A Failed Attempt at Wardrobe Minimalism
At the start of this zero waste project, I gave myself a stretch goal of not shopping for 52 weeks. As a hardcore fashionista and shopaholic, this goal frightened me. However, 17 weeks later, I am proud to report that I have not shopped yet (Shout-out and congrats to my friend Marianne who is also doing this non-shopping challenge and is at 17 weeks too!). As a secondary objective, I want to simplify my life and explore minimalism. A minimalist that I admire is Courtney Carver, whose project 333 is something I wanted to explore :
Minimalism in my wardrobe is a lofty target for someone who hyperventilates at the thought of having 33 items of clothing to wear. Like my friend Helene told me, you can’t go from 33 closets to 33 items of clothing! Well actually I only have my clothes in 3 closets (mine, shared with my husband, the guest room and the basement).
One recent weekend, I decided to empty my closets. As per Courtney’s recommendation, I made sure that I had cool tunes and a little fortification:
I never said I was perfect.
After I had removed all my shoes from the closet, I was amazed to learn that I had 56 pairs of shoes. Well maybe not that amazed (I enjoy shoes).
My daughter looked at me and said “Mom, you have a problem.”
Tell me something I don’t know. The clothes pile was equally distressing.
Then using a hybrid Marie Kondo – Courtney Carver method, I went through each item and asked myself if I loved it. It was pretty easy to determine the items that I loved. Whenever there was a hesitation, it meant that the love was not there. The “Give” pile was disappointingly small:
The “Maybe” pile started out quite big:
Unfortunately, in a second review of the maybe pile, I put a lot of things back. Things that I thought I might still use, in the usual situations: a clothing or accessory emergency. Consequently, the resulting “maybe” pile ended up being mostly put back.
I ended up with a nicely organized closet but I did not drastically reduce what I owned. The good news is that I love the clothes that I own and plan to wear them. The bad news is that my closet is still full. Who needs hangers when the clothes squished together support themselves?
Unlike the Minimalists and Bea Johnson, I have an unfortunate attachment to my things. As the child of an immigrant, I tend to keep things in case (1) I don’t have any money to buy anything else (2) the replacement things that I would be able to buy would be of lower quality and less desirable and (3) it is just plain wasteful to buy new clothing when I have lots of good clothes in my closet.
So I did not end up with 33 things in my closet. However, I am quite certain that I did end up with less than 333 things in my closet.
Conclusions from this Experiment in Wardrobe Minimalism
- I have a lot of clothes, shoes and accessories. Not shopping for a year may not be long enough for someone like me.
- I truly enjoy wearing my clothes and shoes and accessories. I know that we are supposed to love people and use things and not the other way around (quote from theminimalists.com). In my world, though, it seems that I have enough love to go around for both people and things.
- I need to increase my maybe pile to its original size and put it away for a while.
- In spite of everything that I have done so far on this Reduce Our Waste project, this exercise has been my hardest and least successful challenge to date.
- I can see the benefit of having fewer things to simplify one’s life. Unfortunately, I am not ready yet to part with my things. Or maybe I will be in a few more months. Minimalist wardrobe experiment part 2 here I come!
Challenge for the Week: Are you willing or interested in a minimalist wardrobe? Set aside an afternoon, put on your favorite tunes and have your favorite libation ready to go and you can do it too. Follow your heart and keep only those things you love. Maybe.