Seven Tips For Cutting Back Your Closet

It’s been almost five years since I discovered Courtney Carver’s Project 333, the “dressing with less” program.

Since then, the capsule closet movement has grown immensely, and it’s easy to get lost in a rabbit hole of posts on the topic.

With five years now of reducing and capsuling under my belt (hah!), I thought I’d offer up a few tips and tricks I’ve learned in that time for those of you who might be interested in starting to cut back your closets in a similar fashion.

Seven TIPS For CUTTING BACK YOUR CLOSET

Tip No. 1:

If you love clothing and aren’t feeling any pressure whatsoever to change your closet or buying habits, stop reading now! You do not need this post (but thanks for reading this far). I was like that for many, many years. There is nothing wrong with keeping on the way you’re keeping on. At all. When I came across Project 333, I had been frustrated with my wardrobe and its impact on my life for a long time and was seeking ways to change. If that sounds like you, read how I got my start, and, more importantly why, here.

Tip No. 2:

Read this by Courtney. She really still is my go-to person when I’m looking for inspiration and motivation in this area. If you’re going to get lost in a blog, get lost in hers.

Tip No. 3:

It’s really important when you first start cleaning out your wardrobe, and all those plastic bins shoved under your bed or in the back of the closet or down in the basement, that you pull out every single item of wearable you own. Everything. I even try to make sure all of my laundry is done before I start digging through so there aren’t a ton of random stinky outliers.

Tip No. 4:

Start the process by making three piles: 1) Keep for sure. 2) Try on/maybe keep. 3) Donate (or dispense of/recycle in some way, if torn or stained and you can’t donate). At this point, don’t worry about how much goes in each pile, just work quickly through every item. Once you’ve done this, try on every item that was in Pile 2, and redistribute to PIle 1 or Pile 3. Bag up Pile 3 immediately and set aside.

Tip No. 5:

Honor your emotions. This process can be overwhelming and exhausting. You may think they’re just clothes — what’s so difficult? But really, you’re digging through years of your life, history and memories, and maybe tackling body issues. You’re trying on a bunch of clothes, some that will fit and some that will not. And at some point you may just hit decision fatigue. Set up somewhere where you can leave all your piles for a night if you can’t finish the process in one sitting. Recruit a friend to help, play uplifting music, drink a glass of wine.

Tip No. 6:

If you want to aim for a certain number of items to keep for your daily wardrobe, or formally do a Project 333, go ahead. However if this is your first big clearing out, you might just want to go the route I did, which was doing two years of this process each season before I committed to Project 333. Put back in your closet all of the keepers that are seasonally appropriate. Box up all the keepers that aren’t seasonally appropriate and store somewhere. Bag up the donations and drop them off somewhere as soon as you can (or plan a clothing swap with friends).

Tip No. 7:

Celebrate! Wear all the things. Enjoy all the things. Rinse and repeat — in three months or six months or whenever the season shifts and you need those sweaters (or tank tops). Note: I do still make one big pile (that’s gotten much smaller over the years) every single time I refresh my capsule closet.

Have questions I haven’t answered? Happy to answer them in the comments below!

33 days, 33 outfits. Big sigh.

Ta-da!

Yesterday wrapped up my participation in the #33in33 challenge part of Project 333 — in other words, the process of constructing 33 different outfits from my capsule wardrobe for 33 straight days.

The fun part of this challenge was meeting others across the country doing the same — Hi Alicia and Ginny! The less fun part was shooting a photo of myself each day. And even though Project 333 is supposed to help you focus less on your wardrobe, I think I spent more time than ever contemplating my clothes over the past four weeks.

That said, it was a good experiment. And now I can just start living with these clothes for two more months.

Kind of ...

I think the biggest aha I had during this process was that, really, the number of items involved in a capsule wardrobe doesn't matter. Maybe your number, like Courtney Carver, is 33. Maybe your number is 25, or 37. Or 50.

I knew this logically, of course, but at some point last week, when I was thinking about my short-sleeved shirts and how it was getting colder, and how I really missed my grandmother's pearls, and how could I swap some stuff out for some other stuff to make it all work in the "33"  (or in my case, 33 X 2) limit, I said, "Why 33?"

Why am I trying to force my process into someone else's box?

The answer was, without some sort of guide, I never would have gotten to this point. So that initial boundary was key. And I would recommend it to anyone who wanted to give it a try.

