If you’re looking to streamline your wardrobe while keeping your closet neat and tidy, then you might want to consider building a capsule wardrobe, a streamlined collection of clothing pieces that all coordinate with one another.
As the trend of minimalism continues gain popularity, more and more fashionistas are ridding their closets of clutter by drastically reducing their clothing and accessory collections. Having fewer pieces of clothing and accessories in your closet—that all fit, make you feel good and work together—makes getting dressed for the day a much easier task.
“Not only does streamlining your wardrobe mean you save money on buying clothes, but it takes out the guesswork when you’re deciding what to wear in the morning,” Dina Scherer, wardrobe stylist and owner of Modnitsa Styling, told Reader’s Digest.
Scherer says one of the biggest reasons why people who have a ton of clothing but still feel like they have nothing to wear is because they don’t have specific outfits set up or a formula for putting things together.
Capsule wardrobes should consist of no more than 20 pieces of clothing, which all should coordinate in some way or another. Coordination is key for putting together outfits. And if you have the right pieces within the collection, you’ll likely be surprised at just how many outfits can be created with fewer items of clothing.
So now that you might be entertaining the idea of creating a capsule wardrobe, you’d probably would like to see some examples, right?
Thankfully, one stylish woman on the fashion website Polyvore has us covered. Below you’ll see a capsule wardrobe compiled by Polyvore user Kristin727. The collection consists of five bottoms, 10 tops and two dresses. Yep, that’s a total of only 17 pieces. However, she was able to create six weeks’ worth of outfits out of just those 17 pieces—and she shows us exactly how it’s done!
Here are the outfits she pulled together for weeks one and two. 
Here is how she mixed up the pieces to create another 10 outfits for weeks three and four.
She’s still going strong for weeks five and six, with yet another 10 chic ensembles.
While this particular capsule collection might not suit your personal style, it will at least give you an understanding of how the system works and how to adapt it to your own taste. If you need more inspiration, Kristin has plenty of other capsule wardrobes on Polyvore that focus on different seasons and color schemes.
Plus, just think of the money you’ll save with a capsule wardrobe! It’s a win-win-win situation: You’ll have a cleaner closet, will no longer feel like you have nothing to wear and will likely have some cash to spare.