I digitalised my closet and I'm never going back

A step-by-step guide on how to be type A when you're really not

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What even is a wardrobe? Honestly, I think maybe Narnia had the most accurate description. It’s a portal to a magical land where time seems to stand still, where you face challenges, as well as learn things you didn’t know about yourself (and others). It houses those you can trust and those you can’t, but sometimes you mistake a foe for a friend and vice versa. It’s a fun adventure or a confusing time capsule — depending on how you choose to look at it.

This is not a sponsored post by Indyx. If you don’t know what Indyx is, it’s essentially an organisation app where you add images of all the items you have in your wardrobe in order to see what you have, make outfits, create packing lists, get statistics and more. (Other similar apps include Whering, Stylebook, ClosetSpace and Cladwell). I’m actually not the most type A when it comes to digital organisation, as I usually prefer having IRL things like calendars, notebooks and, well clothes. But there was something that really intrigued me about once and for all seeing each and every single piece of clothing I own (excluding underwear), finding out how many pieces I currently have (eek), and getting clear data on what I actually wear. I was equal parts scared and excited.

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The process

Now there might be better ways of doing this, I’m not going to lie. But since I a) keep my clothes in different parts of our apartment and b) needed a good re-organisation of my closet anyways, I decided to do everything quite thoroughly. If you’ve recently done a clearing out or organisation then you can probably just start uploading. If not, here’s what I did.

The Allison Bornstein Closet Editing System

I’ve probably done a yearly editing of my closet since I was about 10, partly because my mum is a notorious thrower-awayer but also partly because I love a good wardrobe movie montage with clothes tossed all over the floor. Makes me feel like a main character in a 00’s romcom and honestly who doesn’t want that. However, it wasn’t until I saw

Allison Bornstein

do her closet editing system with the fabulous Violette that I realised I had been getting it wrong all these years. My method (for lack of a better word) had been the classic “keep/toss” which inevitably meant keeping stuff for sentimental reasons that would just take up unnecessary space and/or tossing things that I regretted eventually. To summarize, the genius of Allison’s system is to divide clothes into different keep/toss piles. Yeah, stick with me.

Firstly, separate your clothes into “regulars” (stuff you wear all the time) and “nevers” (stuff you rarely wear or have never worn). If you’re uploading your closet into a digital wardrobe then you can more or less go ahead and do your “regulars” straight away, and this is what I did too. I steamed each and every piece, even the basic tank tops, as if it was a spiritual ceremony where each garment needed to be cleansed in order to be allowed back into Narnia my wardrobe. This is also when I took photos of each piece, but more on that later.

Secondly, separate your “nevers” into “nos” (I don’t like this, not wearing this), “not nows” (I don’t want to wear it right now, but I don’t want to toss it either) and “hows” (I want to wear tthis but can’t seem to get it right). The “not nows” might be seasonal things (like thick knits if you live in Sweden, or ball gowns if you’re Mia Thermopolis).

Thirdly, pair your “hows” with your “regulars” to make them more available and less scary. This might take some trying on, sending pics to friends or even asking people in the Substack chat (love love love the chats). If you find ways of wearing them - congrats! If not, they might be deceiving you and bringing you over to fight for the ice queen going in the toss pile.

And done! How easy yet effective was that?

The not-so-pretty reality