Frugal Friday - Shopping Your Own Closet

One of the things I did last fall to combat the financial bummers blues was to "Shop My Own Closet". I decided that since I had this closet full of clothes, I probably really did have something to wear and needed to take stock and see what I had that I liked, and fit and that I could mix and match with other things for a fun, relatively fashionable and pleasant to wear wardrobe.

Let me tell you, I have never ever been so thankful that my mother taught me to never buy a top without having at least 3 bottoms in my closet that I could wear it with. Ditto for bottoms - never buy a bottom that you don't have at least 3 tops to wear with. I do own jeans and two denim skirts, so that makes things easier.

So, how do you shop your closet? It goes something like this:

Step 1: Pick out a bottom. Here's one of mine:

Step 2: Go through your closet and drawers and pick out anything that you think might work. My haul: 2 t-shirts, a sweater, and 5 blouses (2 of them white).

Step 3: Eliminate all the stuff that just doesn't work. I eliminated the pink sweater and one of the shirts (the melon colored one - the color was right, but the style was wrong).

Step 4: Start making outfits! I got this:

Step 5: Lay out the tops that you have (all of them) and look your closet/drawers and answer the question: Do I have another bottom that would work with these? I had this brown skirt and a pair of brown pants.

Step 6: Add any other shirts that go with that new bottom bottom. I added the vertical stripe shirt and the plaid one.

Step 7: Start making outfits again! I have this:

And this...

And this...

All total with the two skirts, the non-pictured brown pants, and the 8 shirts pictured I have 22 outfits! Here how: 6 outfits from the first set of tops and skirt, 6 outfits from those same tops and the second skirt, plus 2 more tops with the second skirt, and all 8 tops with the brown pants!

Money Spent? Zero!

And I realized something else: I am so very truly blessed.

Not only do I have a full closet with a choice of clothes, but I can make over 100 outfits from those clothes without spending a single dime.

How cool is that?

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