061: Shopping for, storing and decluttering clothes

Life Admin Life Hacks

In this episode, we talk about planning and making time for managing the clothes, accessories and shoes for you and your family.

Keeping you and your family clothed might not automatically come to mind as life admin but it most certainly is. The shopping, storing, and eventual decluttering of our clothes, accessories and shoes doesn’t happen by itself - someone has to plan for it and make time for it. Depending on your relationship with fashion and shopping, these tasks can be guilty pleasures, a proud part of your identity, or a relentless chore. So we turned to stylist Lisa Stockman to get all her top hacks.

About Lisa Stockman

Lisa Stockman was born in Australia, and in her twenties lived in Italy and Japan. She studied a Master of Professional Styling at the Australian Style Institute and worked in the fashion industry both as a stylist and boutique owner for over 15 years and held global training roles in the retail sector. Her personal styling career began over a decade ago as a side hustle while owning a clothing boutique in Melbourne.

Today, she is Personal Stylist to a diverse range of clients and specializes in working with people who are experiencing life-changing events such as gaining a job, getting divorced, beginning to date, post-surgery, post-baby, or getting ready for an event of a lifetime such as a wedding or anniversary.

In this fun-filled chat we discuss:

• that most people don’t have a strategy for managing their wardrobe, often leading them to wearing 20% of their wardrobe 80% of the time, and buying multiple copies of similar items
• that you should think about how you want to feel in your clothes - consider writing down three words to keep in mind when shopping and decluttering
• most wardrobes don’t have the basics
• you need to make sure your wardrobe considers your lifestyle and how you spend your 7 days each week - for many people this has changed considerably and yet their wardrobe has not kept up
• for each item you buy consider what three items you already own you can wear this with - how can you 'outfit it'
• fashion maths - consider how often you will wear something (cost per wear)
• spending money on buying quality clothes that you will wear most of the time
• the risk of buying items on sale - just because they are cheap
• researching online to find outfits you like and then using this as inspiration of where to shop
• scheduling time to go shopping and try things on rather than buy things in a rush
• culling your wardrobe - consider how long since you have worn something and letting go of the guilt that you spent money on clothes
• organising your wardrobe in sections (ie pants, tops, dresses) and then by colours so it makes it easier to visualise what you have - if you can’t see it you won't wear it
• swapping over your wardrobe at the end of summer/winter
• the importance of keeping on top of decluttering your kids wardrobes
• teaching your kids to look after their clothes, that they should only have the clothes they need - working with them at the end of each season to identify what no longer fits them
• having a system to manage hand me downs for your children
• storing your clothes to protect them and treating your wardrobe like it is your fashion collection - use wooden or felt hangers and trousers on clip hangers, fold knitwear
• selling clothes on facebook marketplace or in groups and selling kids clothes in bundles or as outfits
• setting up systems to make it easy to sell or declutter so that items don’t languish around your homes
• consider, dying, tailoring or upcycling clothes and handbags

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