Wardrobe Challenge: Buy Nothing New for One Year

You read that right.  This former consummate consumer is going dark on her wardrobe!

From October 1, 2016 to October 1, 2017, I will buy no new clothing.  My mantra will be 'Less is More'

Here are my official rules:

1. Buy nothing new for myself for 1 calendar year beginning Oct 1, 2016. This includes all apparel including athletic wear, shoes, bags, jewelry and accessories.
2. Vacation is not an excuse to break the challenge.
3. Gifts, prizes and giveaways do not count and are acceptable.
4. In addition to not buying anything new, every day, I must get rid of one item.  Preference will be to thrift it, donate it or recycle it, but if it is not usable, disposal is OK too.  Pairs cannot be separated to cover two days for this part of the challenge! 
5. Items being removed will be documented here on a regular basis (may not be daily).

There are three exceptions to these rules:

• I am allowed to replace something that cannot be fixed (i.e. dog chews up a bra, I can buy a new bra to replace it)
• It shouldn't need to be said, but in the case of disaster (house burns down), game is over.
• I've been shopping for a new winter coat for 2 years.  Should I find the perfect coat, I can buy it as a replacement even though my current coat is still usable (it's too big and really worn but I'm super picky about what I want and I can't find it!).

For the past week, I've had to resist the urge to go on a shopping spree (similar to the urge to pork out on ice cream the day before starting a diet!).  I have bought a few basics (new bra, new pair of dress pants, black flats and a couple of layering tops for work), but I did not go crazy.  I've also spent the week unsubscribing to every apparel related company that emails me.  I'm amazed at how many I get and how I've just gotten used to deleting them without noticing the volume. I've also instructed my husband to dump any clothing catalogs we receive directly into the recycling bin on the way back from the mailbox. 

Excited.  Nervous.  Curious. Determined.  Let's do this!

(anyone want to join me?)

The Wardrobe Transition

My current closet 'before'

As anyone who's known me for while can attest, I like clothing.  I'm not really a fashion diva as my style has typically trended fairly 'classic', but I have exhibited varying levels of obsession with wardrobe over the years.  A large chunk of my teens and 20's spent in the retail industry is partly to blame.  Personal insecurities contributed.  Financial freedom sealed the deal.

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.

Simplicity - Our Journey Continues

Since it's been more than three years since I last posted, much has happened (as would be expected!).  I've decided to begin blogging regularly again because I have created a new challenge for myself, and I'd like a place to document the journey.  This new challenge starts October first, so I have about a week to get 'my readers' (*snicker*...like I have any anymore!) up to date and to lay the groundwork for what will be happening.

But first, a bit of a recap:

Our trip to Kauai was fabulous...a trip of a lifetime...particularly the sea kayaking down the Na'Pali coast.  That was not something either of us will forget, ever.  Truly spectacular!  My photos truly did not do it justice!

During the second half of 2013, I re-joined Leanness Lifestyle (now called Leanness Lifestyle University) and lost most of the weight I wanted to lose.  My recent weight/nutrition journey is a whole post in and of itself, so in the meantime, suffice it to say that I'm up about 10 lbs from my lowest but still feeling great.  My body size will play a role in my upcoming challenge, so there will be more on that to come.

In May of 2014, Rick shattered his lower left leg in a slow-motion motorcycle crash in the woods of south western Oregon.  Surgery one was May 18th to have an external fixator attached to his leg.  Three weeks on the couch (literally) in prep for surgery two on June 5th.  I was tasked with a LOT of home-care for this poor guy over the following few months.  To say 'it was a challenge' just does not do either of us justice. But we made it through.

2014 was the year from hell at work, too.  That horrific word 'busy' doesn't even begin to describe it.  End result, was a job change in the spring of 2016.  I've left my role as the University Program Manager for my company (which also went through a crazy merger in that time-frame) and now I'm back on the technical side of things as a program manager for our R&D organization.  I am much happier in this role, despite the inevitable challenges that come with any new position.

2015 included a long recovery for Rick, another trip to Hawaii for both of us (Maui, this time), ridiculous work hours and travel for me, nowhere near enough biking, hiking, kayaking or running as we'd like and all of this prompted an overwhelming desire to regain some control over our lives.

