For some people, a simple spring cleaning session would suffice when it comes to organizing their house and getting rid of old stuff. But for Elle UK fashion writer and vintage seller Daisy Murray, a much more comprehensive closet purge was in order for her London apartment. On Instagram, she posted about her decision to simplify her wardrobe. “Years of compulsive overbuying and a bizarre need to keep everything—‘I want to give it to my daughter!’ 17-year-old me screamed while clutching an American Apparel boob tube—left me with about nine Ikea bags worth of clothes to sell, and sell I did,” Murray said.
Intrigued by her commitment to closet purging, I reached out to Murray to get more insight into her decision and learn about the items she deemed worthy of keeping. “With so much of the world in slow-mo, my commute eradicated, social life decimated, and spare time abundant, I felt this was the perfect time for my final push to achieve wardrobe clarity,” Murray told Who What Wear. “I began this ‘journey’ (cheesy, but true) three years ago when my parents cleared out my wardrobe. They refused to act as a storage facility any longer (rude), and I was confronted with the real scale of my shopping habit.”
Murray also explained how she was able to avoid throwing away a single item, despite being “ashamed” of the huge volume of clothes she had amassed. Murray credits her love of vintage, which tends to retain its resale value, as well as her penchant for buying classic pieces. “So most of my clothes were either worth saving, gifting, or selling at a reasonable price,” she said on Instagram.
Murray’s downsizing left her with her dream closet “that feels like a concept store stocked entirely for me,” she told Who What Wear. Along with a single bag of sentimental pieces like her prom dress, Murray kept key items that she wears over and over. Scroll down to see what she kept and learn more about her closet-cleaning tips.
