Last updated: October 30, 2019 “Know, first, who you are; and then adorn yourself accordingly.” – Epictetus Have you ever asked yourself, “How many clothes do I need?” or
“How many shirts should I own?” If you’ve asked either of those questions before, consider just for a moment how your life would look if you owned a minimalist wardrobe of fewer clothes: Unfortunately, instead of enjoying the benefits of a minimalist wardrobe, most of us buy into the lie that more is better. And because we do, we accumulate more and more clothing each season. We are convinced that new clothes will make us more joyful, more fashionable, and more popular. Unfortunately, they just end up
getting in the way. Consider going a different route with your life. Try owning fewer clothes and creating a capsule wardrobe. You may be surprised at how much you enjoy the freedom that a minimalist closet brings. Whether you are hoping to minimize your wardrobe to the absolute minimum or just trying to pare down some of the excesses in your closet, you will find these 10 steps practical and applicable. They are the same steps that we have used in our home to create our own minimalist wardrobes. How to Create a Minimalist Wardrobe and Closet1. Admit that you own too much clothing. That’s all you really need to get started. 2. Wear fewer colors. Most of us already have a few favorite colors that we wear most often anyway – usually because we like the way we look in them. Choosing to intentionally wear fewer colors means fewer accessories (shoes, belts, jewelry, handbags, etc.). It also makes too much sense not to try. 3. Embrace the idea of one. When one can be enough, embrace it – one black dress, one swimsuit, one winter coat, one black belt, one pair of black shoes, one pair of sneakers, one handbag… insert your own based on your occupation, lifestyle, or climate. 4. Donate, sell, recycle, discard. Depending on the size of one’s existing wardrobe, an initial paring down won’t take long. Make a few piles – donate, sell, or recycle. Start with the clothes that you no longer wear. You’ll be surprised how much you can remove and just how close you are to owning a minimalist closet once you build momentum. 5. Donate, sell, discard some more. Removing the clothes you no longer wear is easy. Removing the clothes that you don’t really need can be a tougher choice. Turn around all the hangers in your closet. After wearing an item, return the hanger facing the normal direction. After the season, remove every article of clothing that wasn’t worn. That should help get you started on a second round of paring down. See this article for more creative tips on decluttering. 6. Impose an arbitrary moratorium on shopping. For many, clothes shopping is just a habit – and habit always takes over for inattention. To begin breaking the cycle of purchasing and discarding (the average American throws away 68 lbs. of textiles each year), set a self-imposed buying freeze. I recommend 90 days. If given enough time, this simple exercise in self-discipline will change your view of your clothing and the stores that produce, market, and sell them. 7. Set a monthly spending limit. Pick a low number and stick to it. 8. Purchase quality over quantity. Only buy minimalist clothing that you truly love – even if it costs more. If you stock your closet full of things you love, you will have less desire to add to it, which will make maintaining a minimalist closet a lot easier. 9. Avoid the sale racks. Sales can (and should) be used to help you get a better price on something you need. Unfortunately, most sale racks are designed to convince us to purchase something we don’t. 10. Impress with your character, not your clothes. Lee Mildon once said, “People seldom notice old clothes if you wear a big smile.” With those tips above, you should have no problem creating a more minimalist wardrobe and answering “How many clothes do I need?” To see how owning less in other areas of life can bring even more life-giving benefits, check out my book: The More of Less: Finding the Life You Want Under Everything You Own Minimalism is a philosophy where you reduce the amount of material objects in your life. It’s a great way to simplify your life and make it more efficient. I think it’s good to have a minimal wardrobe that you can mix and match. But I think the most important thing is to have quality clothes that you love. The number one question I get asked a lot by men wanting to live a more minimalist lifestyle is how many clothes you need as a minimalist man. My answer to this is, “You don’t need any if you live at a nudist colony!” All kidding aside, the real answer to how many clothes you need as a minimalist man is seven pairs of underwear, seven pairs of socks, seven shirts, one pair of pants, one pair of shoes or boots, and one jacket. Seven is a useful number because if you do laundry once a week, you then have clothes for every day of the week. This of course assumes you wear one pair of socks a day, one pair of underwear a day, and a different shirt each day. Generally you can get away with wearing the same pair of pants an entire week, but shirts soil more easily due to your armpits than pants do, especially since