To say that downsizing my closet before moving on our 30-foot boat was a challenge would be an understatement. My closet in our last house was almost the same square footage as our entire Alberg 30, and at one point I had enough clothes to fill it twice over. I had one fall/winter set of clothes, and one spring/summer set of clothes, and each filled my whole closet! It took me just about two years to get where I am today. I’m proud to say that now all of my clothes fit in a single large duffle bag!
I know how daunting it is to downsize a closet, and I wanted to pass along all the tips and tricks I wish I had when I first started out!
Start Changing Your Buying Habits
The very first thing you should do is start changing your buying habits. You can get rid 3/4 of your closet using my tips below, but it won’t do you any good if you continue to buy like you have unlimited space. Even if you’re not ready to start downsizing yet, you can certainly slow or stop purchasing clothes that won’t fit your new lifestyle!
Considerations for What To Keep
Before you start on the journey of downsizing your closet, it’s probably a good idea to come up with a plan for what you will be wearing on your boat. You’ll want to start with what you have before you go out and buy a whole lot of new items. I separated my closet into “boat friendly” and “not boat friendly” early on and that helped a lot! You don’t want to get rid of the clothes you will need just to have to buy them again.
It’s also important to note that its not a great idea to completely try to change your style. If you currently love flowy bohemian-type clothes, you’ll probably hate the high-tech “sailing” gear. Downsizing is about keeping your preferences but making them fit the situation! No need to start dressing like a Helly Hansen ad if that’s not your vibe!
A few questions to ask yourself while going through your clothes or before buying a new item:
- Will the fabric hold up to being rolled, folded, or potentially vacuum sealed?
- Will the fabric be ok with occasionally being damp?
- Is this “warm weather” item breathable and cool?
- Is this “cold weather” item wind/water-resistant, and does it actually keep me warm?
- Will this be easy to hand wash? This is especially important for underwear and socks.
- Would this provide me with UV Protection?
- Will it dry quickly if it gets wet?
Before we moved onboard, we were both working office jobs that required business casual attire that did not meet any of the criteria above. But I kept a few impractical pieces that I loved for nice dinners out or days I just wanted to feel “dressed up”.
We have made the following changes to make boat life easier:
- We have both switched to quick-dry underwear and socks. These are the items most often hand-washed between laundromats, so they must dry quickly!
- Andy has all quick-dry shorts and pants. He only has one pair of jeans.
- I got rid of most of my heavy-knit dresses, skirts, and shirts.
- We both switched to lighter (but more) layers for cold weather.
- We got rid of almost all our leather (belts, purses, shoes, etc.). Leather does not do well on boats and will get moldy. I have one small leather purse, but it is used almost daily and I wipe it with a rag regularly.
Consider a Capsule Closet
The idea of a capsule closet first came across my radar in 2015. I was looking for ways to pack lighter while traveling, and I realized this would also be a great solution for a boat wardrobe. In the simplest terms, a capsule closet means that all the items in your closet follow a color theme that makes them all interchangeable. This should give you many, many outfit choices out of just a few articles of clothing. How to start your own capsule closet:
Step One: Pick a “Base” Color
Most people choose black or navy, but I’ve also seen it done with Brown. My own is based around Navy. I would recommend looking around your closet and see what you already gravitate toward. What color is your favorite outfit(s)? You’ll want to pick something “timeless”.
Step Two: Pick 1-2 “Secondary” Colors
Think of these as accent colors. These can be a little more trendy! For a long time mine were mint green and teal for summer, and burgundy and plum for winter. Now that we are on the boat that has translated to warm clothes and cool clothes. The beauty of your secondary color is that you don’t have to be married to it like your base. It’s more of a guideline. You can also use neutrals in addition to your secondary colors. White, grey, and taupe are all great options!
Step Three: Look at Your Existing Closet
If you choose navy, you probably aren’t going to be keeping your solid black skirts or pants. If you choose black, that brown leather purse or shoes can probably go! The question to ask yourself is “would I wear this with my base color?” if the answer is no, it’s probably not a keeper. Make sure you are looking at your whole closet: shoes, handbags, belts, coats, and jewelry are all part of the equation.
Step Four: Shopping
You may find you have a few “holes” now. If you have a lot of holes you might want to consider a different base color. You’ll want a few staple pieces in your base color: pants, skirts, shorts, tops. After you have a working closet, you only buy items that fit in your capsule closet. If a top won’t go with at least half of my bottoms, it’s a no-go.
If you google capsule closet, you’re probably going to see a lot of examples of monochromatic black and white solids. I’m here to say that you absolutely can do this without being boring! I have tie-dye, patterns, solids, bright, and subdued. You can capsule closet any style!
Selling Clothes
After you’ve gone through your closet and decided what to keep and no longer serves a purpose for you, you have a couple of options of how to get rid of these clothes: sell, donate, or recycle.
Let’s start with selling, since it is a great way to put more money in the cruising kitty. As I said before I had an enormous amount of clothing before I started downsizing, and I was able to make over $6000 selling my clothes over two years.
There are five main avenues for selling your clothes:
- Poshmark
- Mercari
- ThredUp
- Local Consignment Stores
- Facebook Marketplace/Craigslist
Poshmark
Poshmark was how I sold the majority of my clothing. It can be a lot of work, but there are a lot of positives. Poshmark’s app is very user friendly and intuitive. They are also very clear about their rules for what you can and cannot sell and their list is always expanding.
| Poshmark Pros | Poshmark Cons |
|---|---|
| Easy to use app | Must take your own pictures of clothing |
| Shipping labels, payment, and returns are all handled by poshmark | All most all buyers will haggle with you. |
| Good for mid to designer level clothing, think Banana Republic and up. | Not great for less expensive brands. Shipping costs make it difficult to sell those Old Navy or H&M without bundling |
| You can use the same platform to sell other items that might not make the cut for the boat. | Requires constant attention, and sharing. |
| No minimum to put money in your bank account. | Buyers can ask a lot of questions about measurements and condition. |
| Low consignment fee (20%) | High shipping costs for buyers |
Tips for Selling on Poshmark
- If you have a lot to sell, buy a dress form. I promise it will pay for itself by making your clothes look a lot better in pictures.
