A stylist shares her hacks to avoid spending money on clothes you'll never wear.

Go on, admit it, you have at least one item with a price tag still on it in your closet.

It happens to the best of us (me). 

We say we have nothing to wear, splurge on new clothes, and then find ourselves in the same situation a few weeks later. 

That's why, we reached out to stylist and fashion expert Leonie Barlow from The Style Insider for her best tips to avoid spending money on clothes we'll never actually wear. 

Leonie not only broke down the bad habits that lead to overconsumption but also shared her top tips for maximizing the pieces we already own. 

You can watch Leonie Barlow share her best hacks to avoid wasting money on clothes you'll never wear here. Post continues below.

So let's get into what she had to say.

1. You can't shop yourself out of having nothing to wear.

"Often it's our default setting, where we feel like we have nothing to wear even though we have loads of clothes hanging in our closet," Leonie told Mamamia.

"So we think that going on a shopping trip and buying new clothes is going to solve the problem, but it never does.

"There's a really good reason why. We actually need to invest more time not money in our closets. There's a new TikTok trend called 'Wearing vs Styling'," she continued.

"It has people transforming classic pieces like jeans, t-shirts and pants into distinctive, exciting outfits. This phenomenon encourages us to embrace our existing wardrobes and the clothes we already own and shop more intentionally.

"And when we are shopping more intentionally, we're shopping for those timeless, staple pieces that will serve us year after year."

2. Spend time, not money in your wardrobe.

"The reason we try to shop our way out of having nothing to wear is because we're uninspired or just bored with the clothes that we own, and that simply means we need to invest some time to breathe a bit of new life into them and reinvigorate those pieces," said Leonie.

"It's all too easy to get caught in the trap of wearing our pieces the same way or wearing the same outfit combinations. So when I say we need to invest more time and not money into our wardrobes, I'm basically saying we need to put our back into it. We need to look really closely at the clothes that we own and get re-inspired by them.

"How you layer different pieces is the easiest way by far to make an outfit look more interesting. Now, it could be as simple as layering a camisole over a t-shirt, or adding a denim jacket over a chambray shirt, or even popping a sheer dress over a tank top."

3. Be intentional with your outfits.

"The three-point rule works really well when you want to accentuate an outfit with three points of colour," said Leonie about the trend.

"So say I wore a white maxi skirt and I teamed it with a t-shirt that had a red logo on it — well the three-point rule would see me adding some red sneakers and a red baseball cap to create those three points of colour.

"It helps to create cohesion in the outfit."

4. Start dressing for your 'fantasy self'.

"One of the things we often do when we find ourselves with a lot of clothes and nothing to wear is that we go and buy pieces that are for our fantasy self. So the person or the style that we would like to be, or it's a style that we've seen on someone else that we would like to have," said Leonie.

"But it doesn't really feel like us, and often we find we have a lot of those pieces hanging in our wardrobe. 

"I usually say don't shop for your fantasy self, you need to make sure you're shopping for your own lifestyle. But what I'm saying today is if you have shopped for your fantasy self like most of us have done, then create outfits that are for your fantasy self. 

"Why not dress up and show up in a way that you would like to."

5. Create some style challenges.

To help make some positive changes in your wardrobe, create some challenges so that you can avoid buying clothes or having those clothes that you currently own hanging there and not being worn.

The '75 Hard' challenge.

"There are plenty of these challenges online and one in particular which I think is definitely worth trying is what's called the '75 Hard Challenge'," Leonie said. 

"It's actually really simple. So basically you need to document each outfit that you wear for 75 days and you're not allowed to buy anything new — and that also includes pre-loved and thrifting — so it's very much about focusing on what you already own.

"What they do suggest with this challenge is that you organise and clean out your wardrobe so that you can get creative and set some goals and intentions."

'The Slow Buy or No Buy' challenge.

"Another challenge that could be really helpful is the 'Slow Buy or No Buy' fashion challenge and it's exactly as it sounds," she shared. 

"You essentially commit to only buying slow fashion — so timeless classic pieces to help build your capsule wardrobe — or no buy, where you set yourself a time frame where you will not buy any new pieces but you're going to spend that time creating new outfits from the pieces you already own."

You can subscribe to Leonie Barlow's YouTube channel The Style Insider here and follow her on Instagram here.

Feature Image: The Style Insider.