Is it too predictable to write a post about getting organized, decluttering, etc. on New Year's Day? Probably. But I read about Project 333 awhile ago and have finally taken the plunge because it seemed pretty lame to not even let a New Year inspire me to action. Also, as a happy bonus, my husband has jumped in as well. You can read about the idea yourself, but the basic concept is to whittle your wardrobe down to 33 items and live with them for 3 months. As I have mentioned before, I do not enjoy clothes shopping and do not struggle with hoarding clothes, so this idea was not particularly daunting for me.
Despite my conservative attitude towards clothes, our closet situation has been pretty tough. Our house has three bedrooms upstairs and one bedroom downstairs. The whole house is 1200 square feet, so each room is pretty small and storage space is limited. We were uncomfortable with having any of our children sleep on the ground floor, so my husband and I have taken the small downstairs room for ourselves. Its closet was not designed to be shared by two adults.
After taking a look at my wardrobe, I was surprised to see I really only wear about 28 items with any regularity anyway. My outfits mostly consist of shirt + cardigan + skirt + leggings. During the warmer months you can subtract the leggings and occasionally the cardigan. In the end I kept 9 shirts, 5 skirts, 3 pairs of leggings, 1 pair of nice pants, 1 pair of jeans, 4 cardigans/jackets, 1 winter coat, 1 raincoat, 1 hat, 1 scarf, 5 pairs of shoes, and 1 bathing suit. My discarded items easily fit in a brown paper bag. I do have 9 items in reserve to see how much I miss them over the next three months. Several of them are a little more seasonal, so I may need to keep them bagged into the spring to really test their necessity. Even still, if I add some back in, my entire wardrobe will probably be less than 40 items. I love projects like these that challenge our Western ideals of necessities and hope to apply this concept to more areas of my life this year.
So I got interested and checked out the 333 link. It honestly sounds a little scary for me (don't think I could do it), but I like the concept, so I'll keep an eye on your progress. :) What do you do for a living? As a teacher, I feel like I have to have lots of things in my wardrobe since the kids are always looking at me. I think that's why the 333 project makes me nervous.
ReplyDeleteI am actually a teacher, too. However, I live in a very laid back community and can't imagine the students are really paying attention to my wardrobe. Perhaps if I was with middle or high school students it might feel different, as well.
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