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| My current closet 'before' |
My last career position in retail was working as a store manager for Polo Ralph Lauren Factory Stores. I manged a large volume 'outlet' not far from NYC. As such, we not only carried all the typical factory store inventory, but we were occasionally recipients of boxes of random cast-offs from the full retail stores in the city. This meant some pretty unique and outstanding items. It wasn't uncommon to find pieces with the names of the runway models marked on the inside in our shipments a few weeks after fashion week was over. Add to that the policy that employees got a 50% discount on top of the already discounted prices, and suddenly I could afford things that only the very wealthy would typically buy. And buy I did. The credit card debt mounted and my closet walls were pushed to their limits. Funny, because I could still only wear one outfit at a time. ;)
Fast forward many years and I still had some lingering habits from those days. A penchant for super high quality items, the inability to pass up on a screaming deal, and the need/desire to have EXACTLY the right combination of shoes/outfit for whatever the occasion happened to be...
The contrast was that I was an engineer by day and a small farmer by night...neither of which required any fashion beyond jeans and t-shirts. The good news for my wardrobe was that our farm house had a master closet the size of a room. Further good news is that my husband had very little to store which left me with TONS of room to keep all my clothing. Beyond this, we also had a 10ft pipe suspended from the rafters in the basement that housed all clothing that either didn't fit, or was so far out of season that it was not needed. Lastly, I possessed a full sized (bulky) dresser that also lived in this mammoth closet...
When we sold the farm and moved into town, my closet options shrunk drastically. I had to downsize to one 6 foot bar and a normal sized dresser. This required a massive purging and Goodwill was the biggest recipient! I also managed to take possession of our guest closet as well, so I managed to get by...
A few years of fighting with this closet situation (it was still a battle), and I was ready to look into remodeling options. Then I had a bit of an epiphany. I was traveling for work and realized that I'd mis-packed and was short quite a few things. I managed to re-arrange my outfit plans using only the things I'd brought and was able to make 5 days worth of outfits from the reduced amount of clothing. It was kind of fun! It also made me realize that maybe less would be more. Then I stumbled upon Project 333. Live with 33 items for 3 months? The idea both scared and excited me and I figured that meant I should try it.
July of 2015, I did. I opted for 47 pieces of clothing. I chose to not count purses, outerwear or jewelry (or socks and underwear) because I felt I had zero issue with 'overbuying' these things (still don't). I didn't count athletic wear (biking, camping, running, etc) either. I curated my 47 pieces (47 because I was 47 years old) out of the things I already owned, packed away everything else in bins (or donated it) and went for three months using only those items. I LOVED it! Packing for trips was so much easier. Mornings were smoother. And oddly enough, I felt better about how I looked because I really enjoyed 95% of the things I'd kept in my wardrobe. When the quarter was over, I donated a few items, switched out a few items (mostly sandals for boots), bought a couple of things and did it again. It was great!
Things I discovered:
- I need way less than I think I need if those things I have are carefully chosen.
- Shopping is significantly more fun if I limit it to a short period and to carefully curated items
- It's much easier to recycle magazines or delete marketing emails when I know I'm not buying - I'm less tempted
- I have my own style! Each quarter I would gravitate towards certain things/styles...and I always felt good wearing those things
- When your items are limited, you don't tolerate mediocrity very well. If I wore something that I only felt was 'OK', it might get a second chance but would likely be permanently removed from the rotation at the end of the cycle.
- Keeping certain things set aside for 3 months makes them feel new and exciting again when they make a re-appearance (like tall boots do every fall).
- A whole dresser is SO not necessary
I kept this up for all 6 cycles (changing out every quarter) since the first time. Over time, I was finding that I got a little careless with the 47 item count. I only have 36 nice wood hangers in my closet, so if I run out of hangers, I know I've let items creep back in (knowing I have things in drawers, too). I've been ignoring the fact that some things are still on dry-cleaner hangers and yet there are no empty wood ones. I've also gone a little crazy the past few months on updating/increasing my workout clothing since we'd joined a new fitness studio. Now those things are getting overwhelming and I need to scale that back, too.
Enter the new challenge.
Starting on October 1st, I will buy no new clothing for 1 year.
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