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DAY 16: 30 Day NO-BUY Challenge

How To Finally Learn What You Actually Wear In Your Closet

On day 16 of our 30 Day No Buy Challenge, we learn how to get an honest look at what we actually wear in our closets. We walk through the Ribbon And Record Method and a simple hanger flip approach to separate worn items from unworn ones over time, so we can see what deserves space and what might be ready for a new home.

We look ahead to the 14 days of mini style challenges and the upcoming Wear Joy podcast that will keep us motivated as we build these Fashion Wellness habits into our everyday lives.

HERE IS A PDF OF THE 14 DAY IMPLEMENTATION for you to save and reference.

ACTION STEPS

  1. Choose your tracking window

    Pick a specific time frame, for example 1 month, 3 months, or 6 months, to observe your real dressing habits.

  2. Set up the Ribbon And Record Method for hanging items

    • Tie a ribbon, yarn, or string across the bar in your closet.
    • As you wear an item, hang it on the “worn” side of the ribbon.
    • After laundry, put pieces back on the worn side so you can see what is actually being used.

  3. Set up the “record” marker for folded items

    • Place a marker, like a record cover, piece of cardboard, or paper, on top of your folded stacks (sweaters, tees, etc).
    • As you wear something from that stack, place it on the other side of the marker so you can see which folded pieces are getting worn.

  4. Add the extra challenge (optional but powerful)

    • Try not to re-wear anything on the “worn” side until everything on the “unworn” side has been used at least once in your chosen time window.
    • Let this stretch your creativity instead of rushing back to your usual favorites.

  5. Review and declutter at the end of the time frame

    • At the end of your chosen period, notice which items never moved.
    • Ask, “Do these deserve space in my closet or could they have a new life with someone else?”
    • Decide what to keep, what to style again, and what to release.

  6. Support yourself with planning and inspiration

    • When you are working with pieces you rarely wear, plan outfits the night before or plan a few outfits ahead so you are not stressed in the morning.
    • Use Pinterest or outfit inspiration (for example, search “black collared shirt outfit”) to get new ideas for how to wear those forgotten pieces.

  7. Optional, use digital tools

    • Explore closet apps like Stylebook or Indyx to track what you wear by uploading photos of your clothes.
    • If you choose this, treat it like a slow-build project, documenting your outfits and usage over time.

  8. Look ahead to the mini style challenges

    • Check the map of the next 14 days on the website for the upcoming implementation challenges.
    • Rearrange the challenges to fit your real life schedule, swap days, and make it work with your meetings, events, and energy.

FULL TRANSCRIPT

Introduction, Day 16 Of The 30 Day No Buy Challenge

Hello, I'm Casey, your fashion bestie. You are on day 16 of the 30 day no by challenge. And together, we're sparking a fashion wellness revolution. We are getting rid of all the style and securities you've ever been taught and rebuilding a healthier relationship with your closet and yourself, so you can show up fully and radiate in what you wear. Okay, so have you ever been standing at your closet and you're like, I don't even know what's in here. I don't even know what I'm wearing. I'm just confused. I'm overwhelmed. I'm sure you have. That's why we're all here. But don't worry, my friends, that is why I am here. I'm gonna give you two methods that I have used in the past to help me understand what I'm wearing in my closet. These are particularly good if you are going to do a no by year, so you can see what you're wearing and what you're not, and then focus on the things that you're not wearing. Or, like I said, if you are generally interested in knowing what is in your closet, what you're wearing, if you want to be challenged to wear the things that you're not wearing, and this is just an overall great strategy to do.

Method One, The Ribbon And Record Method

My first is called The Ribbon and Record Method. This is by a stylist called Hillary Rushford. She was, like, one of the OG Instagram stylist people. I watched her so long ago. I don't even think she's on, like, any social media anymore, but she gave me this method a long time ago, and I have always used it, and really just stuck by it. The core idea is to pick an amount of time, and then get an honest look at your dressing habits. So what we want to do, why it's called a ribbon and record method. You're gonna tie a piece of ribbon, yarn, or string on the bar in your closet, and then as you wear the items, you are going to hang them on the other side of the ribbon. Let just say it's a ribbon. whatever you're deciding to use. But we'll say it's a ribbon. And we're gonna hang it on the other side of the ribbon, indicating that we have worn it. As you go through your stuff, and, you know, you do your laundry, you hang it back up, but you put it on the side of the ribbon that is your worn stuff. You will start to see on the other side the things that you haven't worn. And that is a way to know, okay, I need to focus on those. I need to see if I can make magic out of those, and you can identify what is being worn in your closet.

Why it's called the ribbon and record method, is for your folding clothes. You are going to put something like a record, whether it's a piece of paper or a cardboard, or a record cover, if you want, on the top of a pile of folded items, like, say, if you have sweaters folded in a part of your closet, you put a piece of paper or the record on top of the folded items. Then as you wear them, you put the worn things on the other side of that marker. So it's just another way to mark the things that aren't being hung.

