30 Days, 30 clothes

Right before the seasons change, I always feel like I have "nothing to wear". For example, right now I have worn and re-worn all my summer clothes and I'm a bit tired of them. But I know that as soon as the weather allows me to wear scarves, coats, and sweaters, I'll feel like I have a whole new wardrobe.

I've been thinking lately about how to simplify and be thankful for what I have. Reading the book "7" (see this post) got me thinking about just how many clothes I own. So today I decided to count. Not including socks, underwear, glasses, and hair ties, I have 197 articles of clothing. Just estimating in my head, I think this means I can go about 3 or 4 months without repeating an identical outfit. And yet I want more clothes. 

[Honesty moment: I kind of feel proud for only having 197 items. I don't know the exact statistics, but I think most American women have more. Plus many of my clothes have been in my wardrobe for years (I love it when I get complimented on a skirt I bought at age 14). But then I remember that the vast majority of the world does NOT have this kind of wardrobe. I'm wealthier than 90% of the world (so are you if you make over $25,000 a year). Factor in my husband's income, and we're in the top 1%. I'm crazy blessed and crazy selfish if I think I don't have enough.]

I have decided to reduce for the month of September. I picked out 30 articles of clothing (again, not including socks, underwear, glasses, and hair ties), which is a reduction of 85%. I'm not going to post this until October, because I have a suspicion that no one else will notice. It's an experiment. 

30 clothes is still a lot. Just playing around for a few minutes, I discovered I have 19 different work outfits I can make with these clothes, and I have 20 work days in September. 

Here's what I selected:

7 Bottoms:
 PJs, black work pants, jeans, "adventure" pants (I'm hoping to go hiking), lavender capris, exercise capris, off-white skirt 

14 tops:
 Black and white dress, black sweater, black short sleeve T, black tank, gray zip-up, Mariner's T, purple sweater, grayish purple top, cream tank, lacy tank, blue long sleeve, blue button-down, blue short sleeve, green flowered short sleeve

Accessories/Other:
Black coat, white raincoat, tan purse, hiking boots, tan flats, black flip flops, black tennis shoes, black flats, black tights

My goal is to prove to myself that I have more than enough. Plus it's a "fast" in a way, and God teaches during fasts, so we'll see what other lessons he may have for me.