However, what's really most important to me is the capability to easily see everything in my closet at once. To not have to dig through piles on shelves or in drawers or big plastic bins. To be wearing the clothes I actually like and feel good in, instead of throwing on whatever happens to be clean. To reduce my addiction to shopping for something better. To be less overwhelmed by ironing and laundry, and to generally take a more minimalist approach to my wardrobe.

And I can do that with a different number. A number of my own.

So, as a result of all of this, I am swapping out a few more a-bit-too-summery items for the following two months, and adding in a few more accessories — all pieces that I already own. I'm topping out at 75 pieces total: 35 in my core clothing, and 40 for shoes, jewelry, coats, scarves, hats, snow boots, etc. And while I'll continue to keep a list of items I find myself missing, I'm otherwise letting go of control over the process. I'll make the next two months work from this wardrobe. And spend more time being grateful for all that I do have.

I actually have a feeling that once I've stopped having to pull together new outfits each day, certain items will be worn regularly, and others will fall to the back of the closet, and when January comes, there's a good chance I'll reduce that 75 even more.

Time will tell.

Capsule closet and Project 333

About a year and a half ago, I was fed up with my closet, with staring into that stuffed-to-the-brim space and always feeling like I had nothing to wear. I was tired of wasting oh-so-much time digging through the piles, then finally throwing on whatever was easiest instead of what looked good on me anyway. I was also extremely frustrated with the mountains of laundry.

A little Googling led me to Courtney Carver's Project 333, and now, after going through two purging cycles since last year, I'm hooked.

Today, October 1, I joined in on the newest phase of Project 333 (October 1-December 31) along with her #33in33 days photography project. I'm a little excited, and a little scared.

At a very basic level, Project 333 is about reducing your wardrobe to what some would say is a minimalist level (33 items), and sticking with it for three months. The rules, as Courtney has outlined them, are as follows:

• When: Every three months (It’s never too late to start so join in anytime!)
• What: 33 items including clothing, accessories, jewelry, outerwear and shoes.
• What not: these items are not counted as part of the 33 items – wedding ring or another sentimental piece of jewelry that you never take off, underwear, sleep wear, in-home lounge wear,  and workout clothing (you can only wear your workout clothing to workout)
• How: Choose your 33 items, box up the remainder of your fashion statement, seal it with tape and put it out of sight.
• What else: consider that you are creating a wardrobe that you can live, work and play in for three months. Remember that this is not a project in suffering. If your clothes don’t fit or are in poor condition, replace them.

The first time I tried to cull my wardrobe, I was appalled at how many clothes I had. I cut back to something in the 100 range, but that was just items of clothing. Not jewelry. Not scarves. Not shoes. Not purses and bags. Just tops, pants, skirts and dresses. I knew I had a bit of an addiction, but I really hadn't realized how bad it was.

The second time it got a little easier, but I still was coming in at 52 items in my closet, once again not including all the accessories.

This time, I'm a whole lot closer, but still playing the game by my own rules, which Courtney allows for as well. As she says, this is not about suffering — if you love shoes, and wear many different pairs regularly, don't include them in your main 33. Same for jewelry, and other accessories.

So I'm playing the Project 333(x2) game. I've whittled my wardrobe down to 33 core clothing items. And I've got another 33 pieces combined of jewelry, shoes, scarves, and winter-weather miscellany (heavy coats, boots, etc.), since we're likely to hit some cold spells here in Colorado.

It's taken a good solid week of free time to get to this place. And it was hard starting. But then I found the question that made all the difference in the world in helping me select what to keep and what to pack away:

If I can't wear this item for three months, will I be sad?

Things fell into place after that. Both my head and my heart knew exactly what I'd miss. And honestly, it wasn't much.

On a different note, doing this project is also helping me pinpoint my personal style. What is it that I do really love to wear? What do I wear just because it's hanging in the closet? What do I want to feel like each and every day when I put on my clothes? Delving into this topic is one of my #40before41 list items, so I'll be revisiting it as we go along over these next three months and into 2015.

Oh, and as for Courtney's newest component to Project 333, the #33in33 days challenge ... she's asking people to post photos on Instagram of 33 different outfits constructed from their 33-item capsule closet. I'm going to play along. My first post went up over there today if you're curious.