Frustrated and overwhelmed when trying to figure out what to wear? Feel like your closet full of clothes must belong to someone else?  You don’t have to hate your wardrobe!  But here’s why you do.

There you are.  Standing in front of your closet, jamb-packed full of clothes, with a blank stare on your face and feelings of confusion and frustration.  Because you have nothing to wear.  How can that be true?  You have so many cute things in your closet!  You’ve spent hundreds (thousands??) of dollars on clothing and accessories. Yet day after day you feel like you are settling for whatever outfit is easiest to pull together.

The fact that you’ve made your way here tells me you probably relate to this.

But there’s hope.  You don’t have to hate your wardrobe.  In fact, it is possible to have a much smaller wardrobe that you actually love.  But to get there, you first need to figure out why you hate your current wardrobe.

5 Reasons You Hate Your Wardrobe

1.  You buy on impulse.

Hey, I’ve been there.  I’m a reformed impulse shopper myself, and I vividly remember the thrill of snagging the cute sweater that just came out.  But here’s what I eventually learned: more often than not, I ended up not loving the impulse sweater.

Impulse buys tend to be highly trendy items.  The newest thing always catches our eye, so it’s natural to be drawn to those styles.  But many trends only last a season or two.  And once they’ve got out of fashion, you probably won’t be as drawn to those thing.  Do you have a closetful of the hottest trends from years past?  If so, that’s probably a big reason you hate your wardrobe.

The other reason impulse shopping is bad for your wardrobe is that you probably don’t take time to consider how the item fits into your existing wardrobe and your lifestyle.  You get home with a fun hot pink puffer vest and you have nothing to wear it with!  Or you end up with a gorgeous silk blouse that you would really hate for your baby to spit up on.  So those things just sit in your closet and you never wear them.

2. You don’t try things on.

A size small is a small, and a large is a large, right?  Nope, not always.  In fact, sizing can vary so greatly from brand to brand (sometimes within the same brand!), that it’s not completely unheard of for a large to be a small or vise versa.  Because sizing is such a wild card, it’s super important to try clothes on before you pop the tags.

Aside from sizing, cut and style is not something you can judge on a hanger or from a photo.  A long, flowy tunic might look cute on the rack, but you may hate it on your body (that’s happened to me!) and you’ll never wear it if you hate it.  And honestly, this works both ways.  You might be skipping over some seriously good styles because they are not designed to look great on a hanger.

Every body is unique.  And that means each piece of clothing fits each body differently.  Trying things on is essential.

3. Your clothes don’t fit your lifestyle.

Silk blouse + baby spit up = disaster waiting to happen.

When I stopped working at an office job, I had a closet packed with cute business-wear.  But pencil skirts and cashmere sweaters are not practical when your days consist of changing diapers and breastfeeding an infant.  Before I had kids, I rarely wore yoga pants and NEVER wore leggings.  The only non-work clothing I had was a couple pairs of jeans that didn’t fit and sleeping clothes.

I had a hard time letting go of all those gorgeous skirts and blouses that I had spent good money on and felt pretty in.  But those clothes just didn’t fit my lifestyle anymore.  And having them in my closet made me feel like I couldn’t spend money on new clothes because I had a closet full of clothes already.

This doesn’t only happen when mom’s leave the office workplace.  It could also happen in reverse, when a stay-at-home mom re-enters the traditional workforce and needs a more professional look.

If your clothes don’t fit your lifestyle, they won’t help you love your wardrobe and you’re better off without them.

4.  Your wardrobe lacks consistency.

There’s nothing wrong with dressing in a few different styles.  I, myself, tend to go between a sort of boho style and a more classic style.  We are not cartoon characters.  We don’t wear the exact same thing every single day.  But your wardrobe does need some consistency or it’ll be super hard to make outfits you love.

Your wardrobe should also have some color consistency.  I joke around about wearing black all the time, but black is so versatile!  I tend to be drawn to neutrals in general for that reason, so the color palette of my wardrobe features a lot of neutrals, near-neutrals and earth tones.  But you don’t have to dress in all neutrals to have color consistency in your wardrobe.  If you are drawn to jewel tones or brights or pastels, that’s cool too.  Just try to stick with colors that are easily paired together.

5.  You don’t know your own style.

Women tell me often, “I just don’t have any style.”  But I argue it’s not that you don’t have style, it’s that you don’t know YOUR style.  It’s worth taking the time to figure it out, and I wrote a whole series on the topic that you might find helpful.

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Style isn’t something you’re either born with or you’re outta luck.  Style takes experimentation.  And practice.  When you know your style, curating a wardrobe you love is so much easier.  And it’s FUN!  You’ll feel great in what you wear.

In fact, I think a great place to start is to think of that one outfit that makes you feel amazing.  Like you want an excuse to go out and about because you actually want to be seen.  The outfit that you really feel YOU in.  Now study that outfit.  What do you love about it?  What about it makes you feel so great?  That’s the beginning of figuring out your style.

Learning what you love and hate about your current wardrobe is the first step to having a wardrobe you love.  And having a wardrobe you love is the only way to actually love getting dressed each day.  Loving what you wear is a huge confidence and happiness boost, and totally worth the work of getting your wardrobe in check.

Related Posts Readers Enjoy:

• A Primer to Streamlining Your Wardrobe
• Make Your Clothes Last Longer
• Should I Sell or Should I Donate?
• 5 Lessons I Learned About Buying Clothes from Using a Minimalist Wardrobe