underwear is a form of lining for your pants. You also don’t want to re-use the same pair of socks too much, as walking around daily with bacteria infested socks this is what causes foot fungus and bacteria to grow on your feet. This bad habit of wearing the same pair of socks many days in a row is also one of the reasons people have smelly feet. How many clothes do you need as a minimalist?Some minimalists believe that you don’t need a lot of clothing, so they only wear one or two shirts and pants. This is fine as long as you have the other items that make sense for the season and you have access to laundry, and don’t mind doing laundry often. You have to consider how often you can or want to clean your clothes when trying to be a minimalist. I personally prefer to do my laundry once a month so I keep at least twenty pairs of underwear, socks, and have around twenty shirts I can wear. While I do have blazers and business suits for meetings, I primarily wear a pair of jeans and a leather jacket with a t-shirt and a pair of boots. As a minimalist man, it’s not about quantity of clothes. It’s all about quality and what you put on when you get dressed in the morning. If you’ve got on a good pair of shoes, your socks should match them. The easiest colors for socks is black for this reason, as black socks will go with the largest amount of shoe types. What is too many clothes for a minimalist?Too many clothes for a minimalist lifestyle would be having clothes you don’t wear or wear very rarely. Generally speaking the clothes you have in your wardrobe should be tailored to each season. The number of clothes I have changes with the seasons. In the winter, I usually keep a few pairs of jeans, some sweaters and shirts, and a couple of coats. So for each season it is a good idea to have different shirts and jackets you can wear, and out of season clothing can be stored for when the season next comes around. How many pants does a man need?As a minimalist man you only need four pairs of pants, one for each week of the month. Unless you work a job where your pants get dirty often, you don’t need to change your pants too much and wearing the same pair of jeans each week can work well. However if you wear dressier pants, this is a bad idea as the crotch will wear out faster in finer materials like silk and polyester, so if you wear business casual or formal clothing often you might want to have a different pair of pants for each day of the week to reduce the wear your pant crotches gain. What color of pants should I own?Generally the best colors are black and blue for pants, as that gives you the most variety of clothing fashions to mix and match with. Other colors of pants can be fun to wear but will often not match with the most variety of clothing. How many t-shirts should a man have?While living a minimalist lifestyle you can get away with just seven t-shirts, wearing one each day of the week, as long as you do laundry once a week. However if you don’t want to do laundry every week you should own at least twenty shirts you can wear. You should also consider how often you work out, and have a shirt you can wear to the gym and get drenched in sweat in for each day of the month you go to the gym. What color of shirts should a man own?The best colors of shirts for a minimalist lifestyle as a man are black and white shirts, as they will go with just about anything. It’s also a good idea to avoid shirts that have logos or branding on them, like comic book or movie characters, or whatever. Band shirts and so forth can be stylish but are less applicable to all situations as a solid colored black or white t-shirt can be. For more fashion advice for men, check out our other articles here at the Millennial Gentleman. How many clothes do minimalists own?While most minimalist wardrobes have between 15 and 50 clothing pieces, there's no strict number of items to have in your closet. The key aspect is to have only clothes you need and love and discard the ones you don't use nor need. A minimalist wardrobe is having only the clothes you need and love.
How many items should a minimalist own?Then there's ultra-minimalists: people who want to live with as few possessions as possible. This can include counting every item they own and trying to keep the total quantity under 100 total items. With our lean-and-mean list coming in around 111 (give or take), we have respect for them!
How many items should a minimalist wardrobe have?How many clothes should be in a capsule wardrobe? A capsule wardrobe can have as many or as few clothes that work for you, but commonly they have anywhere from 30-50 pieces. The capsule checklist I've put together has room for 44 items, including shoes and accessories, but you can always have more or fewer than that.
How many shirts should a normal person have?How Many Shirts Should I Have? A regular person should have at least 7 shirts in their closet to have a clean one for each day of the week. However, our life circumstances vary and some women don't need as many to sustain them through the week.
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How many shirts should I own minimalist?
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