Our skoolie wardrobe is a little unique and comes with a list of rules that we mostly follow. Long before we moved into our skoolie, we began pairing down our assortment of clothing. Our goal was to tame the beast that was our wardrobe until it became something manageable. Without giving it much thought, we began putting a few rules in place and eventually capsule wardrobes were formed for each member of our family.
Skoolie Wardrobe Rule 1: PJs Can Also Be Worn in Public
Every Christmas Eve we each open one gift. It is always pajamas. Sometimes they match…sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they are simple and sometimes they are themed. This tradition started when Chris and I began dating 15 years ago. Since they do have sentimental value, it is also hard to get rid of these items. The boys keep theirs long after they have outgrown them. Saying goodbye to our Christmas PJ collection was tough. I didn’t want to do it. I held onto some of them longer than I should have.
We made a rule early on that we would no longer buy pajamas that could only be worn as pajamas. Now, we buy soft, sporty style pants that double as sleep wear instead of patterned bottoms.
Skoolie Wardrobe Rule 2: No Reds
This rule is actually more complex than that. We don’t have clothes that are red, yellow, orange, or purple. Basically, we avoid anything that can turn the rest of the laundry different colors. In the past, we washed all of these together. Since the majority of our clothes were black, gray, green, and blue it took a while for our family to accumulate enough of these colors to wash a load. Saying goodbye to what we call ‘reds’ was an easy decision. It is now easier to match clothes. The boys don’t have red and orange shorts to choose from. They have gray, black, and blue jean shorts. It has been a total game changer for us. Less decisions to make every day is always a win. Keep scrolling to see the only yellow shirt I own!
Skoolie Wardrobe Rule 3: Gray, Black, Teal, and Green
We are all drawn toward these colors and the majority of our clothes were already these colors. Check out our Instagram feed to see how loyal we are…except for that one yellow shirt! I realized early on that sticking to this color palette also allowed me to thin out other items. I stopped wearing my brown flip flops and only needed black. The one pair of brown pants I owned went away. I realized I never wore them anyway, because so much of my clothes didn’t match. I don’t wear much jewelry, but sticking to these colors allowed me to thin out what I did have. We have less clothes but more clothes that match.
I should also say, I recognize this is a lot easier for me since I’m living with 3 guys and no one really cares a lot about what they put on. I also don’t love shopping and I am okay wearing plain stuff. Out of all the things we did to prepare for skoolie living, this was the least complicated part.
Skoolie Wardrobe Rule 4: Everyone Learns the Konmari Method
Everyone in our family had to master the Konmari method of folding clothes. Folding clothes as suggested in The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up takes up less space and if done correctly results in clothes that aren’t wrinkled. We don’t always master the wrinkle free part, but we are pros at taking up very little space with our clothes. Check out my review of the book.
Skoolie Wardrobe Rule 5: Buy Used
We have an amazing thrift store in our town. One day, while we were still purging items, I went to drop off some of our things. When I got there, I was shocked. The drop off area consisted of a mountain of clothes. The room was 2 stories high and the pile of clothes almost reached the ceiling. We live in a world where casting off perfectly good clothes is the norm and I participated for way too long.
There are some items I won’t wear second hand. I don’t think I really need to list them. My list is probably the same as yours. Still, there are so many options available and most of the time buying new is unnecessary. Skoolie living has opened my eyes and created some growth in this area for me. Sometimes, it would be easier and almost the same price to run to Target and pick up a sweater instead of scouring thrift stores for the item I need. However, I like that the time I put into finding the item is doing something good for the environment. It feels like a great trade.
We also save money. When we went to Colorado, we didn’t have the winter gear we needed to camp in tents on a mountaintop. We spent a day browsing through thrift shops. We each ended up getting Patagonia puffy jackets for less than half than what we would pay for new. Some of them were sample jackets and had never even been worn.
Skoolie Wardrobe Rule 6: Laundry Day is Evaluation Day
We don’t go do laundry until we are almost out of something (usually dish towels). Once all of the dirty laundry is out of the bus, I look through all of our clothing storage to see what is left. If it is winter and one of us still has 10 pairs of clean socks on laundry day, we have too many socks. If there are shirts pushed to the back of the bin that haven’t been worn since we moved into the bus, they are probably going to go too.
Skoolie Wardrobe Rule 7: Wear Clothes More Than Once
This doesn’t apply to underwear. Change your underwear every day. Changed them twice a day if you need to do so! Honestly, growing up I only wore a shirt or pair of pants one time before it went into the dirty clothes. I never considered rewearing it. The only thing we wore twice were the clothes we wore to church. You came home and put them back on the hanger since you weren’t in them for very long.
Oh how things have changed! I actually polled some other travel friends before I wrote this. I specifically told them I wanted to make sure my crazy wasn’t showing. Am I the only one re-wearing clothes or was my childhood of only wearing items once the crazy part? Turns out, my travel friends are living in just as much (and sometimes more) filth than I am! There is a dirty side to this lifestyle that no one talks about. Well…they don’t talk about it until you ask them. Some of my friends wear the same clothes all week. Most of them aren’t showering most than once a week. Dirty hippies. Myself included. I won’t get into specifics, but bus life has taught me that we don’t need to wash things as much as Tide’s marketing team would like us to believe. Wear those pants…and then wear them again. It’s all good!
Skoolie Wardrobe Rule 8: We Mend Things Now
Instagram introduced me to darning socks. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m going to. Patgonia introduced me to the idea of mending clothes. You can read some amazing tips on repairing clothes on their website. It was very fitting that the first thing that needed mending was Rylee’s jacket from Patagonia. It ripped while he was climbing a tree. We don’t want to be people who continue to contribute to the 2 story pile of clothing at our local thrift store.
These are just the things that have helped us as we transitioned from being a family with closets that were bursting with clothes to being a family who wears our own version of a capsule wardrobe. We share 234 square feet of living space and we are always looking for ways to use less and keep less on hand to make this space function for us in the best way it can.
If you aren’t already following the journey, make sure you check us out on Instagram.
We definitely rewear clothes all week. In fact, before we do laundry I tell everyone to check their bins for dirty clothes 😊 My 9 year old (my neatest kid) will often only have 1 pair of pants and 1 shirt in the wash. I’d love to pick a handful of colors for capsule-style wardrobes, but I’d have to replace so many clothes…and my girls might revolt 😉
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