When we were planning our move into this house, I knew immediately that my wardrobe would be a issue. I had literally hundreds of pieces of clothing, most that I had not worn in ages (or ever!). Our house has just one small closet in each bedroom, about 2 ft deep and 3 ft wide. It's enough for one person's clothing, but definitely not two. We knew we would need a garment rack, and I knew my clothing would make prettier decor than Justin's work clothes, so I volunteered to use it. However, it holds far less than the closet! So having less clothing that I can wear more is a necessity. Enter the capsule wardrobe! Inspired by Unfancy, a blog I have followed and adored for a while, I began paring down my wardrobe ruthlessly. And you know what? I don't miss any of the things I've gotten rid of one bit. Getting dressed is easier, less stressful, and I love what I'm wearing every single day. I no longer feel overwhelmed with guilt seeing all the clothes I "invested" in and am not wearing. 

In addition to owning less clothing, I am using an app called Cladwell to track what I'm wearing so that I can see how much of my closet I'm wearing. It lets me know how much I've worn any item, what percentage of my outfits it has been in for any given time period, and gives me suggestions for other outfits I could wear it in. This is super helpful for me, because I often run out of ideas for how to wear things and keep going back to the same tried-and-true basics. In October, when I update my capsule for Fall (by packing away my Summer-only items and pulling out the handful of Fall transition pieces that I elected to keep in storage) I'll be able to check the app and see if there are items that I didn't wear enough to justify keeping. This will help me weed out anything that didn't pull its weight so that I can have a wardrobe I wear 100% of. 

This week I documented a few of my outfits so that I can start to further refine my style:

I wore this dress to have lunch with Logan at his school. He picked it because, in his words, "I want it to look like we are getting married!". You'll have to excuse Emma in the background, busily pulling all the clean laundry off of that chair. 

I wore this silk top and high-waist jeans to stay cool while running errands with Justin and the kids over the weekend. Sadly, it started raining halfway through the day and I had to change, since silk doesn't play well with rain. 

This was my favorite outfit of the week! Long sleeve linen tee with denim cutoffs and gladiator sandals. 

And finally, yesterday I wore a white tee and dark, high rise jeans with Birkenstocks.

It used to be normal for me to feel ambivalent or unsure about what I was wearing, even though I love clothes and had lots of beautiful things in my closet! A lot of "does this actually look good?" self-doubt. Now I rarely ask that question, because everything in my closet goes well together, and all of it is high-quality.

If you're considering a capsule wardrobe, I can't recommend it enough. For resources to help you get started, check out The Curated Closet by Anuschka Rees. The Curated Closet is a great handbook for creating your perfect capsule wardrobe, beginning with what is already in your closet, and building from there. You can also check out the following blogs:
Unfancy
Style Bee
Be More with Less 

Kindergarten and Bedroom Update

Today was Logan's first day of kindergarten, and it was a brilliant success! He absolutely loved it.
One of the neat things about moving back to the city that Justin was raised in his whole life (and where I lived from age 11 to 22), is the people we encounter who we've crossed paths with before. For example, Logan's new kindergarten teacher was also Justin's kindergarten teacher early in her career! And she still works at the same school and in the same classroom. That's so neat to me.

We took the opportunity during our move to replace our mattress with a new Nectar mattress, which we love! They were doing a promo for $125 off and 2 free pillows, so it was a really good deal for us. It sleeps like a dream too! The bed itself came from Wayfair, and the sheets are from Brooklinen (the core sheets). I can't recommend them enough, they are crisp, cool, and keep Justin from burning up at night. The quilt and shams are Anthropologie, and we snagged them during a great sale, which was awesome!

I'm in love with those jewelry hangers on the left. My dad made those for me based on some similar, very expensive ones I found online. 

I've mentioned before that I was cutting down my closet to a capsule wardrobe. This is it! I do have a few special occasion dresses tucked away that aren't part of my capsule, since they would only be worn for rare events. My pajamas, workout clothes, lounge clothes, and etc. have all been cut down to manageable quantities and are not part of the capsule. I have my Fall and Winter items (sweaters, coats) as well as my Fall and Winter shoes packed away in underbed storage so that I can easily switch them out with the seasons. There are still a few things I plan to add to my capsule, but I'm making an effort to buy higher quality items over time, so I'll be picking them up slowly as I go along. I'm also making note of the items in my wardrobe that I never reach for, so that I can phase those out for good when Fall rolls around and I update my wardrobe. I'm taking major inspiration from the ever-stylish Caroline at Unfancy. If you're thinking of doing a capsule wardrobe, she's got a lot of practical advice that can get you on your way.

Since we moved in I've been trying to figure out what to do with this electrical panel behind the bedroom door, but so far I'm stumped. It's in an awkward spot where I would need something quite large to cover it. I thought about the long mirror I've got on the nearby wall, but I think it's in the best spot for it. So my search continues!
Do you have any creative solutions for covering a visible electrical panel like this?