In July of 2015, I did my first total closet clean out and spent the next three months with only 47 pieces of clothing in my closet (not including underwear or athletic wear).  It was an interesting challenge for me and one that I repeated with each of the following quarters - allowing for one 'change-over' the first week of each quarter to switch out a few items as needed for seasonal changes and variety.  It was a fun way to do a little simplifying during an insanely busy time and one that actually helped me feel more in control when I desperately needed it.  there will be more information on this in posts to come as well.

2016 has been a whirlwind so far.  As I already mentioned - I made a major job change in the first few months of the year.  We also saw the staggeringly devastating loss of our sweet dog, Maggie.  As much as life is easier with just two dogs, Maggie was something special and we miss her daily still...

Rick and I joined our local Orange Theory Fitness studio in March of 2016 and have been more consistent about going to those workouts than any fitness-related thing either of us has done in over a decade! It's been great fun doing this together.  He's benefited from the all-around workouts (not just weight lifting) and I'm benefiting from the motivation I get from seeing results.  Plus, it's fun (most of the time)!

This past May, I had surgery to remove pterygium (Surfer's Eye or sun damaged tissue) from my left eye.  The healing process was the single most annoying thing I've ever felt. But one eye is as good as new, now.  Pterygium is likely a remnant from my days of 80's tans with no sunscreen and years of living in the south and hardly ever wearing sunglasses.  Remember to wear your sunglasses, boys and girls!  Surgery on the right eye is in two weeks.  As much as I dread it, I'm excited to have both eyes done so that they can heal and I can get updated glasses.  My Rx is clearly off but until I'm through this, new glasses would be a waste because this affects my vision in varying ways.

And at the end of August, Rick changed jobs, too.  For him, the change was from a very, very large company, (Intel fully absorbed McAfee in 2015) to a much smaller one.  He's been in this new role for less than a month and so far, so good. We have high hopes!  If nothing else, he is looking forward to supporting products and a company that he believes in and that's always a big improvement.

I think that brings us up to date since my last posting.  Nothing like covering 3 years worth of life in a few paragraphs, huh?

We still have plans for early retirement. In fact, we've been shopping for land, off and on, for awhile now.  I think the plan will be to buy some property (hopefully on a lake) and build an off-grid tiny home (and a tiny barn for tiny goats!).    But...we aren't there yet.  Life continues with dual incomes, still living by a budget, working on retirement savings and watching the value of our home virtually skyrocket.  It's insane but we aren't complaining.  We are also trying to simplify.  I can't say we'll ever get to true minimalism, but we definitely want to work in that direction.

My challenge starting October 1 will be our next step down that path.

Hawaiian Vacation!

About that vacation I mentioned?  Yeah, Hawaii.  To be more specific?  Kauaii!!

To be perfectly honest, I've never been all that interested in a vacation to Hawaii.  First of all, as an east coast resident for most of my life, it was too far away.  I mean, I could get to London easier than I could get to Hawaii.  And I'm not a beach bum...not by a long shot.  So a vacation to 'sit on a beach' didn't appeal to me either.  My husband is the same way so even though we got married in March which is a perfect time of year for tropical vacations, we went to the Canadian Rockies for our honeymoon!

But, with the extended stay dog training on the docket, we were in the market for a trip that would be fairly easy to make on short notice.  Now that we live on the west coast, two locations came up - Hawaii and Cabo.  Both are fairly inexpensive (relatively) to get to from here and both had availability in June.  After some comparison shopping (and stumbling on some photos of Kauai), I decided on Hawaii.

Kauai is gorgeous and looks quite wild.  Think of that scene in Jurassic Park where they are descending in the helicopter near the waterfall - that is in Kauai!!  Once I started to look at activities on all the islands, Kauai quickly rose to the top of my list.  Hiking, kayaking, ziplines, horseback riding.... The terrain is unbelievable and really, the only thing it is missing is hot lava (which I'm not all that concerned with seeing anyway).

We are staying at a hotel in an ocean-view room fairly near the middle of the island so that we can easily get to all areas.  We've reserved a helicopter ride, a sea kayaking trip to the cliffs of Na'Pali, a zipline tour and a luau.  We will also do quite a bit of hiking on our own and perhaps some river kayaking as well.  And I must swim in a waterfall.  I must.

I've also ordered this camera to take with me so that I can take tons of gorgeous photos to share!

Dog Training

OK, so here it is a few weeks later and where are we?  What is happening in our lives?

The sale on the farm home closed right on schedule.  We walked away with just about nothing in terms of cash (the small amount we received after we paid the realtor fees was almost exactly what we owed on the loan for the new roof on that farm house - so we paid it off) but we are 100% free and clear of the home that was financially sucking us dry.

