How would you fare in a challenge that requires you to only have 33 items of clothing for a three-month period?
‘Project 333’—started by Courtney Carver—is a decluttering practice where an individual can only make do with 33 items “including clothing, accessories, jewelry, outerwear and shoes” for three months. “Wedding ring, underwear, sleep, in-home lounge wear, and workout clothing” are not part of the 33 items.
Carver told Business Insider that a realization that she had too many clothes inspired her to kickstart this exercise in 2010.
She said, “I remember thinking, ‘We have to do something about this closet.’ I was decluttering my entire life and documenting it on my website ‘Be More With Less’, and my closet seemed to be a hotspot. It really started as a personal challenge—with all the clutter in the closet, I had no idea even what my style was.”
Five years on, Carver is still going strong with the minimalist fashion challenge.
She said, “I don’t have to give a lot of attention to what I’m going to wear. I’m saving time and money, and I find that with dressing with less, I get to wear my favorite things every day.”
Carver is not the only one onto this ‘capsule wardrobe’ movement, where individuals only keep the essentials and favorites in an active bid to curb over-shopping and excessive spending on unnecessary items.
Bloggers and a Tokyo-based consultant, Marie Kondo, have been sharing their experiences of minimalizing their wardrobes.
Blogger Laura Blanton said, “I liked the idea of minimizing my wardrobe, especially because I didn’t like my spending habits. I had no idea how much I was spending on clothes, but I knew it was definitely too much and didn’t line up with priorities in my life.”
On a related note, you might also remember this art director who stuck to a self-imposed uniform for work for the last three years as this allows her to give her full focus to her creative endeavors.
Find out more about ‘Project 333’ here.
[via Business Insider, images via Project 333]