Back in September I experimented with Project 333 for the first time. Project 333 is the minimalist fashion challenge created by Courtney Carver, whose book, Soulful Simplicity, I reviewed back in January, I said I would write an update at the end of the year with how the experiment went. It went awesome… until I got a new job in November and bought new clothes and sort of abandoned the experiment. HOWEVER, I did experiment again for January through March! So now I can let you know how I feel after 3 months of Project 333.
In case you’re new to the concept, the Project 333 challenge guidelines are simple: dress with only 33 items for three months.
Project 333 items include:
- Clothing
- Accessories (scarves, handbags)
- Jewelry
- Outerwear
- Shoes
Project 333 items don’t include:
- Undergarments, lounge wear, active wear, sleep wear (but if you plan on making a late night ice cream run in your lounge wear, then you have to count it.)
- Your wedding ring or other jewelry you wear every single day
Please see my post, Experimenting with Project 333: My Approach & What I Discovered for how I approached the challenge. I took the same approach in January as I did in September (and again this past week for April – June.) So I highly recommend reading it if you want to give this a try, but don’t know where to start.
After narrowing down my three month winter wardrobe to where I felt comfortable, I had 59 total items.
After 3 Months of Project 333
To summarize what dressing with 59 items for three months is like, I will tell you that Project 333 is very much like making a meal plan, but for your clothes. You have your basic plan and foundation in place to give you peace of mind, minimize stress, and keep you organized. But I think allowing room for flexibility is important! So you may deviate a little (especially when you don’t want what’s on the menu or you’re missing a key ingredient [i.e. it’s in the dirty laundry pile].
I did deviate a little. I wore some things not on my list in a pinch. And there were actually a few things on my list I never even wore! Quite a few items I only wore once or twice. So I learned a lot! But I will say that for the most part, I stuck to my small capsule of 59 items. And I enjoyed that… most of the time.
Come March I was sick of winter and sick of my clothes. I got a little bored. My Calvin Klein work pants ripped so I lost a key item and decided to forge on without black pants. I also ripped my heavy winter coat playing with the neighborhood kids in the snow storms. I was so ready to try Project 333 again for spring.
The Next 3 Months of Project 333
Even though we had another snow storm last week, it is technically Spring and we had our first warm day yesterday! Last weekend I made the switch to my Spring capsule with a total of 71 items. Why so many more items, you ask? There’s a few reasons:
- I have more spring clothes/accessories than for winter
- It’s a trickier season to dress for since there may still be cold days
- I like spring and wanted more variety
But that being said, I am taking a slightly different approach to ensure that I actually wear every item I’ve selected.
All my spring capsule clothes are in my closet. I am working left to right. Every time I wear an item from my spring capsule, I move it to the right (back). I want to make sure I wear every item before I start repeating items to ensure I utilize everything. If something doesn’t fit right, doesn’t work well with anything, or doesn’t make me feel good, I will eliminate it from the capsule. I have buyer’s remorse over the $100 blazer I bought last fall and still haven’t worn. I used to have two closets and entire dressers of clothes I couldn’t or didn’t wear. I will no longer tolerate a single item I don’t wear in my capsule.
This past week I have really enjoyed dressing in my updated seasonal capsule. I will definitely keep approaching my clothes this way. It’s fun for me, plain and simple. And just like I depend on my weekly meal plan, I have come to depend on my clothing plan. These plans make my life easier and free up energy for me to focus on what’s most important. I don’t have time to stress over what to eat or what to wear.
Truthfully, I don’t think I will ever get down to 33 items total, and frankly, I don’t think I want to. I love the parameters around Project 333 and the fun of seeing how close I can (comfortably) get. Sure, I could wear the same earrings every single day. Then I wouldn’t even have to count them as one item. But I don’t want to wear the same earrings every day. So I chose five pairs for Spring. The funny thing is that when I had hundreds of pieces of jewelry, I only wore the same few pieces anyway.
It’s really cool the way we tend to work. When we have less to work with, we end up utilizing more. And that’s part of the joy of simplicity and minimalism.
So please, if you also have a closet full of clothes and nothing to wear, consider giving Project 333 a try. Even if you end up with 100 items in your spring capsule – so what! At least you have an excellent base to work with you can feel good about it.
Have you tried Project 333? How do you feel after 3 months of Project 333?
