Project 333: Summer capsule

Well, this is awkward: I had an entire post written about my summer Project 333 capsule and how much I loved it, how easy it was to put together because A) less clothes needed in the summer and 2) not much different than my spring wardrobe, and how so many of these pieces were three-plus years old and still going strong, yay me!

And then I went to my closet to take a few photos and make sure I was remembering all of the items I’d listed, and it struck me that tired of all of it, the clothes, the project, and if I had to look at some of this stuff for another second, I was going to scream. Actually, I said a string of bad words, but my mother reads this blog, so we’ll just go with the loose translation. 😉

Having practiced Project 333 for five years, there’s much I love about this minimalist wardrobe challenge: having a smaller closet actually gives me more to wear, everything  fits well, it’s filled with pieces that I actually feel good wearing, I’ve figured out what my “personal style” is (I feel stupid typing that because who cares, but anyway, I have), and I’ve gone from buying things just to buy them to really not shopping at all.

And I owe a debt of gratitude to Courtney Carver for coming up with it — this is one of the first things I tackled when I started my minimalism journey, and it taught me so much about what I need vs. what I want.

But I think … it’s time to let go of Project 333 and embrace Project Trisha’s Minimalist Closet. I don’t care about the numbers. I want to add pieces not based on a calendar. I want to just enjoy my closet and not worry about rules real or imagined.

I don’t know. I’m just bored. Not really a great feeling, to be honest, because that means there’s probably some other underlying cause and I’m just not emotionally up to figuring that out. Also, thanks to the post “Conscious consumerism is NOT a lie,” I’ve got a minimalism vs. zero waste war going on, because do I want to shed or do I want to completely use up?

(I know, overthink much?)

All of that is just to say I embraced a new plan: I went through my closet and took out everything I’m sick of or was just keeping in my closet because I had wiggle room in my numbers (like a sweatshirt I never wear). I put all of that away to deal with later — what’s the rush? — and then I went shopping.

That’s kind of hard to do in our little tourist trap of a town (I am morally opposed to paying $45 for a thin t-shirt), but I was committed. I tried the Goodwill Boutique first, but they didn’t have plain t-shirts in solid colors, which is all I wanted. I finally found four at a little boutique for $15 each: Navy (old habits die hard), peach (ooooh!), red (I love red!) and brown. I chose those colors because that’s what they had, and also because they’ll go well with the bottoms I already own. And deep down, I’m a jewel tone kind of girl.

Add these items to the two new skirts I recently found — one red, one black — and I am feeling much better about myself.

So my new and improved closet looks like this:

Grey: Cardigan, long-sleeve stripped t-shirt and lacy tank (3)

Navy/blue: New t-shirt, cardigan, pullover sweater, vest, jeans, denim jacket, flower shirt 1, flower shirt 2, pretty sheer thing, denim capris (10)

Red: New t-shirt and skirt (2)

Peach: New t-shirt (1)

Brown: New t-shirt, Birkenstocks, skirt 1 (teal, brown and beige) and skirt 2 (brown and beige) (4)

Beige/white: Skirt, jacket, capris (3)

Black: Cardigan, skirt, t-shirt, Maryjane-type shoe, t-shirt dress, polkadot tank, capris (7)

TOTAL: 30

This does not include my kick ass navy blue dress I wear for special occasions or when I’m just feeling particularly fancy, or two tank tops — beige and navy — that I wear underneath items and therefore I’m classifying as underwear. Or my tennis shoes — I only wear those on walks.

But yeah: One pair of jeans, three capris, five skirts and a dress, two pairs of shoes and then the various tops. I can work with this.

As for the fall term of P333, I’m not going to worry about it — I’ll just let it play out as the weather or my mood dictates and forget about the calendar.