The extra challenge is to try not to wear an item again once it's on the worn side until all the items on the unworn side have been used in that challenge period, whether you're setting aside three months, six months, this forces you to get creative and wear the pieces that you may have forgotten about. At the end of the challenge period, you can easily see, which items were never worn or never moved from that side. And then this makes it easier to evaluate your closet and then understand what you want to declutter. 'Cause if you were in a challenge, and you were challenged to where those clothes, and you still haven't worn those clothes, maybe that's a time to reevaluate if those clothes should be in your closet, or if you should send them off to a new, bright life that someone else can take them out and about, right?

If you do this, and you're getting down to the clothes that you really don't wear, and you're still wanting to challenge yourself to wear those, remember to give yourself time, like plan the outfit the night before, or plan a few outfits in advance, like we talked about our outfit planning. So you're not feeling pressure in the morning if you're trying to wear something you normally don't wear, and you don't know how to wear it, and then you get more stress, and then you give up, and then you're like, Oh, I'm no good at this. Well, it's not that you're no good at it. It's just because you just didn't give yourself enough time to play and experiment and have a creativity burst. And so we just need to set aside time for that, right?

Alternate Method, Turning The Hanger Around

Another way to do this is to turn around the hangar. I have friends that like to do this instead. And as they wear things, they turn the hangar around. How you do your folded items, I actually don't know. So you have to decide on a process for that. That is another way you could do it, another indicator that you have worn these items. I have friends that do this for one month. I have friends that do this for three months, maybe six months, and then at the end of that time period, they kind of reevaluate where they are with their closet. So you set aside the time that you think, you can always start with three months, and then you go, I haven't even got through, you know, majority of my closet, and you can always extend it, too, and be like, Actually, let me do another three months and see where it goes from here.

As you are getting down to the close that maybe you don't normally wear as much, that is when a lot of my formulas can really come into play, and where you can get more out of your closet because you're able to get inspired in different ways. So this would be a great time to look on Pinterest and get inspired, and maybe it's, like, a black collared shirt, and you're not sure how to wear it. So you look up black collared shirt style or black collared shirt outfit, and you'll get a slew of examples sent to you, and you might get inspired on how to wear it differently. So don't forget, we have a tool right in front of us that can give us a lot of answers.

Digital Support, Closet Tracking Apps

There are also apps you can look at, like style book and index are two really popular ones. And those, you have to take pictures of everything in your closet, and then it will help you track what you wear and how much use you get out of things, and they might even give you, um, style suggestions. I have it downloaded on my phone, and I still have not uploaded all my clothes because, yes, it does sound like a lot of work. That might be my next project after this 30 day no buy challenge with you all, is to start diving into putting all the pictures of my clothes into my style book app, so I can keep a record of what I wear when I wear it, and how much use I'm getting out of my clothes.

Sneak Peek, The Wear Joy Podcast

I think I'm gonna document that on my next venture, which I didn't tell you about, but I am planning to launch a podcast in March. It's less of an interview type podcast and more motivational voice memos from your fashion bestie, me, that you can just pop on and keep being really healthy in your closet and track my journey, too, 'cause I'm always working on something in my closet, as well. The podcast will kind of be like this, where I come on, give you some motivation, maybe help you with a style thing or two, and also talk about where I am at with my style journey, 'cause it's always fluctuating, right? It's always moving, it's always changing, it's always growing. And so, that is what I plan on doing. So exciting. So look out for that lunch. We gonna launch that in March. And, um, I mean, I think it's just gonna be called the Wear Joy podcast, but stay tuned. I'll give you all the background as I go along doing it. And I'm really excited, because I was trying to find a way to continue motivating people with little voice notes that keep them going in their closet when they're really having a hard time. And I thought a podcast just might be it. Little voice memos from your Fashion Bestie, right?

Looking Ahead, The Next 14 Days Of Mini Style Challenges

Okay, if you look in the description on my website of this day, day 16 of the 30 day no by, it is a map of the next 14 days, the mini style challenges I have for you, that we are going to implement everything we have learned. These are my suggestions. You do not have to go by my suggestions. It would be fun to do it together. But, at the same time, if you're looking at your calendar, and you're like, That challenge is not gonna be good for what I have on that day, like, maybe of a meeting, and you're not feeling like wearing whatever I have for that day, switch it around. Switch around the challenges. If you want to, you know what I've taught, you know what you want to implement. Maybe I don't have something on the calendar that you want to start implementing. So you can obviously change it. This is just a suggestion of what we're going to do. I will have reminders each day. I will go into a little more mindset each day, but basically, it's going to be more implementation, and making all this that I have taught into habits for you.

Closing

So, that is where we are at, my friends. Okay. Send me any questions you have. I hope you're having a wonderful day. I'm Casey, your fashion bestie, and I will be back tomorrow.