Meet Fabulously Broke - 365 Fashion Rehab's Guest Blogger!

We are so excited to be featuring one of our favorite budget conscious blogging fashionistas on 365 FR today. Her name is FB and she writes for three amazing sites, most notably Fabulously Broke in the City www.FabulouslyBroke.com. She recently launched Style on a String www.StyleString.com and The Everyday Minimalist www.EverydayMinimalist.com and we just can't get enough of her musings and style advice. FB got herself out of $60,000 of debt and has lived to tell about it!

We asked her about her approach to minimalism and how she keeps her closet so clean. She writes:

I used to own many pairs of shoes, lots of coats for all the seasons, pants galore and tons of tops. I basically pared everything down about 50% by doing the following...:

1. Pulled out everything I had by item type

2. Sort into 4 piles: Keep, Repair, Sell, Donate or Toss

3. Wash, Rinse, Repeat

I didn’t get rid of anything that was a one-off, such an old cocktail dress. I figured I’d come across a situation sooner or later where I’d have to wear it again.

But if I couldn’t imagine ever wearing the item again for any occasion or reason, I got rid of it.

I was pretty ruthless on what I wanted to keep by only keeping items based on these 5 criterion:

1. Fits well (size)

2. Looks good (colour-wise and cut)

3. Feels comfortable (anything too restricting or chafed, went)

4. Wasn’t faded, torn or unable to be repaired

5. Made me feel good in it

What was left, was what I wanted to wear, needed to wear and looked good on me.

When I looked over at all of the stuff I eventually got rid of, and what was actually left at the end of it, it really hit me that I was such an impulsive, crazy shopaholic in the beginning.

I bought whatever I liked or wanted, no matter if it fit well, was of a good quality or fit my lifestyle. If I wanted it, I bought it. I must have spent thousands on clothing and now everything was going for a fraction of its original price because I couldn’t control myself in the beginning.

It might have partly stemmed from wanting to keep up with the Joneses, the Joneses being the people of my imagination who were judging me on what I wore and if I had any money.

Maybe it was just my wanting to fill the empty void that was in my life, by substituting all the things that weren’t so great in my life at that point, with shopping.

I felt like I was the Queen of the World when I purchased something. The high was unbelievable, and like a drug, I kept going back for more. It all stemmed from a need to impress people around me when I was younger. I felt that I wouldn’t be liked any other way and looking back at what I thought – that’s quite a sad and perhaps pathetic to many, but it was the way I felt.

I think I also just liked owning things. Different styles, different colours and all the options. I envied huge, celebrity closets and wanted something similar, even though I wore maybe 40% of what I owned on a regular basis.

What really clinched it for me was when I left college, I got my first adult job, full-time, working at $65,000 a year. That’s when I realized that I owed $60,000 in student debt and it was time to take charge of what would be the first few, important years of my adult working career by getting out of debt as soon as possible and to start making good decisions about how I am spending my money from now on.

I picked up the book “The Millionaire Next Door” by chance, and that started to help me build a new, sustainable life of spending less than I earned, cutting back and learning how to do without.

My first job was to be a consultant, and as a consultant, I traveled a lot. This means that I go to different cities almost every week, flying there and flying back. Waiting in airports and lugging suitcases around.

I learned early on to pack light, and then I got the brilliant idea just to live in whatever city was being assigned to, full-time. I stayed in hotels almost exclusively for a year and packed only one suitcase for the whole 6 or 8 months I was stationed there. I didn’t fly back home at all.

This was truly my first lesson in being a minimalist: If I could live out of a suitcase for almost a year in another city, with everything that I could possibly want, then what was I doing with all of this STUFF that I had?

I couldn’t even remember what I owned. All I had was my business casual items, with a couple of casual ones, and my love for jewellery exploded at this point – it was so easy just to pack 50 necklaces and earrings to spice up any outfit instead of 50 tops or 50 bottoms.

On the whole, it was an enlightening, positive experience and now I evaluate everything I bring into my life and home with the 4 following questions:

1. Do I want/need it?

2. Is it portable and easy to be packed into a suitcase?

3. Can I borrow, substitute or do without it?

4. Is it worth the price tag? ( Based on quality and value for my life)

Now, instead of trying to be motivated by saving money as was my original intention, I am motivated to stay as minimalist as possible, and make the biggest impacts on my wardrobe with small tweaks or changes (e.g. jewellery).

It makes it a lot easier to handle, because now I can put back yet another blue sweater and say: I don’t need it, I already have a blue sweater and where would I keep it?

My path towards becoming a minimalist has not turned my life into a bare, stark, ascetic existence; but rather, a focused one where I only have and keep the things I need and/or love.

Thanks FB!

Love, A&P