I failed at a "No Buy." This is what I'm doing instead.

5 steps to finding my personal style after having kids. Plus, my new 2025 wardrobe plan.

At the beginning of January there was a buzz of people sharing their “no buy year” and I was inspired. I’d also just watched the documentary “Buy Now” while sick on the couch and that was eye opening show. I was feeling the momentum toward significantly reducing consumption and naturally jump on the bandwagon.

I made a rough outline of my “low buy year” in a note on my phone. At the same time I discovered the concept of cataloging my wardrobe in an app. My technology, data loving self was an instant, “yes, I’m doing that too.” As I focused heavily on my closet in January I had several realizations and one of which, was that my initial “low buy year” plan probably wasn’t going to work out how I planned it. Here’s what I’m working on alongside my updated version of a fashion focused “low buy year.”

Cataloging my closet to Indyx app

1. Started cataloging my closet.

I opted to use the Indyx app. It was honestly so much work. I had underestimated the size of my wardrobe. I’d just donated about 3 bags of clothes last fall and hadn’t bought many new pieces, so the volume of clothing still in my closet was a bit of shock. The process of photographing each piece of clothing or finding the product photo online was enough to get me to pause on certain pieces that didn’t feel worth my time. I added about 10 or so pieces to a donation pile.

As of today, I have 153 items in my Indyx app, but I still have several bags, coats, jewelry and few belts to add. I’m skipping things like sunglasses because I don’t want to track them and usually just wear what’s in my car already.

I will say the effort was 100% worth it!! I learned so much from the process of cataloging my closet. Said lessons:

• I had fallen victim to the same piece in multiple colors trap. Often, I didn’t wear the other colors, because a large part of why I liked the original was the color itself.

• I had been avoiding trying on most of my jeans because I knew they didn’t fit. I was only wearing about 2 to 3 out of the 15 or so in my closet.

• I have so much blue. My closet is filled with a million versions of blue from tops to bottoms. No wonder my outfits were feeling the same, same. They kind of were.

• My next main color was red. I love a good pop of red, but now I have too much and more doesn’t always mean more options. Again, pieces were too similar to make much impact in my daily outfits.

• The majority of my wardrobe consisted of tops. I was essentially wearing the same jeans over and over, but just swapping out the tops. No wonder I was feeling so bored with my clothes. Then, it hit me. When I was feeling bored with my clothes often sought out new top options (thrifted or purchased new), but what I really needed was more variety in bottoms. I’ve had 3 kids in 5 years, so my body has changed a lot! I also started working out consistently a year and a half ago. I’m in the best shape I’ve been in in years, which I’m really proud of. And I’m feeling great in my body, but most of my jeans weren’t making me feel that way. I can technically squeeze into most of my current line up of jeans, my body composition has changed leaning out in some areas, but gaining muscle in others. I’m at my “pre-kids” weight, but most of my pants don’t fit well. I was not expecting that to be the case when I initially started to work out. Just thought I’d share that with any other postpartum mom’s out there. The scale hasn’t been the best gauge for the improvements I’ve seen in my body after working out consistently for over a year.