I cut my closet in half after an international move: here’s how I did it

I moved back to the UK from Romania with close to 400 items of clothing, and that’s not counting shoes, handbags, jewellery and other accessories. Three years later, I own less than half of that, and in gradually whittling down my wardrobe – by the end of the process I cut my closet in half – I’ve rediscovered my style. 

Here’s how I cut my closet in half: 

Stage 1: Initial closet purge  

When my shipment arrived, I unpacked my huge suitcase and a few other things, divided the clothes up by category (jackets, trousers, skirts, jumpers, etc) and tried everything on in front of a full length mirror.

I got my mum to join me for a second opinion as she a) used to work in fashion and b) isn’t shy about voicing her opinion. 

This stage got rid of anything that didn’t fit, and mistake purchases that really didn’t suit me, and a few things I’d been hanging onto from my 20s or early 30s that simply were too young for me now. 

Surprisingly I discovered I had no less than four second-hand sheath dresses with ruffles. I let them go… 

I also had four cord skirts. I kept one. 

My feet stayed about half a size bigger after I was pregnant so I said goodbye to some of my shoes too. 

I didn’t want to do a massive closet purge and just throw things out (or rather, donate, sell or recycle them) randomly though. I had to find a better way to cut my closet in half.

Stage 2: Tracking my wears 

I made a spreadsheet of all my clothes and every single day for a year I marked off what I wore that day. That year covered my final few weeks in Romania and the weeks I spent in Albania, but almost all of the data was for Scotland, so I got a pretty good picture of what I was wearing in my new lifestyle. 

What did I learn after three months?

At the end of the first three months, I’d already whittled down my wardrobe a bit, and I wrote this analysis: 

Total: 304

This didn’t seem like a massive amount until I started totting up the individual categories, such as: 

Cardigans 24 + Jumpers 25

Jackets 19 (and yet most of them don’t feel right – I’d prefer just one amazing black blazer)

Tops 59 + T-shirts 54 = 113

Skirts 33 (I wore a grand total of 2 in the 3 month period)

Dresses 24 (wore 1)

What did I learn after one year? 

My lifestyle has changed a lot and so has the climate — it’s not just that’s it’s often cold and rainy outside, we also live in a cold, damp house. (I really miss East European central heating!)

For most of the year, except warm days in summer, I wear jeans or black trousers, a long-sleeve t-shirt, one or more jumpers and a coat or jacket. 

At home I wear one or more jumpers, leggings and a pair of slippers. 

I wore a skirt or a dress a grand total of 19 days during the year. 

I rarely wear jewellery but I often wear scarves and hats. 

I still have too many clothes, and the only thing I really need is a more waterproof coat. 

Stage 3: Wear or let go of unworn clothes 

I set myself the challenge of either wearing the clothes I hadn’t worn or letting them go. 

I wasn’t 100% successful because I and it really, really hard to let things go, but by the end of the year I’d almost cut my closet in half. I had just under 200 items. 

I still felt I had too much stuff though. 

Stage 4: Make your wardrobe pay for itself 

I called this my “self-sustaining wardrobe”. The idea was that I’d sell anything I didn’t need through local Facebook groups or on eBay, and use only the money I got from selling my old clothes and accessories to buy new ones. 

I stated this around a year after we moved back to the UK, when I’d just bought our own house and was massively stretched financially for the first few months! So there was a very solid incentive for me to stick to the rules. 

This challenge really worked for me as it forced me to let go of some things I’d been holding onto but rarely wore, and also discouraged me from buying anything new unless I actually needed it. 

For example when it came to choosing between replacing the holey black leggings that I wear literally every day and buying a gorgeous silk Hobbs dress on eBay … well, I made the sensible choice. 

I stopped rigidly enforcing this after about six months when my finances stabilised, but that was long enough to get into better spending habits. 

Stage 5: Live with a smaller wardrobe

For the last year I’ve had around 125 items of clothing in my wardrobe and while I’d like to have a slightly smaller closet, I’m happy for that to happnen gradually over time. 

These days I have the basics I need for my daily routine of school runs, working from home and Zoom calls, plus a small, glamorous capsule for when I’m in the city or visiting Eastern Europe or Central Asia. 

More posts about style, beauty and travel packing

How to guides: 

How I went from terrible packer to travel capsule wardrobe expert 

How I rescued my boring travel capsule wardrobe for Tirana

Some examples of tiny travel capsule wardrobes: 

My 12 item capsule wardrobe for Corfu and Saranda 

My 14-item travel capsule wardrobe for Slovenia 

Spring travel capsule for 10 days on the Adriatic riviera  

Shopping: 

My massive Bucharest thrift haul

Hanging out at the malls in Astana 

Beauty tips: 

4 painful and humiliating things that happened to me in Central Asian beauty salons  

Personal grooming in Central Asia (if it’s hairy, wax it)