Visually Organize Your Second Life Inventory With Wardrobe

Your Second Life inventory can be a scary place. It’s so easy for it to balloon out of control. Have you ever been browsing your items and thought “I forgot I had that!” Or perhaps you remember those awesome shoes you loved but you can’t find them no matter how hard you try? That can be a thing of the past with Wardrobe.

I’m going to preface this by saying I started writing this blog post on August 9, 2020 but every time I opened it up to add more I just ended up wanting to Wardrobe more so I’d get distracted. I “Wardrobed” 500 items in less than a month because I’m just having way too much fun.

What Is Wardrobe?

Imagine if you could open your closet and see all your Second Life clothes, shoes, etc. Now imagine grabbing it off the rack and then putting it on. That’s Wardrobe in a nutshell. It’s an inventory management system that allows you to see visual representations of everything you have. You can even get dressed right from Wardrobe too! Just a click and your shirt is on. Or your whole outfit is on. You choose. The high levels of customization make it perfect for pretty much anyone with an inventory. Yes, even you who just installed yesterday. And yes, even those like me who have 14 years worth of inventory built up.

While Wardrobe is worth it on its own, I find it most helpful while using the Archive add-on. This is a separate purchase that makes boxing up your unused inventory super easy. Imagine all those items you never use being tucked away safely, but in a place you can still browse them and see what you have. Wardrobe has another add-on called Rulebook which allows you to automate putting things on/taking them off, RLV commands, and more. All in all I’ve found Wardrobe and its add-ons to be the most helpful, most comprehensive inventory management tools out there.

Who Should Use Wardrobe?

Honestly I think anyone can benefit from it, but I’m also well aware that it is not the right match for everyone. If you’re considering picking it up here are a few key points to consider.

The Obvious

If you change your appearance at all, I’m willing to bet Wardrobe will help you out. Whether it’s just changing clothes or changing your whole avatar can you imagine doing it in one click? Because you totally can. Do you use multiple mesh heads? Imagine swapping to your other one with just that one simple click. Want your partner to be able to pick out your outfit and dress or undress you with the same ease? There’s options for that too. If simplifying anything you can put on or take off sounds good to you, then Wardrobe is likely a great fit.

Do you ever forget what things look like? Spend minutes (or longer) putting on and taking off hair to find the perfect one? Desperately go through your shoes to find the ones that match your outfit? You don’t have to anymore! Wardrobe not only shows you pictures of your content, but also uses a keyword system to help you easily sort through and find what you need in seconds. Mixing and Matching has never been easier. If keywords and pictures of your items sound helpful, then Wardrobe can be an option for you.

The Not So Obvious

This is not a “set it and forget it” sort of thing. You manually add your products which does take time. Wardrobe makes it super simple and offers multiple ways to add things so you can really get as in depth (or not) as you want. Even if you’re adding things in the most bare bones way, you still have to take a moment to do so. For larger inventories that time adds up. Thankfully I, and many others, find the process of using Wardrobe to be really fun! And honestly, no matter what inventory management process you use, it will take time. That said, if you do not want to set aside a little time to organize your inventory then this is not for you.

Wardrobe is not a free product. It is, however, extremely reasonably priced for what you get. At the time of this post Wardrobe itself is L$699. Archive is L$449 and Rule Book is L$349. That’s under L$1500 for the full set, however Wardrobe works wonderfully even without the add-ons. That said, I highly recommend getting at least Archive with it, especially if you want to reduce the items in your inventory. If you don’t mind a small fee for amazing inventory control, then this may be for you! If you’d rather sort things out without paying a cent I recommend using my guide Organizing Your Second Life Inventory.

Using Wardrobe

The first thing you’ll want to do is read the instructions notecard included in your purchase. It really does make everything a lot less intimidating if you just check out the documentation! While there are many different methods of doing things, the objective is the same: Upload your content to Wardrobe (so it’s easy to browse) and name/organize your inventory folders (so the RLV works).

