Project 333: how I reduced my wardrobe to 33 items

Recent changes in my life have caused me to re-evaluate all my stuff. I spend a good amount of my free time reading minimalist blogs and I fell in love with the idea of a lighter life. Not having so much stuff should create more (emotional) freedom. Not owning stuff means not worrying about that stuff, not having to maintain it, not having to clean it, not having to store it, not having to move it. The list goes on and on.

As my life is now, I am looking at a period where I will be working from home and possibly be moving house on a very short notice. Losing my junk now will spare me a lot of trouble in the near future. So I decided to cut the crap, get over my anxiety of throwing stuff away and get on with it. I am starting with my most prized possessions; clothes.

I found this wonderful blog about reducing clothes on bemorewithless. This blog led me to the very helpful website about getting started with project333.

The idea is to reduce your wardrobe to 33 items for 3 months. After 3 months you can update the 33 items to the new season. 

To start, I am cheating a little bit. I am not counting any accessories yet apart from hats and scarves. I only wear jewelry on special occasions anyway and I like my options when I do.
I am also adding an extra t-shirt to wear for the world cup. I only wear my proud Dutchy orange for world cup and euro cup events and I will stash the shirt when it is over.

In advance of my big clean-up day, I made a list of items I expected to want in my capsule for summer. This would be my guideline in choosing my items.

Pants

I started with pants. I have 8 pairs and decided to capsule 2, donate 3 which do not fit me anymore and store the other 3.

Dresses

Then I started with my long sleeved dresses. I love all of them but since it is summer, I will probably not be wearing them the coming months. I decided I would give my all black dress to a friend and store the rest for fall and winter.

Then I got to the hard part. My summer dressed. I knew I had way too many and I love them all. I came to the hard decision to donate one I haven’t worn in years, store one I can wear with a long sleeved shirt for fall and give away 4 I know would look lovely on some of my friends. This left me with 5 dresses I wanted to capsule.

But then I got to my skirts and came to the conclusion I didn’t include my jumpsuits in my list and that I left a very beloved dress in the hamper. So I decided to donate a skirt that is rubbish and I wouldn’t want to wish it on my friends, store 2 skirts I want to re-evaluate in fall and keep both jumpsuits, a skirt and the much loved dress. My list is obviously going to shit here.

Sweaters

On with my sweaters. This was easy. I don’t wear them often in summer safe for camping trips so I kept one and decided to store the rest for fall and winter.

Vests

Next came my vests and jackets. This was a shock for me, as I didn’t know I had so many! I haven’t worn some of them in years and I had to come to the conclusion some were threadbare (WHY did I keep them all this time?!). So I decided to donate 3 that were beyond repair or simply not worth repairing, give away one that deserves so much more loving wear than it gets from me, keep 4 to keep me warm on cooler days and store the rest for re-evaluation this fall.

Short sleeved shirts

Next up were my shirts. I tend to buy either weird cartoon shirts or cheap plain shirts that lose their shape quickly. I decided to cheat a little because two of the items are a combination I always wear together so I count them as one item. Also my Dutch soccer cheer shirt is kept and not counted as an item. I will store it as soon as the Dutch team is out of the competition. In the end I decided to give away 2 that will look stunning on friends, donate 3 that are too ugly to keep, capsule 7 (not counting the orange) and store the rest for future evaluation.

Long sleeved shirts

Next were my long sleeved shirts for which I have lost the ‘ before’ picture, But I decided to keep 4, store 4, give away 3 and donating the rest.

Leggings

Then on with my favorite clothing item. My leggings. Have you seen the Jenna Marbles I am addicted to leggings video? I think she was making it for me. I LOVE my leggings. Especially crazy print leggings. They are well out of fashion but I do not care. At all. So to not make myself cry, I decided to capsule a crazy one that goes with a lot of my summer dresses along with a plain black one, I donated one legging that doesn’t fit me anymore along with all my pantyhose. I suck at wearing pantyhose, I rip them so I tossed them. The rest of my crazy legging babies are going in storage to be loved some other season.

Shoes

On to shoes! Which turned out to be a problem. I had calculated 5 pairs, but came up with only 2 pairs which are suitable for summer and neither of them are very dressy or grown up. My ‘nice’ shoes turned out to be horribly damaged. So I decided to keep 2, store 3 and donate 3. In the end I remembered one of my friends has the exact same shoe size as me so the leopard ones were given away to her.

Scarves

Scarves were easy, I don’t particularly care about them so I decided to give away one I don’t wear, donate 2 that are damaged, store 2 for fall and keep one flowy summer scarf.

Hats

Since I am not a hipster, hats are not a summer item for me so I decided to store them all for fall evaluation.

Coats

And lastly I needed a jacket for the cooler and or rainy days. This also turned out to be a problem since I only have a winter coat. I decided to store it.

My final list

4 vests
1 sweater
6 dresses
1 skirt
2 jumpsuits
2 pairs of pants
4 long sleeved shirts
6 short sleeved shirts
2 leggings
1 scarf
2 pairs of shoes

This left me with 31 items (good job!) and thus room in my capsule to buy some nice shoes for dressy occasions and a summer coat.

Update:

I bought some black pumps to replace my old ones and a nice rainproof coat.
All my give away stuff was happily accepted by my friends and gone before I could blink! 

Curious for my autumn capsule? Click to visit!