This year I wanted to start helping people to buy less clothes and wear more pieces throughout their years ahead. With only a few simple strategies, we can truly make a huge difference to our fast-fashion culture.

Step 1 – Analyse your shopping behaviour

The first step to helping you to achieve a more sustainable fashion future, as well as a selection of pieces that you truly love within your wardrobe is to analyse how you shop. Ask yourself these questions:

1. How many times, approximately, have you been shopping for clothes in 2019? (also shopping online counts, even for those items that you didn't keep)

2. How much have you spent, approximately, in your shopping for clothes in 2019?

3. How many of your new items, bought in 2019, are you effectively wearing?

This can feel a lot of deep questions, and don’t feel you have to get it spot on, this is meant to be a challenge, but not a challenging thing that will be overwhelming!

Step 2 – Analyse your wardrobe

This will take you a little more time, but stay with it, it is worth it I promise you. I recommend you plan some time in your diary to have fun, and give the commitment to your wardrobe analysis. When you have the chance to stand up, and look at the wardrobe in front of you, you will be able to see the pieces that you wear, and the items that don’t bring you joy.

1. Take all of your clothes out of your wardrobe. I highly recommend you sort your wardrobe seasonally so you have a wardrobe with items you can wear during the season, and put away the items which are not serving you during the current season (for example, get out your jumpers and coats, and put away your spring/summer dresses during Autumn and vice versa!). Another option to help you with this, you can then sort your wardrobe by category – tops, bottoms, outerwear, and if you have time, do the same with shoes and accessories too.

2. Make 2 piles – 1 with clothes you regularly wear, and the other with clothes you do not or have not worn for a long while. Ask yourself piece by piece – why don’t you wear it? Is it the size, the wrong occasion, or perhaps you have nothing associated with it. While doing this, you will understand better what has been your shopping behaviour so far, and you can then improve on it going forwards. If there is anything that can make the piece wearable, perhaps there is a great skirt without shoes or a top to work with it, and then that’s great! You can put a list together of items you need to make it work and keep it within your wardrobe. Then you can take a look at the pieces you love and see if there are any items that need upgrading or need to have a new fashionable item added – then great, this can go into your shopping list too!

3. Look for inspiration head to Pinterest and Instagram – once you know the pieces you love that could do with a few items to make them more wearable, head to Pinterest or Instagram for inspiration for your outfits.

Once you have these pieces you want to keep, you can put them back into your wardrobe, and donate your items that do not serve you and are taking up valuable wardrobe space.

Step 3 – Plan your shopping trip

You should now have a shopping list and I'll explain how to use it soon.

You should have now put together the general amount you have spent shopping and how many clothes you've worn.

As an example, let's suppose you've spent £3,000 but you've only worn ⅔ of your purchases, that means you've wasted approximately £1,000.

Now it's time to set up a budget for your shopping in 2020. You can use the same budget spent in 2019, so in this case £2,000.

Here's where your shopping list comes to action!

For your future shopping stick to your list, while bearing your budget in mind. Searching items online in advance will help you organise your shopping even better, and you can start with your favourite brands, if you have any. This can be found when you are going through your wardrobe, you may notice that many of your items that you wear have come from the same place – this is a great insight into your favourite brands and the style you most love!

Eventually, not only will you spend less than in 2019, for pieces that you'll actually wear, but you can also make some of your old clothes wearable again, thanks to a few key items you have put on your shopping list that will work with them. You'll also have extra money to spend for items that are not in your list, but you fall for, or in case of unexpected events.

Trust me, once you start to follow this method you’ll never go back. This will change your way of shopping forever. You'll save money, time, energy and you'll become more sustainable.

I’d love to be a part of your Sustainable Style Challenge, so comment below and let me know how you get on, or if you have any questions at all, via my Facebook page here.