We almost immediately found a new way to suck money out of our account.  Dog training!

Let me explain.  We own three dogs all of whom weigh between 75 lbs and 90 lbs.  We now live in a 1400 sf home with zero yard.  This means that twice a day (minimum) we must walk all three dogs.  Not such a big deal considering that they walk fairly well on a leash and will stand still while we pick up their poo.  Not such a big deal when most of our neighborhood was still under construction and mostly uninhabited.  Unfortunately, as the other homes get finished and people move in, the place is getting busier.  This means there are lots of people about pretty much all the time and many of them have dogs.  Now those same 'walk well on a leash' dogs are not quite so easy to handle when there are people to greet or dogs to run after!  And when three large dogs all decide to head in the same direction, it takes more than either myself or my husband to stop them.  A few weeks ago, I was dragged across the parking lot on my stomach because our dogs had to 'defend' me from the chihuahua who was off-leash and 'attacking' us.

In addition to the walking issue, we have a company issue.  We have friends who are not dog lovers whom we have not invited over in 6 months because we have no way of separating our dogs from them.  We don't like to have any company over (or even get food delivered) because the dogs go ape-shit crazy when someone comes over.  They are nice, friendly dogs...they are just big, hairy, and overwhelming.  It's frankly embarrassing.

When a woman at work was mentioning the training her dogs were going through I perked up my ears.  The place takes the dogs as boarders and they work with them until they recall on command, walk calmly at your side regardless of distractions and will 'down' in the corner of a room filled with other dogs and people.  The answers to our problems!!

It's not a cheap proposition, but in reality, it's not *that* much more expensive than boarding.  So early in June, two of the three dogs will go to training and the third will join them later in the month (she's less of a problem).  When all three are gone, we will be boarding our cat and TAKING A VACATION!!

It'll be our first real vacation together since our honeymoon 10 years ago!!  As much as I"m super excited about that, I'm honestly more thrilled with the idea that we will have well-behaved dogs for once.  When we pick them up, it is a full day of training for us, too.  And it's not a one and done situation either.  We'll have plenty of 'homework' and reinforcement to do once they come home.  Now, if only they could train them to stop shedding.

Wow, I thought dog hair was bad in our last home. That was nothing compared to three of them and a cat in small space!  Thank heaven for our Dyson! ;-)

Closing a door - and finding freedom

Almost 5 years ago, my husband and I made a huge change in our lives.  We were unhappy where we were, so we researched locations we wanted to live and we chose the Portland, Oregon area.  Then we found jobs and relocated here in February of 2008.  We immediately set out to buy a small farm and we taught ourselves (by mostly trial and error and google searches!) how to farm in a sustainable manner.  You can read about our adventures here:

http://simplemetamorphosis.blogspot.com/

About a year and a half ago, we started to question our decision-making paradigm and we spent quite a few months hemming and hawing about our future.  We both loved the farm and wanted to do it full time, but financially, it wasn't a possibility.  After much deliberation, we came to the conclusion that we did want to farm full time, but we also wanted to have full time careers.  To do both, we opted to focus on the career part now, and the farming in the future.  We found a place that is MUCH smaller with zero land (only a small private patio) that is 5 miles from my office and right in the thick of civilization.  It's also holds a significantly smaller mortgage.  We moved into this place in October of 2012 and spent the remainder of the year working on the farmhouse and property, and re-homing the animals in preparation for sale.  This included renovating the bathrooms to take the house form a 3/2 to a 3/3 with a private master suite.  We also replaced all the carpeting and cheap laminate flooring in the main living space with a higher end but durable laminate.  We painted, we de-cluttered and we generally reconditioned the house and listed it in mid-March.  Two weeks later, we accepted an almost full price offer and later this week, we will close on it.

Closing a lovely (but challenging) chapter in our lives.

Now the plan is to move forward with our lives with the intent to farm again when we retire.  The goal is to retire early in about 10 years assuming that we can save/invest enough money to make it financially feasible.  With the smaller mortgage and newer home, we should be able to contribute to that fund in a regular manner.

In the meantime, we will bike more and drive less, we will learn to live in a smaller space, we will both recondition our bodies (we've let all of this get in the way of our fitness levels), we will grow things at our community garden and we will take the opportunity to see much, much more of our gorgeous state, the pacific northwest and the world in general.

Follow along if you are so inclined. :-)