What Would Your Basic Wardrobe Be?

I've been on a (mostly mental) kick this year to clean and downsize everything in my house.  While I have been successful in some fields and have thrown away quite a bit and organized my basement, bathroom, craft room, linen closet, etc., I have not been very successful in downsizing my wardrobe.  I have posted about cleaning out my closet before and I did get rid of a lot then, and I regularly am pulling pieces from my wardrobe that don't fit how they should anymore, or that I never wear, but I really need to do a wardrobe overhaul.

To give you an idea of what I mean, I only have to do laundry about once a month.  And that is only because I run out of clean socks and underwear.  My dresser and closet are still bursting at the seams at that point.  I obviously don't need as many clothes as I have.  So, I have been asking myself a lot lately, what would constitute as a basic wardrobe for a woman?  There are so many factors that make this a difficult question to answer.  Especially for someone like myself that has mixed working environments (warehouse and business dress standards), lives in an area with varied seasons (snow half the year and hot, hot, hot the other half).  Those 4 differences alone mean that my wardrobe needs to be at least twice as big as the average Jane that has a more consistent work environment and lives in a steady climate.  So what does a gal need and when does it become too much?

I scoured Pinterest for advice and inspiration and that definitely did not narrow down the options too much.  There are boards for as many different circumstances as you can image: Fall/Winter Wardrobe, Spring/Summer Wardrobe, The Audrey Hepburn Wardrobe, The "Basic" Wardrobe (of which there are dozens of different pins/solutions), 12-14 Essential Pieces, 50 Classics for your Closet, The French Wardrobe, Wardrobe Staples, and the list goes on, and on, and on, and on, and you get the point.

After pinning and searching Pinterest for an undisclosed amount of time, I decided I should just make my own Wardrobe Essentials list and turned to Polyvore to make a photo guide for this.  The problem I encountered here, is that I had specific pieces in mind but had a hard time finding photos that matched the images I had in my head so that didn't prove to be as helpful of a solution as I had hoped but I did come up with a very minimal wardrobe guide:

Like I said, very minimal.  But in all honesty, you could get by with even less than this.  I however, don't know if I can cut my wardrobe down that far.  I was thinking I'd cut down to 5's, 10's, and 20's of each category with some combinations.  20 bottoms.  20 casual tops/sweaters.  10 work/formal tops. 10 shoes. 5 dresses.  5 jackets.  Etc.  I don't even know if I can cut it down that far!  This is going to be a real challenge but I am super excited to have a closet that I can find things in.  How great would it be to pull something out of the drawer every day and not debate about whether or not I felt like wearing it?  You should be excited about every piece of clothing you have.  If you are hesitant, and don't need it (i.e., work uniform) get rid of it.

I'm at the age where I want to narrow down and develop a classic wardrobe of quality pieces that will last me through the years.  No more impulse Forever21 purchases (be strong girl!), more quality (natural) fibers and less synthetics (except in exercise wear, swimwear, etc).

What would (or does if you are ahead of the game) your basic wardrobe look like?  Do you have a signature style?  How many pieces of your wardrobe are actually essential and what's extra?  What piece/pieces can you not live without?

Pictures and progress updates to come....

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