So originally I was going to write out in depth step by step instructions on every single way to use Wardrobe. I quickly found that this would be super overwhelming both for me to write and for you to read and decided against it. Instead I’m going to share this AMAZING tutorial playlist of videos made by Buttacwup Pwincess. She’s great at explaining things in an easy to follow way, and honestly I think you’ll learn more from her that you would from my walls of text. I generally don’t learn well from videos, but she makes it super simple. Definitely check them out!

Using Archive

Archiving is a great way to cut down on that inventory bloat. I’m a bit of a hoarder in world myself, so I don’t want to lose all the products I’ve gathered over the years (even the decade old hairs I’ll NEVER use). I archive them so I can get them out of my inventory but still have access to them. Similar to the Wardrobe section above, I found that it would be easier for everyone if I shared Butta’s video tutorials instead of writing up a giant wall of text for you. So here you go! This is a great

Using Rulebook

Rulebook is a super cool tool that expands the ways you can use Wardrobe. Do you have a certain style you always use in one sim? You can use Rulebook to automatically get that all put on when you head there so you don’t have to do it manually. Prefer to walk around your house naked? You can make sure you’re stripped down whenever you get home. Maybe you like to put on a swimsuit whenever you go into the water. You can do that too! Rulebook adds a ton of options I never even considered I’d need. Until I realized they were available of course. Now I’m addicted. And of course, Butta has made an amazing video turotial.

The Deep Clean

Now that you know how to use the Wardrobe family I want to introduce you to how I am now organizing and managing my inventory. I call it the deep clean. It uses a combination of Wardrobe and Archive to get (and keep) your inventory under control.

The Folders

First I set up a folder with three subfolders in my inventory. You can name these whatever works for you. Here’s my breakdown of folders and how I use them.

• !! Organize These
  • Main folder.
  • Its purpose is simply to hold the other three folders. I don’t sort anything else into this specific folder.
• !! Add to Wardrobe
  • First subfolder.
  • This one is for things I’ll be adding to wardrobe. I move just a small amount into here at a time so it doesn’t feel overwhelming.
  • I go through and add the things to Wardrobe one at a time. After something has been added to Wardrobe I move it to the Archive (Added to Wardrobe) folder.
• !! Archive (Added to Wardrobe)
  • Second subfolder.
  • These are things I’ve added to Wardrobe that I’m now ready to add to my archives.
  • I go through one at a time and add these to my archives. As I do I move completed things to Archived (Organize This in RLV).
• !! Archived (Organize This in RLV)
  • Third subfolder.
  • This is where everything I’ve added to Archive goes. It’s ready to be organized and moved to the RLV section of my inventory!
  • I go through one at a time. For each listing I remove the things I don’t want to keep in my inventory. Then I organize things into subfolders if needed and make any changes to the Wardrobe listing if needed (such as adding a subfolder). I then move it to the RLV section and check to make sure the RLV links work before moving onto the next thing.

Why I Use This Method

This system helps keep it super easy. I’m able to drop what I’m doing at any time and hop right back in without being confused as to what I’ve done and what needs to be done. Whenever I make a new purchase I make sure it makes it to my Add to Wardrobe folder before I log out. I unpack boxes before adding them to the Add to Wardrobe folder, personally. You can of course do things differently if you find another method easier for you. This is just the system that works for me. It lets me easily handle new purchases as well as catching up on my old inventory.

Helpful Links

I know there’s a lot of info in this post. It’s a very in depth set of products, so there’s a lot to cover. I really only grazed the basics. These are some resources for you to keep it all easy.

• Get It Sorted Discord – The official CTS Discord. It’s an AMAZING active and super helpful place. I highly recommend joining us there!
• Wardrobe Support Group – The official group of CTS and the place to get help while in game.
• CTS Marketplace – The creator’s web based store.
  • Wardrobe – A direct link to the Wardrobe listing on the Marketplace.
  • Archive – A direct link to the Archive listing on the Marketplace.
  • Rulebook – A direct link to the Rulebook listing on the Marketplace.
• In-world store – The place to find these goodies (And more) on the grid
• Buttacwup Pwincess on Youtube – She has way more than just Wardrobe stuff on there. Make sure to check it out! 

Are you using Wardrobe or considering picking it up? Let me know in the comments!

---

Credits