The Continued Quest to Reduce "Stuff"

Can you believe the first quarter of the year is over already? Time flies when it's freezing cold and snowy outside... Not really. But time does seem to be going by quickly!

Way back in January, I shared my experience with an internet phenomenon called Project 333. The idea is that you choose 33 items to create your wardrobe for three months at a time. At the end of those three months, you can select 33 different items or add and subtract from your original 33 as necessary. The project states that these 33 items should include clothing, accessories, jewelry, outerwear, and shoes but not everyday jewelry like a wedding ring, underwear, at home lounge wear, sleep wear, or workout clothing. Then, after you've completed four cycles of this project (12 months) it should be very clear what items in your wardrobe you should keep and what items you can do without.

I wittled my wardrobe down to 33 clothing items in January and then added in five accessories and five pairs of shoes. I tweaked the program for me a bit for a couple reasons. First, my clothes were out of control but my outerwear, shoes, and jewelry are items that I don't have a ton of, relatively speaking. Second, my day job requires me to dress pretty formally which means I need jackets, pants, and skirts to get me through five days without repeating. Project 333 is not meant to be a "project of suffering." It's meant to be helpful. So these tweaks are what I felt would help me the most.

So it's been three months. Where am I at?

I was really surprised that I managed to go three months with only 33 clothing items in my closet. I was also surprised at how easy it was to pick out my clothes each day. Before purging my closet, I would stand in front of it depressed, constantly complaining about how I had nothing to wear. I don't think I had that conversation with myself once over the last three months. Because my 33 items were picked from my "love" pile, any item I picked was an item I loved. So, everyday I got to wear clothes I enjoyed and that made me feel good. I thought for sure I'd get bored, but surprisingly, I made it. I did swap out one pair of pants about half way through February because a pair I had originally selected were not working for me. 

After three months, here is a picture of my closet:

Aside from a couple rogue hangers, it's still organized and easy to find all the hanging items. 

To start phase 2 of this project, I went through my 33 items and decided three things:

1.) What items do I still really love and want to store for the next fall/winter season?

2.) What items do I still really love and want to keep in the closet for the next three months?

3.) What items didn't really work for me over the last three months that I can now get rid of?

Because we live in Michigan, my fall/winter wardrobe varies from my spring/summer clothes. So all those big bulky sweaters had to be packed up. I also packed up my wool pants, wool jackets, and fall/winter dresses. I loaded them into a box and labeled them Winter. Here is my "keep for next winter" pile:

I picked two items to donate from my original 33. This was tough, but I realized that I rarely wore them even when they were part of a very select few available items. I also kept about 10 items to transition into spring. Once I had those 10 items, I had room for 23 more. 

I went back to all the clothes I had packed away in January and pulled out anything that was spring/summer appropriate. Then I followed a similar process as in January, separating those items into things I love, things I liked, and things I could get rid of. From the first two piles, I picked my final 23 items. Here is my spring (April - June) selection:

I found quite a few things that I wasn't willing to part with back in January, but was now able to say it's time to get rid of them. So I combined all of those items into an overflowing box to take to donate.

The amount of room taken up by stored clothing in our home has already decreased noticeably. What's even better is that getting dressed this morning was exciting because it felt like I had just shopped for an entire new wardrobe. I'm really excited to continue on this journey and especially excited to see how many items I end up with in December when this project is complete.

Check out the Project 333 website if you're interested to try something like this yourself. I'm happy to answer any questions you have as well!

Here's to decreasing the amount of stuff in our homes and increasing organization!