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 

660 Square Feet

In our lives so far, Justin and I both agree, the best things have always been spur of the moment. We don't overthink things too much, we just tend to go with our gut as a couple and dive in head first and holding hands.
And so it was when Justin came to me about a month ago and said, "Honey, I found these houses. They were just listed, they're in the school zone we want, and we could buy both". Since the housing market here is a bloodbath, I was very intrigued and immediately took a look. They were tiny. Really tiny. But they were also cute, and I could see potential. Having just read The Magnolia Story by Chip & Joanna Gaines, I remembered how they had discussed living in very small homes with their children, and I thought... we could do this. Fast forward a few days, and we were under contract on both.

Our plan is to live in one, rent out the other, and give ourselves the financial freedom away from an oversized mortgage to live comfortably and invest in our future. 

This week the interiors are being painted, and flooring and tile is going in. We have a closing date set for July 28th. Justin and I have just begun packing, and we're both full of butterflies. We have to move in as quickly as possible, too, because Logan starts kindergarten on the 4th! 

So wish us luck. We'll need lots of it. 

Plus coffee. 

And maybe wine.  

Definitely wine.