My Pre-Loved Wardrobe Rules….

Since we moved house earlier this year, I’ve found myself with more wardrobe space than I’ve ever had before and considering how much I love a good pre-loved bargain, that’s not necessarily a good thing! 😂

Our bedroom has a huge wall-to-wall built-in wardrobe with drawers and shelves above and, considering we live in an old house with lovely high ceilings, you can probably imagine just how much space my half gives me.

I’ve never had this much space for clothes before and I could very easily fill every inch of it with charity shop and Vinted bargains if I let myself. In fact, when we first moved in, I went a little bit overboard before I realised that just because I had the space didn’t mean I needed to fill it as much as I enjoyed giving it a good go.

So, I’ve come up with a few little rules for myself to make sure I’m buying clothes that I actually love and will wear rather than just buying things because they’re a bargain.

I know what I like and what suits me

I won’t pretend that I don’t buy new clothes because I absolutely do! I love shops like Seasalt, White Stuff, Oliver Bonas, FatFace and M&S and I’m more than happy to treat myself to something new when I see something I really love.

I’ve also got over the fact that I used to think M&S was for old people, although maybe that’s just because I’ve got old myself. 😂

I do love some of their clothes these days and I’ve actually found their knitwear to be really good quality. It washes well and lasts, so when I spot a good offer, I’m happy to buy a couple of bits. A few weeks ago they had 20% off so I treated myself to a couple of pieces while the offer was on.

The Megan dress from White Stuff is my all-time favourite long dress and I love that they bring it out in different colours, patterns and slightly different styles each season. And the Simone dress from FatFace is my absolute favourite shorter dress.

I think I’ve just got to the point where I know what I like and what suits me, so I’d rather spend a bit more on something I know I’ll wear loads than buy something just because it’s fashionable.

I’m a bit less fussy when it comes to charity shop shopping but I still look for good quality clothes that I know will last. I’m happy to pay a bit more for clothes from my favourite brands and because I know what I like these days, I can usually spot something worth a closer look with a quick scan of the rails.

I know that probably makes me sound a bit snooty but I promise I’m not! I’ve spent years buying fast fashion and anything that caught my eye, but my tastes have changed over time, as they do, and I’ve realised that I’d much rather have a wardrobe full of clothes that I really love wearing.

I always check Vinted before buying something new

Vinted is another favourite of mine and I’ve got searches set up for my favourite brands in my size so I get notifications when something new is listed. The clothes can still be quite pricey, even second-hand, because people selling them generally know what they’re worth, but there are definitely some cheeky bargains to be had.

In fact, if I see something I really like in a shop, I’ll often have a quick look on Vinted before I buy it to see if I can find it cheaper. People often buy something, wear it a couple of times and then sell it on, which means I can sometimes get something I’ve had my eye on for a fraction of the original price.

I did exactly that recently with a Simone dress from FatFace. I spotted a gorgeous flowery one in my local branch and loved it but even on sale it was £28, so I had a look on Vinted and managed to find the same style of dress in a similar pattern for just £5. It wasn’t the exact one I’d seen but I was more than happy with my little bargain.

I try to buy clothes I can wear in different ways

I also try to buy clothes that I can wear in different ways rather than things that only work for one occasion or one time of year. The Simone dress is a good example of that because I can wear it on its own when it’s warm, with tights when it’s a bit cooler or with leggings when the weather is properly chilly.

I’m definitely more of a dress or skirt person than a jeans person anyway. I actually only own one pair of jeans! I do love leggings though, although finding ones that fit properly can be a bit of a nightmare for me.

I’m quite short and although my tummy isn’t small, my legs are relatively slim, which means leggings that fit comfortably around my tummy often end up looking baggy around my knees.

I’ve found that Snag leggings fit me really well and don’t have that problem, but I’m not quite so keen on their £35+ price tag. So naturally, I turned to Vinted again and recently bought a pair in as-new condition for £9, which made me much happier than paying full price.

To be fair, I like them so much that I actually would pay full price if I had to, but if I can get them for £9 instead, why wouldn’t I?

