Closet Inventory #7 (Fall 2020) + Wardrobe Planning Update
2020 has simultaneously flown by and moved at a snail’s pace and now it’s time for my annual closet inventory! (You can catch all of my past inventories here: 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019.) I find it interesting to see how my closet evolves over time/with life with each new inventory. Here's how things are looking this year (last year's numbers are in parentheses for easy comparison). I also compared this year’s numbers to those from 2017 and 2014! At the end of the post, I evaluated the progress with my wardrobe plan for 2020. Let’s dive in!
TOPS: 109 (101)
Sleeveless: 10 (12)
Tees (all sleeve lengths): 24 (19)
Blouses: 4 (10)
Collared button-up shirts: 19 (20)
Cardigans: 11 (8)
Sweaters: 26 (26)
Sweatshirts: 9 (6)
BOTTOMS: 39 (41)
Shorts: 6 (8)
Skirts: 10 (12)
Pants: 9 (8)
Jeans: 14 (13)
DRESSES: 11 (10)
OUTERWEAR: 19 (21)
Vests: 2 (2)
Blazers: 6 (6)
Jackets: 4 (6)
Coats: 7 (7)
SHOES: 55 (52)
Sandals: 14 (14)
Sneakers: 5 (5)
Flats: 10 (11)
Heels: 3 (3)
Boots: 23 (19)
2020 BONUS: LOUNGEWEAR & ACTIVEWEAR (14)
Lounge shorts/pants: 7
Bike shorts and leggings: 7
I’m up to 233 items, 8 more than my 2019 inventory (247 when counting loungewear and activewear). I’d like to get this number down a little more so it’s time to think about what needs to go next. All of these values are essentially a snapshot taken directly from my Stylebook app; read more about how I use the app in this post. This count doesn't include utilitarian coats/shoes, sleepwear, most workout clothes, and anything I currently have listed on Poshmark. It also doesn’t include jewelry, bags, and other accessories because I don’t tend to spend a lot in those categories. Right now, I have 18 pairs of earrings, 6 necklaces, 10 scarves, 12 hats, and 15 bags.
Compared to last year, I added more tops (tees, cardigans, and sweatshirts were at the top of the “tops” categories—related to WFH, I’m sure) and a couple more pairs of shoes but the rest of the categories stayed pretty much the same. Before this year, I didn’t include any loungewear and activewear in my Stylebook, but now that I’m WFH and wearing those categories more than any of my regular bottoms, I’m tracking my wears in the app and figured I’d include those items here, too.
If you’d like to learn more about how I organize my closet, check out my inventory from 2017! That’s the year I moved in with Korri, and my overall organization hasn’t changed since then. Rosie has since decided that she owns the closet now, too, haha! How can I say no to that face?
Since it’s been so long since my first closet inventory from 2014, I decided to look back at that first inventory and compare it to my 2017 inventory and now my 2020 inventory!
2020
Tops: 109
Bottoms: 39
Dresses: 11
Outerwear: 19
Shoes: 55
Between 2014 and 2020, the most notable changes are in tops (increased by 28 tops), dresses (decreased by 19 dresses—over half since 2014), and shoes (increased by 21 pairs). My switch from wearing dresses/what I consider my “ModCloth” style phase to wearing mostly separates (my “Madewell/Everlane” style phase) is quite obvious. I’ve also had a gradual increase in bottoms and outerwear over the past six years. It doesn’t necessarily feel like I own that much more now than I did then so it’s interesting to see the numbers laid out here!
As always, I love looking at my style stats (from the Stylebook app). My most worn items of all time (left image below) have not really changed from 2019 (or 2018) but it’s interesting to see what I’ve worn the most over the past year (right image below), especially since I’ve now spent half of this past year WFH (wow, that’s hard to believe!). My joggers have quickly jumped to the top of that list along with my baseball caps, tank tops that I often layer with, and a couple of sweaters/sweatshirts.
Below are my items with the best cost per wear (CPW) over all time (below left) and best CPW over the past year (below right). Once an item hits $1 CPW over all time, I remove the price so it no longer appears in this list (and I make a note on the item with how much it cost; once I decide to part with an item, I recalculate the CPW before removing it again and sticking it in the notes). I like watching the CPW drop to $1 since that's always my target when I buy a new item, and removing the items with extremely low CPWs makes it easier for me to see at a glance which items are close to hitting that $1 mark. I think for this stat, the CPW over all time is more interesting than over a shorter range of time.
That said, over the past year, the items that I’ve purchased most recently (or wear more often) for my WFH life are getting quite low in the cost per wear stat (above right). Three of the items are what I recently called my WFH summer closet hero (knit mid-rise shorts—seen here)! Other WFH staples, including a couple of leggings, sweatshirts, tees, and both of my pairs of bike shorts, are also in the mix.
2020 WARDROBE PLANNING UPDATE
I wrote out a wardrobe plan in 2018 and 2019 and continued with a new one this year because, for the most part, they helped me stay on track with my purchases. I think it’s safe to say that overall, my 2020 plan has fallen to the wayside along with everything else, lol…but let’s take a look anyway!
Focus on fit and comfort / In hindsight, this was a GREAT addition to my plan this year. 2020 has become the year of comfort and ease when it comes to clothing. I’ve found myself wearing the same items over and over again because they’re so comfortable and easy to wear and therefore focusing my purchases on items that fit the same criteria.
Try new styles / Hmmm…this hasn’t really happened at all, haha. It wouldn’t necessarily be a bad time to try new styles, but I also haven’t been looking for new styles to try. Can I count bike shorts for this? I’ve been focusing my purchases on items I know I’ll love for at-home life.
Don’t overthink summer / On the bright side, with everything going on this year, I didn’t think much about my summer style, which means I didn’t really overthink anything, either. Haha. I found a few great pieces I love and that I kept on constant rotation all summer long.
Trust my gut / I’ve had minimal returned purchases this year, which is great because I feel really good about the items I have purchased. I’m also being more discerning before adding items to my online cart and/or hitting that purchase button. I keep reminding myself to focus on what I can wear now and once I’m back in the office, and that’s helping (though I need to stop looking at/buying things I won’t wear much at all right now, like jeans, sigh).
Shop small and secondhand / I’ve been doing this more than I had originally expected! I’m trying to support more small businesses, especially Black-owned businesses, and I found a few new-to-me brands I’m loving. I browse Poshmark relatively regularly and have hit “buy now” on a few items so far this year.
Take care of the clothes I have / You’d think that with all this time spent at home, I’d have washed my dry-clean-only items that need a refresh, conditioned my leather bags and shoes, and repaired my broken Hunter boots…but nope. Lol. I feel like my random piles-around-the-bedroom are actually getting worse, so I plan to get my clothes in order before the end of the year.
