Ok put your hands up: how many of us are guilty of hoarding clothes that no longer serve us, of convincing ourselves we’ll get round to that mending pile or that we’ll lose weight to fit into clothes we last wore a decade ago?! The chances are that’s you because we’ve been there too.
Decluttering your wardrobe is a great space saver and, with OWNI, a money maker but it’s also great for your mental health. Getting rid (sustainably, of course) of impulsive purchases that still have the tags on rids you of the guilt for having never worn them. Look, you don’t have to sell your soul to minimalism but sometimes it’s time to let go - here’s how.
The hands-free wardrobe audit
To declutter, you need to know what you own and what you rather you didn’t. Before that meant physically pulling out everything you own and sorting through your sprawling clothing mountain, item by item. With OWNI, you can swipe through your digital wardrobe and see what you have in seconds. The best part is that we preload your digital wardrobe with the items you’ve bought from our brand partners, so you don’t have to waste time manually uploading each item. With your wardrobe now at your fingertips, you can rediscover what you love and sell what you don’t.
The purpose of a wardrobe audit is to figure out what makes you, you. What patterns and colours do you like, what sort of textures do you gravitate towards and what siluohettes do you find the most flattering? Once you’ve nailed your style, it becomes mega easy to judge whether something fits the bill or needs to go.
Play 21 questions
Ok maybe you don’t need to ask yourself 21 questions but it’s good to interrogate each item of clothing you’re having doubts about. Put aside any shame and be honest with yourself. If you can’t find a good enough reason to keep hold of something, don’t!
Questioning usually starts with the basics, like would you buy it again, before verging on the more emotional, like have I kept this skirt solely because it represents a good time in my life with no intention to wear it again?
Other good questions to ask yourself are:
- Are you willing to take care of the item? Is it worth a trip to the dry cleaners or tailors?
- How does it fit? Is it actually comfortable to wear?
- How often do you wear it? If not very often, when and where can you next wear it? This should immediately be followed up with will you actually wear it in these imagined scenarios?
- Do you own something similar? Do you need both?
- Does it compliment your lifestyle?
- How do you feel when you wear it? Physically and emotionally?
- Was this a guilty purchase? Is that what’s stopping you from letting go?
Offload without the guilt
After identifying the items you no longer love, it’s time to sell them on. Here, it’s better to rip the plaster clean off, instead of letting it become a task you never quite find time for. At OWNI, we do the hard work for you. One-click resale means just that: you can list an item from your digital wardrobe in one simple click. Once your item enters our circular ecosystem, it can be sold on again and again, later booked in for repairs and eventually recycled, making it the best option for rehoming clothes.
Be ruthless, but not too ruthless
There’s nothing worse than going to grab something that would *make* an outfit, only to realise you donated it to charity months ago. If you’re on the fence, give yourself a timeframe. If you haven’t worn an item of clothing in say a year, that’s a pretty good indication that you’ll never reach for it again. And if you do suddenly regret selling it, you can always rebuy it when it’s re-listed. Clothes sold on OWNI are designed to be passed from wardrobe to wardrobe, so we automatically add any purchases to your digital wardrobe which can easily be resold. Selling something on OWNI isn’t goodbye; it’s more like see ya later.
Seeing is believing
Decluttering can be a mammoth task. Luckily, there’s things you can do to make it easier the next time, starting with making your wardrobe visible. Your digital wardrobe puts everything in one handy place so there’s no room for denial (we’ve got the receipts). You don’t have to go full Marie Kondo but it is useful to have an organisation system in place. That could be introducing a divider that separates ‘have worn’ and ‘to be worn’ clothes or colour coding your wardrobe. Maybe you want to start tracking your wearing habits or implement a strict ‘1 in, 2 out’ policy like a bouncer. Whatever it is, OWNI is here to help you manage your wardrobe whenever you’re ready. Over to you.