A bargain is only a bargain if I’m going to wear it

Anyone who’s been reading my monthly pre-loved bargain posts for a few years will know just how much I used to love buying clothes from charity shops. There was a time when pretty much every monthly post was filled with clothing bargains and I don’t think I ever came home from a charity shop shopping trip without at least one bag full of lovely things I’d found. 😂

One of the charity shops in our village has a £1 rail which is actually filled with some really good stuff more often than not. I think they give things a few weeks on the normal rails and then reduce them to £1 to make room for more stock, which means there’s always something different to look through. I’ve seen some lovely good quality clothes on there and it’s exactly the sort of thing that makes it very tempting to come home with a bag full of bargains again. After all, when something’s only £1, it’s very easy to convince yourself that you might as well buy it!

These days though, I don’t need anywhere near as many clothes and I’ve realised that just because something is a bargain doesn’t mean it’s a bargain for me. It’s still very tempting when I spot something from one of my favourite brands for next to nothing, especially when I know how much it would have cost new, but I’m getting much better at leaving things behind if I don’t actually need them.

I try to think about whether I’d still want something if it wasn’t so cheap and whether I can genuinely see myself wearing it. I’ve got more than enough clothes already and I’d much rather have a wardrobe full of things I love than one full of bargains that never see the light of day.

That’s not to say I won’t occasionally come home with something I hadn’t planned to buy, because we all know that’s unlikely to happen! 😂 I’m just a lot more selective about which bargains make it into my shopping bag these days.

My one-in, one-out rule

This actually started with handbags rather than clothes, as anyone who’s been reading this blog for a while will know how much I love a good handbag!

When I moved in with my partner and he saw me unpacking all my handbags, he jokingly said that I wasn’t allowed to buy any more unless I got rid of one every time I bought a new one. I actually thought that was a pretty good idea so the handbag one-in, one-out rule came into play and it’s something I’ve stuck with ever since.

In our last house, I didn’t have too much space for clothes so I had to be quite fussy about what I bought anyway, but when we moved here and I suddenly had all this lovely wardrobe space, it was very easy to go a bit overboard.

And that’s exactly what I did! 😂

After a couple of months, I realised just how much I’d bought so I had a big clear out, sold as much as I could on Vinted and decided to introduce a few wardrobe rules to make sure I was putting a bit more thought into what I bought rather than just buying things because I liked them and had somewhere to put them.

The one-in, one-out rule was the obvious place to start and it’s definitely made me think twice about buying things.

It’s also why my monthly pre-loved bargain posts have featured fewer clothes recently than they used to. I’m still enjoying finding bargains, I’m just being a bit more selective about which ones come home with me.

I’m certainly not going to stop looking for pre-loved bargains anytime soon and I still love a good charity shop mooch, but I do like having a wardrobe full of clothes that I genuinely enjoy wearing rather than lots of things that I bought because they were cheap.

And if I’m going to bring something new home, I need to love it enough to make room for it. 😂

Vinted is my friend for selling as well as buying

Before Covid, I used to go to quite a few awards ceremonies with work every year, which meant I needed a good selection of black tie and formal outfits. Naturally, I took that as a good excuse to keep an eye out for fancy dresses on my pre-loved shopping trips and ended up with a whole wardrobe full of them! I loved having so many gorgeous outfits to choose from and knowing that I’d paid a fraction of what they would have cost new.

I don’t go to anything like as many events these days, so I really didn’t need a wardrobe full of fancy dresses taking up space when I could be using it for clothes I actually wear. I had a good sort through and listed the ones I no longer needed on Vinted, along with quite a few other things that I’d bought over the years and wasn’t wearing anymore.

We’ve got a giant cupboard downstairs which is really handy for keeping everything organised. Whenever I decide it’s time for something to go and it’s worth selling rather than donating, I quickly list it on Vinted and pop it into a box that I keep in that cupboard. That way it’s out of my wardrobe straight away but I know exactly where it is when it sells, so I can just grab it and get it posted.

I do still donate plenty to charity shops, but if something is worth selling then I might as well make a bit of money back from it. I quite like the idea that the money I make selling clothes I no longer wear can go towards buying something else that I know I’ll get plenty of wear out of. 😂

So…. I’m definitely not going to stop enjoying a good charity shop mooch or looking for bargains on Vinted, but I do think I’m getting better at knowing when to leave something behind, even when it’s an absolute bargain.

I love having all this lovely wardrobe space in our new house and I want to enjoy it rather than filling it with clothes that I’ll probably never wear. I’d much rather open my wardrobe and see things I genuinely love wearing than have it crammed full of things I bought just because they were cheap.

That’s the plan anyway. Whether I manage to stick to all my little rules when I spot something gorgeous on a £1 rail is another matter entirely. 😂

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