Before you walk out the door, ask yourself if Coco would approve. These 9 signs suggest your outfit might need one less accessory.
Coco Chanel’s advice has been circulating for decades, and it’s easy to dismiss it as fashion fluff.
But the older I get, the more I realize she wasn’t just talking about clothes.
She was talking about clarity.
About intentionality. About stripping away the excess so who you really are can actually breathe.
So I pulled together nine signs you might need this reminder today.
Let’s get into it.
1) You keep adding to your life instead of subtracting
Have you ever noticed how, when life feels off, our instinct is to add more?
More tasks on the to-do list. More commitments. More products in the bathroom cabinet. More goals. More apps. More everything.
But when everything is important, nothing is.
I’ve been guilty of this myself. A few years back, after a particularly chaotic month, I started scheduling extra routines and habits to get myself together. All it did was make things worse.
Sometimes the fix isn’t adding. It’s removing.
If your life feels bloated or noisy, it might be time to take something off before walking out the door.
2) You use "just in case" as a lifestyle
We all hold onto things out of fear. Just in case… I need it later. Someone comes over.
I finally start that hobby. I change my mind.
The problem is that "just in case" usually means "never."
And it applies to more than physical stuff.
It’s the extra project you said yes to because you didn’t want to miss an opportunity. It’s the social plan you agreed to because you didn’t want to disappoint someone.
It’s the backup plan to the backup plan because certainty feels safer than trust.
If you find yourself dragging around decisions, belongings, or responsibilities that don’t fit you anymore, Coco’s advice might be the compass you need.
3) You feel overwhelmed by choice
Modern life is amazing, but it can also be ridiculous.
You can stand in the grocery store comparing 14 different brands of oat milk.
You can spend 40 minutes scrolling streaming options only to end up rewatching The Office.
Decision fatigue is real.
And clutter, mental or physical, makes everything feel heavier.
Whenever I travel, I’m reminded of how freeing it is to live with just a backpack. Fewer choices mean more clarity. I’ve made some of my best decisions while living out of a hostel locker.
If you feel paralyzed by the number of options in front of you, it’s a sign you might need to simplify before stepping out into the world.
4) Your style doesn’t match who you are anymore
Fashion is personal psychology in fabric form.
You might not think deeply about what you put on in the morning, but your clothes tell the world something about you before you say a word.
And sometimes, without meaning to, we wear old versions of ourselves.
A jacket that used to feel bold but now feels loud.
Accessories you once wore to impress someone you don’t even talk to anymore.
A color that belonged to a different chapter of your life.
I remember going through my closet last year and realizing half the stuff I owned didn’t match who I’d become. The clothes weren’t bad. They just weren’t me anymore.
If something you’re wearing feels like a costume, it’s probably time to take it off.
5) You’re over-explaining yourself
One thing I’ve mentioned before is how easy it is to slip into the trap of over-justifying your decisions.
If you’re constantly giving people long explanations, throwing in disclaimers, or trying to soften every message, you might be over-accessorizing your communication.
Simplicity isn’t just aesthetic. It’s relational.
The clearer and more concise your words are, the more confidently they land.
Coco’s rule applies here too. Before you speak, take one thing off.
A fear. An apology. An unnecessary detail.
Your future self will thank you.
6) Your environment makes you tense instead of calm
Look around the room you’re in.
Does it energize you or drain you?
Is it filled with things you love or things you’ve simply accumulated?
When I first moved to California, I had a tiny apartment. Small enough that clutter became loud very quickly. That space taught me the power of subtracting.
A few items carefully chosen can make a room feel like a sanctuary. A dozen random ones can make it feel like a storage unit.
If your home or workspace feels chaotic, the problem might not be the size.
It might be the excess.
Often, peace is what’s left when the unnecessary goes away.
7) You feel disconnected from yourself
Sometimes the clearest sign you need to take one thing off is the subtle sense that you’re drifting.
You might not be doing anything wrong. You’re just not doing anything that feels like you.
It could be a belief you adopted because it made sense years ago but hasn’t aged well.
It could be a routine that once supported you but now just takes up space. It could be emotional energy you’re giving to something that doesn’t deserve it anymore.
A few months back, after reading a book on behavioral science, I realized how many of my habits were running on autopilot.
The moment I removed one of them, something tiny like checking my phone within five minutes of waking up, I felt more like myself again.
Subtraction exposes identity.
If you feel lost, try removing something instead of adding more noise.
8) You’re trying to be everything at once
We’re living in the era of multipotentiality.
- Be a professional.
- Be a creative.
- Be a perfect friend.
- Be ethical.
- Be informed.
- Be fit.
- Be calm.
- Be productive.
- Be interesting.
- Be everything, all at once.
And while growth is great, trying to embody every ideal at the same time leads to burnout dressed up as ambition.
Coco’s advice becomes a lifeline here. Take one thing off. One role. One obligation. One expectation you’ve been carrying.
Not everything needs to be done today. Not everything needs to be done by you.
9) Your intuition keeps whispering "this isn’t it"
You know that quiet inner tug?
The feeling that something is slightly off?
It might be the accessory that doesn’t belong in the outfit, the extra task you shouldn’t have agreed to, or the obligation you’re doing purely out of habit.
Most of us hear that whisper and ignore it. But intuition is one of the most trustworthy indicators we have.
When something feels misaligned, it usually is.
And subtracting even a tiny thing can be enough to shift everything back into place.
The bottom line
Coco Chanel wasn’t telling us to become minimalists.
She was reminding us that refinement is an act of courage.
Taking something off, whether physical, emotional, or mental, is a declaration that who you already are is enough.
Before you leave the house today, before you open your laptop, before you step into the next moment of your life, pause.
Look in the mirror. And ask yourself: What is the one thing I can remove to feel more like myself?
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