Clothing Diet

I am usually pretty good at keeping my clothing under control. I've sucked at it lately. Reference below:
My closet: I know it doesn't look bad, this is because my floor looks like...

This. Note: my husband and I share the dresser, that's why you're only seeing a couple drawers.

There's two things that are wrong here. I have too much stuff for the space. So, I could either: buy more storage stuff, i.e. a dresser or a trunk or a plastic bin, or make it fit. When I put into perspective that peeps 100 years ago could fit all their stuff into a little armoire, I'm feeling pretty guilty. Yes, you may say that that is an unrealistic ideal to match myself up against, but I'm feeling like maybe it's not. They did ok, right? Except for the terrible healthcare and therefore short life expectancy and also the bad working conditions...

"The other problem?" you may ask... I LIKE clothing. Look, I know, I'm trying to be all Buddhist Monk and live with less, but I don't have to get rid of my clothing, do I? It's a basic human need: food, shelter, a wide selection of fashionable duds. Besides, people will judge you based on what you're wearing. That's why you wear suits to interviews. You're supposed to show people that you're legit.

But the whole point of this experience is to not do things based on what other people tell me I should do. I'm trying to listen to me. I like clothing, but that doesn't mean I have to have so much I can't keep track of it all. I also love small furry critters, but you don't see me collecting a whole bunch of those. Besides, this is an experiment. I'm going to give it a shot and see what happens. I'm not some crazed religious fanatic about this "less is more" stuff; I'm just giving it a shot, and seeing what happens... I swear. I'm not going to turn into a judgmental jerk about this simplicity thing.

So anyway, this is what my clothing looked like all organized before I went through it.


I thought the best way to go about it was to simply reduce by number. I didn't go for a specific percentage but just agreed I'd have to get rid of a lot. My thinking is, I'll try to live with this number. You'll hear from me if it isn"t working.

Here's the official numbers if you're wondering:
Skirts: 8 -> 2
Dress Pants: 5 -> 3
Jeans: 2 -> 2
Dresses: 19! -> 5
Shirts: 21 -> 11
Tanks: 21 -> 12
Sweaters & Cardigans: 17 -> 10
Shoes: 12 -> 8

I never wear dresses/skirts so that's why I cut that down so much. I thought the number of jeans was pretty good so I decided not to get rid of those. I justified all the tank tops because I wear those all the time as a layer. The amount of shoes I had (even originally) amazed me, but then I remembered I just got rid of 6 pairs of high heels because I am a crazy, judgmental jerk about them. They hurt my feet. I'm pretty sure they're just bad for you. I can't have fun in them; I find it hard to believe anyone can. I'm totally fine with other people wearing them, but it does make me sad sometimes to think that ladies wear them because our legs are "too stubby" or we don't feel comfortable without them. I just need to say, "You look great without those high heels. Look at how pretty your legs are." (often to myself)

As you can see, we're still talking about 53 pieces of clothing - not including underwear, bras, socks, etc. So, I'm not exactly a monk. But we'll see how much better I can do.

I'm just feeling like I should have a manageable amount of clothing. Before yesterday, I didn't. It was everywhere; always bundled up in the bottom of my closet making it so I couldn't find my high heel shoes. A mess! And if you can't take care of what you have it does you no good anyway. I believe in taking care of what you have. If I have so much stuff that I can't do that, I'm breaking my own rules. No. Good.

Here's what it looks like now.


Yes, I did fit most of my clothing in a tiny, turn-of-the-century armoire, but I also have these bins and a couple drawers which aren't pictured.

And this is what your average 2-year-old (about 3' tall) looks like standing next to the bag of stuff I got rid of.


Alright folks. We'll see how this goes. I'll keep you updated. In the meantime, what do you think when you read this post? Am I a monk or a clothing glutton? Also, what are you?!