I came across Project 333 on the Becoming Minimalist Blog and it was also featured in The Minimalists' Documentary. In brief, the challenge is to dress in 33 items for 3 months, with a few exceptions per the rules:
The 33 items include clothing, accessories, jewelry, outerwear, and shoes. They do NOT include wedding ring (or other jewelry you never take off), underwear, sleep wear, in-home lounge wear, and workout clothing (that you only wear to workout). The Project Website is HERE.
This would not be a challenge for my husband and I as we both pretty much already dress in only 33 pieces of clothing. I work from home, plus am breastfeeding. I bet if I use the exclusions from the project, I wear maybe 15 pieces of clothing max. My husband wears the same shirts, pants, and shoes to work every week.
Our issue is not in what we are wearing, but in actually getting rid of things we have but never wear. Considering we both easily require less than 33 items for our daily lives plus workout clothes and sleep wear, we have an extraordinary amount of clothing, shoes, and accessories which we do not need.
I slimmed down my closet and dresser in 2015 after reading Marie Kondo's Book (affiliate link). My goal at that time was to reduce and reorganize (using her folding method) so I did not have to switch out my clothes with the seasons. I had 3 bins in my closet which I used to switch out my dresser for warm weather and cold weather. I succeeded in that, everything now fits in my closet and my dresser. I also was able to move my formal clothes (dresses for weddings, suits for interviews, etc) into my regular closet. The only items I have in another closet are winter jackets (which don't fit in the coat closet downstairs) and Halloween costumes.
I'm not a fan of Marie Kondo's "Sparking Joy" test. It just doesn't speak to me. My guidelines were more practical: Does it fit? Have I worn it in the past year? Do I really like it? I made exceptions for some professional work clothes (as I currently work from home, I don't need these items but they are in good condition, were expensive, and I may not always work from home) and semi-formal wear.
But thanks to Marie, my clothes have room to breathe. My closet has open space so it is easy to hang up items and my drawers are well organized so I can see all my clothes at a glance. My socks are at peace, Marie :-) I got rid of more items last year when my sister was in town visiting. I decided a certain size was never going to fit me again and gave her around 15 pairs of pants.
My husband's side of the closet is so packed that I have difficulty hanging up his shirts after doing laundry. He also has 9 drawers full of clothes. I have 5. (He got the bigger dresser because his clothes are bigger - his argument lol - and he also uses one of his nightstand drawers for clothes while I do not.) To give him credit - when we first moved in together his clothing took up both dressers and both sides of the closet. He had lost a significant amount of weight and he donated a ton of clothing to free up my dresser and my half of the closet. He gave away around 60 pairs of pants and tons of shirts. This was in 2012 though and it's time for another purge...
We have a 3-bedroom house with limited storage (keep in mind we have 2 kids). We live in the south so our home does not have a basement and the heat makes storing items in the garage or attic impractical. It's so easy for things to become cluttered.
Onto our first minimalism-inspired challenge...
Clean Out Your Closet!
I challenge my husband to clean out and donate (or discard) 40% of his current clothes, shoes, and accessories (belts, ties, scarfs, hats, bags, etc). Boxers and socks count honey, get rid of old pairs.
I will clean out and donate (or discard) 10% of my current clothes, shoes, and accessories. Nursing tops will be excluded from my count as I will be giving those away once I'm done breastfeeding, they are not a permanent part of my wardrobe.
I know you may be thinking - but that's not fair! The percentages are based on the fact that I believe I have significantly fewer items. I've cleaned out much more recently. But, if my assumption turns out to be false once we get to counting, I'm happy to increase my percentage.
The goals of this project include:
1. Fit everything in our personal bedroom closet and coat closet downstairs. (Nothing can be stored in our son's rooms.)
2. Be able to easily see and access our clothing.
3. Not have to reorganize anything for change of season.
4. The floor of our bedroom closet and coat closet should be clean and should stay clean.
5. Consider moving the small dresser in our closet into our youngest son's room (he doesn't have a dresser, but he's also only 5 months old).
We will each provide our count for total # of items (pairs of shoes count as 1), total # donated, and percentage donated along with some before and after pictures.
Challenge starts today (Friday, August 18th) and goes though Sunday, August 27th, to allow two full weekends to work on it. Challenge includes actually donating our items, they must be removed from the house!
xoxo,
Erica
Check out some posts/inspirations from our Pinterest Board for this challenge:
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