Quick, Easy, Outfit Choices

I have been so amazed by project 333 in the last month! I started on July 19 officially and I just barely went through all of my clothes. I did some laundry in between but not too much. I am just amazed how many outfits I got out of that few of items. Plus I used every single item! No way I would have done that in the past.

I really enjoy each outfit and it has been so easy to pick just like all the minimalist posts about paring down your wardrobe say. It makes it easier not harder to pick your outfits because you love all your clothes. There isn’t a single clothing item that I kept that I hate or even mildly dislike.

I haven’t even wanted to shop all that much because I have what I need and want and each day is fun. It might be nice to have one or two more nice shirts for Sunday, because I don’t have many plain white or light shirts that go well with my skirts. Other than that though really no complaints. I think I have a good mix of casual and dressy at about half and half. On the whole I think I have looked a lot nicer.

Another added bonus is I have gone up and down and haven’t needed to change my whole wardrobe. What I have works for both ups and downs at this point. It was comfy enough for the dreary days and bright enough for my bold days.

Today’s outfit was a quick pick that took about thirty seconds altogether. I grabbed a shirt and grabbed pants and I was done. I’m going to a doctor’s appointment so I skipped leggings or pajamas like I was wearing earlier.

I love this outfit. It is bright and cute and casual all rolled into one. The pants stand out but the top is simple and comfy plus it has an added bonus of being very easy to nurse in. It also doesn’t need an under shirt which is nice both because of the weather and because of the hassle an undershirt adds to nursing.

My wardrobe will change again most likely when I stop nursing. I tend to lose 10-15 lbs when I stop and that changes my size dramatically plus I don’t have to worry about easily moving shirts to nurse. I have kept a large box or two of clothes in lower sizes for this reason. Eventually I hope to have a nursing 33 items, a post nursing, pregnancy and winter and summer. I hope there is a great deal of overlap in these as I don’t want to keep 150 items always. I also don’t want to have to buy all new clothes in these different phases either. Although I can get them cheap I can’t always get exactly what I want when I want it.

I think once my oldest girl is in school next week I should have a little more time to sort these different wardrobes at least the winter one that is coming up. I will be the same size so I can go through and get rid of the excess. I’m sure I have a ton.

One struggle I have found is my husband still has tons of clothes and when I ran out of t-shirts I did use two of his before doing laundry. Really this is just laziness. I can’t wait though until he will go through and at least get rid of the items he no longer likes. I have found though and it is recommended on many minimalism blogs to worry about you first and let others follow at their own pace.

For now, we have the storage space and a great deal to spare so we can afford to keep his clothes without getting a storage unit or anything. We don’t even have a basement or garage but we do have two rooms basically dedicated to storage.

The rest of our house is getting leaner though and I enjoy getting rid of a box here and a bag there as I slowly trim the fat.

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Shift in Direction

I have decided to make a shift in how I will be running my blog. Instead of writing my blog and then coming out with a book I’m going to start writing my book now. I think because of this that I will be mainly focusing on my project 333 posts and my side posts and holding off on my memoir post for now until I have a better idea what direction I want to take with them.

 

I would like to get the book written and then be able to take a chapter or an idea from the book and elaborate some from it. I don’t want to duplicate content too much but I would like to make some of the content free if people want that option.

 

I will continue posting on a weekly basis and maybe twice weekly sometimes. I have been thinking about the book and waffling with what to do about the blog. Now that I have decided how I want to move forward I’m hoping I will be able to do so with confidence.

 

I would like to make my first food post soon. I think it will be when I make my keto enchiladas for Conrad. I have been eating about half keto half regular recently. I am not ready to take the full plunge, especially while nursing. However, I enjoy cooking that way and I think it can be a great option for many people.

 

When I do make the enchiladas I will get footage for a video. Until then I will have to figure out a logo for my videos and how I want them to look.

 

I love cooking and it is definitely something I want to share with you all.

My Experience with Project 333

I just noticed this as I posted the feature photo at the top of this post, we can play a game of where’s the baby :).

 

I have a friend who gets a shipment of second-hand clothes in good condition about every month or so. She then sells the extras for $1 an item or $20 for a 13-gallon trash bag. It is an awesome deal but it also leaves me with a very full wardrobe. I decided recently to pare it down so I went to the extreme as usual and I will only have 33 items in my wardrobe including shoes!

 

I have been researching minimalism for a few months. I love the idea of having less to clean up and a less cluttered space not just from organizing but also from simply owning fewer things. In this research, I came across project 333 which is basically 33 items including shoes and accessories for three months.

 

My goal is to refrain from purchasing any new clothes for the three months and see how it goes. So far it has been awesome. It’s been about two weeks. After the three months, it will be time to go through my clothes for winter and see if I have any missing items and how much more I can get rid of. I already have taken six small bags and two big ones to second-hand stores.  

 

I started mostly with clothes as it is easier to quantify and account for what I needed. I also have a cheap way of getting clothes where I live so I had too much by a lot and it would also be easy to replace if I got rid of too much.

 

So I started by going through and putting away anything that wasn’t my size or nursing friendly. This got rid of a ton of my current clothes actually leaving me with holes. So I shopped at my second-hand supplier a few times to fill those gaps with a few items.

 

Then I went through and pared down to 30-40 items. My goal was 33 like project 333. I made it very close and had another half trash bag full of clothes in my closet to donate if I didn’t use them. I haven’t touched them. However, I did cave and go shopping once more. It’s tough when it’s so affordable. My new idea though will be a one for one trade if I can’t help shopping. But for these first 90 days, until Halloween is my goal, I won’t shop for clothes for me at all.  

 

So two weeks ago I went through what I put out the last time but kept in my closet and I donated all of it there wasn’t even one item I missed and wanted to pull out. This isn’t winter gear it is all summer stuff. This, of course, doesn’t include undergarments or socks or pajamas although I minimize that too. I only have two robes and 2-3 pairs of pajama pants. It’s too hot for that right now anyway.

 

I will take a picture most days of my outfit and we shall see how many different outfits can be made.

 

It is a fun project and takes some discipline but I’m hoping to do this again in the winter so I only have 50-55 total items. I figure some will transfer seasons.

 

So far I have had some fun outfits and I found a great app called Smart Closet that makes the process of keeping track of my outfits and what I have much easier. I took a picture of each item I own which isn’t too hard when it’s only 33 photos. The app then does an okay job about half the time of Auto cropping the item. It’s pretty quick to crop manually too.

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I have been amazed how much I have loved getting dressed! It has significantly cut down on my debating time and I really can just pick something and I love it. The fewer options make it easier rather than harder to choose what to wear. I wore just about everything before I was ready to wash clothes so that was new not having oodles of clothes to wear. It’s good though I need a kick in the pants to do the laundry occasionally and I love that there aren’t tons of items in my closet that I never wear.

I’m excited to see how I feel after the full 3 months. I have already had urges to buy clothes but that is normal and I have successfully resisted so far.