step at a time.

Hope you enjoy the Closet Inventory handbook and found these suggestions for getting started helpful. Let me know in the comments below if you have any questions or suggestions.