Enjoying the sunshine at last? Dying to hit the shops for your new summer wardrobe… but horribly broke? There’s a surprisingly simple solution to help you cut the cost of summer fashion. And it’s all about creative de-cluttering.
Here’s how it works.
First take every piece of clothing you own out of your wardrobe and drawers. All of it. And arrange your stuff neatly into piles of trousers, jeans, tops, jumpers, cardis, shorts, knickers, skirts and so on so you can see exactly what you’ve got.
Then start to create outfits. I tend to wear certain tops with certain skirts, rarely venturing off piste, and many of us wear the same things time after time out out of habit. Once you’ve put together as many outfits as you can, put them on hangers and into your wardrobe. You know for sure you’ll be wearing them, so you might as well have them assembled and ready.
What’s left over? It’s probably either the things you never wear, or stray items that you’ll end up mixing and matching with your pre-created outfits. Get rid of the stuff you never wear. Be merciless. And store the rest neatly.
The amazing thing about the exercise is you re-discover stuff you forgot you had. I found some fabulous black trousers I’d completely forgotten about, and a couple of skirts that had become silted up in the geological layers of clothing I’d laid down over the winter (!). I used them as the basis of three ‘new’ outfits, teaming them with tops from last summer, which meant I didn’t need to buy so many new things. In fact, all I needed was a pair of sandals and a few plain tops.
If you’re a shopaholic it’s a different story. You might need more willpower than average to resist running, screaming, into your nearest fashion outlet waving your life savings in your sweaty little hand. But being broke is a serious incentive! And when you know what you do and don’t need, you can spend the little money you have spare wisely, picking a few key pieces rather than blatting a fortune on new clothes.
Of course there are always plenty of excellent fashion discount codes on our main site to take advantage of, to cut your summer fashion bill even more…
(Thanks to http://www.sxc.hu/profile/melodi2 for the free image)