I love to track everything about my life. I track my sleep, my steps, my food intake, the books I read, my workouts, and the clothes I wear. Tracking things gives me a sense of calm and organization.
One of the weirdest things about moving from Michigan to San Francisco is the lack of seasons. In Michigan, I had winter clothes, summer clothes, and spring and fall clothes that I could only wear for one or two weeks. I would switch out my clothes a few times a year and store the clothes for the seasons we were not in. The average temperature in San Francisco is 65 degrees all year long. I wear sweaters and pants most days, so I had to find a creative way to rotate my clothes when I don’t have the change of the seasons.
I had downloaded the Stylebook app years ago to catalog my wardrobe, but never really used it daily. The app costs $3.99, but that is a one time fee. You upload all your clothes into the app to track how often you wear them, if they are at the dry cleaners, if they are in storage, the cost per wear, favorite outfits, ect. Once I realized I needed to find a way to rotate my wardrobe, I quickly started snapping photos of my clothes to add them to the app.
Uploading all my clothes did take a little while, but it was totally worth it. Once you have your clothes in, you can add new items as you buy them and it is as simple as putting the item on a white background and snapping a photo. You can add as much detail as you want like size, brand, color, cost, and fabric. I added color, size, and brand for mine since I have no idea what most of my clothes cost at this point.
Once all your items are uploaded you just select the items you wear each day and add them to the calendar. I have notifications on the app set to remind me to do it at 7 pm every day. The app tracks how often you wear each item, and if you do have the cost of the item listed it will calculate the cost per wear. It will also tell you the most and least worn items in your closet each month.
I didn’t add shoes, outerwear, or accessories, but you easily could. I also haven’t added all of my dress clothes yet because I honestly don’t wear them that often and I just haven’t taken the time.
When buying new clothes it is helpful to see if you have anything similar, even in storage. I also like that it tells me the percentage of my wardrobe per color. Shocker, most of my clothes are black and grey.
Now that I have been using the app for a few months I can see what items I haven’t worn and either pull them out of storage to get some use out of them or donate them to make room for more functional pieces.
Aaron has more clothes than any person I know, and I have been telling him to download the Stylebook App for the same reasons. He has things packed away, forgets they are there and buys a very similar item.
In my opinion, it is 100% worth the initial time it takes to upload all your items to see the stats on what you actually own and wear. Take a rainy afternoon and knock it out, you will be happy you did.