Making Your Wardrobe Last Longer

Yesterday, I talked about how to figure out how much you need to buy annually in order to maintain your current wardrobe size (or goal wardrobe size). This can be helpful if you are trying to curb your buying habits, and are trying to figure out what a reasonable amount of purchases is. Of course if you're wardrobe is much larger than you would like, you can figure out this number and buy less.

What if you do the exercise, and find out that the number seems a bit large? Perhaps you're on a budget and find that you would be spreading your budget too thin if you bought so many items. If this is the case, you might want to think about how to extend the life of your clothing and accessories. Here are some ways to do it. 

1.  Pinpoint your style so that you can make smarter purchases. By narrowing down your style, your colors, cuts and details that suit you, you will make less mistakes. Less mistakes means less that ends up needing to be purged and replaced.
2. Buy better quality. Better quality does not mean more expensive.  It means long lasting.  Learn some things to look for here on recoveringshopaholic.com
3. Taking care of your things. Be careful, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. That means avoiding spots is way easier than trying to get them out later. Or hang drying is worth the extra little hassle, compared to a shrunken or misshapen garment that is unfixable after that! Handwashing and air drying in general prevent wear and tear on your items, compared to machine wash and dry. 
4. Demote some items, from your Core capsule to Casual, and from Casual to Lounge. This will make for less purchases in the lounge/casual categories. But do this selectively. For me that means mostly knit tops, that are just faded, not stained or misshapen. I have learned that looking good at home for me and my family is just as important than looking good out of the home. (And fading doesn't bother me, I like soft colors. ) Maybe you find that you only feel comfortable demoting from casual to garden clothes, or from work to casual clothes. Do whatever works for you.

Have any other tips?