- Take good pictures of your clothes. Use natural light and use clips to make the clothes fit the mannequin as they would a person. Make sure they are clean and ironed!
- Share your listings regularly. Poshmark lists clothes on search in order of how recently they were shared. For your listings to stay near the top of searches you need to share regularly. I turned it into part of my morning routine.
- Share to parties. This is a pain but if you can share relevant listings to one party a day it will make a difference.
- Network with other sellers. Share their listings and many of them will share yours. This puts your listing back at the top of search but also exposes your listing to their followers.
- Be quick to ship. This is the single biggest reason for bad reviews from buyers. You should be prepared to ship next day or within 2 days. If you can’t do that for a few days put your closet in vacation mode.
- Be willing to negotiate. I regularly offered hefty discounts for bundles. I would always list items for about 20-30% more than the lowest I would be willing to sell it for. This gives you wiggle room to negotiate.
- Use closet clear-out days! Regularly Poshmark offers closet clear out days and if you lower your items price by 10% they will send a notification to anyone who has liked the item and offer them discounted shipping. Only do this for items that have likes otherwise you are wasting a discount!
Mercari
Mercari is very similar to Poshmark, but has a wider variety of what you can sell. I have no used it before but have had several friends have great success on the app. Especially with mens clothing.
ThredUp
ThredUp is essentially an online consignment store. You request a clean-out kit, fill the bag with the clothes you want to sell, and they do the rest. While it is not time-consuming at all, you pay for it with a few cons to the process.
| ThredUp Pros | ThredUp Cons |
|---|---|
| Super easy consignment process | No control over pricing |
| No time-consuming photos to take | Your cut is low depending on the price of the item. |
| No dealing with buyers | Very high-quality standards |
| They donate for you if it doesn’t sell. | You don’t control how long your item is listed for. |
Local Consignment Store
Local Consignment stores, like ThredUp, take a lot of the work out of selling your clothes but much like Thredup, there is a price to pay for their work. Typically you will pay much higher consignment fees (sometimes up to 75% precent), and their quality standards might be really strict. I’ve had clothes declined at local consignment for “not being dry clean pressed”. If you have a local shop that is easy to work with, and has a lot of foot traffic this can certainly be a great option!
Facebook Marketplace
This would be my absolute last resort, but, especially for children’s clothes, can be an easy place to sell a lot of clothes at once. I would recommend using clothing lots or bundles on these sites to limit your number of listings. Be prepared to deal with a lot of tire kickers in your DMs, and no-shows when it comes to pick up or meeting. Also, you should only accept cash when using these methods.
Donating Clothes
Once you’ve exhausted your selling options, you’ll probably still have clothes left over when downsizing your closet. Your next option is to donate any clothes that are still in good shape. These are our favorite places to donate clothing:
- Gift to Friends or Co-Workers. Have a co-worker who is always complimenting your outfits, or a friend about your size? Let them go through your donate pile before you send it to the thrift store!
- Local Chapter of Dress for Success or Similar. You probably won’t be needing those suits, ties, or business items anymore. Donating them to a local chapter of Dress for Success helps get them into the hands of folks needing job interview clothing.
- Local Thrift Stores. Donate local when you can. When we left New Hampshire there was a great local organization called LISTEN who used the money generated from their thrift store to supplement heating costs for those who need it in the community.
- Salvation Army.
Remember, only donate clothes you would be willing to buy. Many donated items end up in landfills overseas, and the goal is to keep your functional clothes in the hands of someone who will wear them! No one wants your super out-of-fashion or stained items.
Recycling Clothes
Some things should not be sold or donated. Undershirts, pajamas, ratty t-shirts, torn clothing should all be recycled. Many recycling centers take fabric. Rather than the clothes ending up in a landfill, it will be shredded and turned into rags. Or better yet, keep them to make your own rags!
Storing Clothes Long Term
There will likely be items that are sentimental or special that you will want to keep after downsizing your closet. Here is everything we currently have in storage for clothing:
- One wedding and one funeral outfit each. These are in a closet at my mom’s house, so they can be mailed to us if needed on short notice. This allows Andy to have a couple of suits without us having to carry them.
- I have a plastic storage container of high school sports t-shirts in my mom’s basement.
- We also have ski and snowmobile gear stored with my dad.
That is it. We both decided that clothes are meant to serve a purpose, and we have photos, videos, and memories of wearing important items like my wedding dress. You may feel differently, so here are a few tips for storing clothes if you decide to keep some things in storage long term:
- Clothes should be stored in a cool and dry place. Preferably climate controlled, and low humidity is key.
- We like to use plastic stackable storage containers. They keep items dry and don’t take on weird smells like cardboard or garment bags can.
- Wash everything before storing.
- Do not vacuum seal. I know this sounds counterintuitive, but those vacuum seal bags can actually cause damage if used for a long time.
- Try using cedar balls instead of mothballs to prevent damage.
One Final Thought
We know how stressful downsizing is; our biggest advice is to start early. We started a year and a half before we moved out of our house. Clothing is the easiest category to start early on! If you are considering downsizing your closet to move onto a boat now is the time to start! Best of luck and let us know how it goes in the comments!