According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average American family spends over $1600 per year on new clothing, with more money spent on women’s apparel than on clothes for men or children. That’s a ton of money, especially during tough economic times.
If you want to look your best without spending a lot of money, there are a couple of tricks, tips, and tactics that can help you spice up your tired wardrobe.
1. Check the Fit
Examine every single piece of clothing you own (even your underwear and bathing suits!), and make sure it fits properly. Have a friend watch you model each outfit if you need a second opinion about how your clothes are fitting.
Toss what doesn’t work at all, and tailor the rest. If you can’t afford tailoring, get creative with the rest of your ill-fitting clothes: use big belts to cinch oversized shirts and dresses, or sew side panels into your favorite jeans to add room to the legs and color to your ensemble.
2. Stay Organized
It’s time to go shopping in your closet. But just like with any store, you need to neatly organize all the merchandise. Pull everything out, and you will doubtless find entire outfits you had forgotten all about. When you put everything back in the closet, set aside the stuff that’s out of season, and organize the rest by occasion, and then by color. This will make getting dressed in the morning a much more streamlined affair.
3. Get Crafty
The humble t-shirt likely makes up a large percentage of your wardrobe. To inject a breath of fresh air into your tired stable of t-shirts, all you need is a pair of scissors (or maybe a needle and thread, if you’re feeling adventurous.) Use scissors to cut a larger, boatneck-style opening at the top of the shirt to show off more shoulder or collarbone, or shred the sleeves and back for a vintage biker look. If you’re handy with a needle and thread, cut the front of the t-shirt down the middle, remove the collar and buttons from an old button down shirt, and sew the two together to create a button down t-shirt.
4. Get a Haircut
So what does your hair have to do with sprucing up your wardrobe? Quite a lot, actually. Imagine a woman dressed in tight black jeans and a black trench coat. Now imagine her in the same outfit, but with long curly hair. Now with a blue mohawk. Now with dreadlocks.
She looked completely different, right?
Changing your hairstyle completely changes the way your entire outfit is perceived. Spend $40 on a haircut, or spend $400 on a new wardrobe? The results will likely be pretty much the same.
5. Swap ‘Til You Drop
Get together with your friends and swap clothes and accessories. Also keep an eye out for swap events in your nearest metropolitan area, which are generally free or ask for a suggested donation to benefit local charities.
6. Make New Accessories
Have a drawer filled with shirts that are missing buttons or skirts with tears that you’ve been meaning to fix? Transform your clothing junk drawer into fresh new accessories. A length of fabric from a skirt can be used as a scarf, or braided together to create a woven belt. Take leftover buttons and use them to create earrings or necklaces, and scavenge any beading or decorative elements to use on future projects.
7. Think Long-Term
Long-term storage, that is. Here’s the thing. The stuff you have now that’s 5-10 years old is outdated, but not yet old enough to be cool and vintage. Store those items for another decade or two, and you’ll have a vintage wardrobe that will be the envy of everyone in 2031.
8. Buttons
Swap out the buttons on your shirts with fun and funky buttons from your local craft store. It’s a small change that only takes a small amount of time and money, but can completely overhaul the look of the staple pieces in your closet.
9. Deep-clean
You can make tired items look brand new by taking proper care of them. Brighten whites with bleach or Oxi-Clean, and choose detergents that protect color. Always separate your whites from your colors, and wash your clothes in cold water to prevent against color loss over time.
10. Distress for Success
Rub jeans and t-shirts with 100-grit sandpaper to give them a distressed look. Why pay a hundred bucks for ragged jeans when you could just make them yourself?
Conclusion
Reinvigorating your bland wardrobe might take a little planning and elbow grease, but your wallet will thank you for doing it on the cheap.
Do you have any tips for improving your wardrobe on a shoestring budget? Share them with us in the comments below!
I totally understand the purpose of this post, and I agree with most of it, but I have to question the suggestion to save clothes for 20+ years. I strongly believe that the clutter and amount of space those things would take up in life (both physically, mentally, and emotionally) is not worth the possible (tiny) payout. If you have items that you don’t wear and/or are outdated, get rid of them!
People pay premium prices for unique retro items that come back into style after 20+ years, particularly designer wear that is in near mint condition. Modern designers mine retro styles so reviving , re-purposing or restyling your good quality vintage absolutely worth it. I drag out my clothing archive every year, check for damage or decomposition and reassess, then add freshly cleaned items I’ve chosen from my current closet. Its fun and interesting, takes very little time and is emotionally uplifting. Stuff that doesn’t pass muster is given away or tossed. Not everyone’s life is so burdensome and cluttered that this has to be an issue.
Agree with this even though my 1st thought was lack of space or potential for clutter as well, which is of course going to differ for everyone. Am I already organized or not? Do I reside in a small apartment or house with an attic? Would I rather keep a roomful of books or CD’s or can I store them all digitally and voila’ -room for that great coat or two I want to keep. I didn’t read the idea as intending to keep and store EVERY single item I own once they’re considered out of curent fashion. I’m thinking items like coats, jackets, handbags, jewelry etc. I pick and choose, especially when space is an issue, the certain things I feel will be the most useful or interchangeable with any style or era. My good coats, for example, stored properly, will have more value and style in 20yrs than a bunch of shirts I got at Target; 1 unique suit instead of ALL my work trousers and so on. I don’t need to keep 10 of everything; I can keep 1 or 2. And don’t forget things like vintage tees- always popular and take up very little space!
[...] 10 Hacks For Spicing Up Your Tired Wardrobe (Without Breaking the Bank) (lifehack.org) [...]
Some interesting ideas here. I’m totally against the whole “distressed” look, though. It’s the surest way to make your clothes wear out faster. I also really dislike the “fashion” of buying distressed items off the shelves. I like to wear my jeans in (or out) myself, thank you. That way they last 5 years of continuous wearing rather than a mere 6 months. What a waste.
Shop at thrift stores and consignment shops, also donate to thrift stores to get rid of stuff , and take others to consignemnt stores for them to sell. I’ve made money at consignment shops, and have gotten tax breaks and a warm, fuzzy feeling from donating.
This was not written by anyone stylish.
I just used this post to make my weekend to-do list. So much that I’ve been *meaning* to do here and just couldn’t be arsed doing. Thank you!
This is totally ridiculous – sew panels into your jeans and shred your t-shirts? Come on, Lifehack, get real.
It occured to me how some people have gone crazy for the word hack. It's being used willy nilly when proper words suffice. So I did a test… did a Google for something that can't be hacked. So hack your wardrobe. Thank you this article for reaffirming my belief.