Laura Hughes (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lauraredcloud) wrote2013-02-17 02:10 pm
lauraredcloud) wrote2013-02-17 02:10 pm
Entry tags:
Project 333...3
Internet minimalism enthusiasts, of which I am apparently becoming one, like to come up with numeric goals for themselves, like "only 200 possessions!" or "only 100 possessions!" I'm not sure these are especially helpful for everyone. For example, Joe Techgoblin whose favorite activity is playing video games (on his steam account, natch) might be happy with 100 things in his apartment (computer; bed; fridge; replica Buster sword; 96 cans Mr. Pibb), but what about Jane Hobbyhorse whose main passions are cooking, art, and lifting various weights in her home gym? She has 200 items in her mosasic tile box alone.
But a goal like that DOES undeniably help you prioritize. Your priorities suddenly change when you're told to pick your 10 favorites from your bookshelf instead of being asked to remove the books you don't need.
Project 333 is a challenge to live 3 months with only 33 items of clothing, including accessories (but not including underwear, you can have any many underwear as you want!) The idea is that you pick your best, most useful, most versatile items of clothing and put the rest away, and you can prove to yourself how few items you really need in your daily rotation. Go ahead and repeat outfits. Why not? Most people won't notice, you'll get more of a signature look and you'll be able to wear your favorite items all the time.
This makes a lot of sense to me. I tend to fall into guilt about wearing my favorite items all the time, either for anthropomorphic reasons (the others need love too!) or because I feel like I should space them out so I don't wear them out. But I like shopping, and clothes generally aren't one-of-a-kind. If I wear out my favorite item, I can always replace it with something equivalent and have a new favorite item. And then I'll have worn my current 'favorite thing' 100% of the time instead of some of the time.
At the same time, I feel like 33 items of clothing, even wonderful ones, are too few for a robust wardrobe. There's a reason the challenge runs only three months. Three months will contain only one season. It will probably also contain only your normal levels of formality and utility. You are not terribly likely to face an unplanned-for wedding, funeral, job interview, night at the opera, first date, baby shower or meeting of the parents.
My personal challenge, also, that has caused me regret numerous times in previous wardrobe overhauls, is this: I need to be able to switch from a femme mood to a butch mood at a moment's notice. My men's jeans and polo shirts may lie untouched for three months while I flounce around in skirts and fluttery tops, or vice versa. I need sufficient items for both wardrobes, or I'll just end up buying one of them again, and probably going overboard.
So here are the challenges of my wardrobe:
- Must contain sufficient GENDER VARIETY because of my particular brand of genderqueer
- Must contain sufficient SEASON VARIETY because I live in a temperate climate
- Must contain sufficient FORMALITY VARIETY because while I mostly wear casual clothes, I do occasionally need to dress up, like everyone
And each of those varieties must be reflected within the others, e.g., I need butch AND femme summer AND winter clothes. Formality is less challenging gender-wise as I tend to go femme for formal events and even if I did get a suit, that would cover every masculine-formal event possible. Women's clothing has subtle gradations of formality that men's do not: women need to wear DIFFERENT dresses for each of wedding, funeral, job interview, night at the opera, first date, baby shower, and meeting the parents. However, formality still presents a season problem. I have several spring/summer dresses and skirts, but I also need to retain that one skirt and sweater you can wear to a formal winter event, even if it rarely gets any other airtime in my wardrobe.
Rather than an item of clothing, it's more useful to me to break down categories. How many T-shirts do I need? How many hoodies? Why? (For example: I think I need three hoodies: one warm thermal one, one normal weight, and one super light just to use as a cover-up for casual sleeveless outfits in the spring and summer.) It's possible I'm overestimating how many items I "need" by overcreating categories (do I really NEED separate sweater, hoodie, flannel, and light jacket categories?) but it's a start.
I've already seen a positive difference in my T-shirt and winter gear drawers, although I got neither of them down to the hard line needs guidelines I set out (I have more than twice my goal of 7 t-shirts, one for each day of the week if I wear T-shirts every day, which I usually do; and about twice my goal of 6 items of winter gear, consisting of 2 scarves, 2 hats, and 2 pairs of gloves, each item having a backup in case of inopportune losing. I have a lot of Anna-knit scarves and hats.) My T-shirt drawer now closes. It contains no shirts that rise above my belly when I lift my arms. Every shirt is one that I used to find amongst the many and say, "Oh hey, this shirt! I love this shirt!" My winter gear drawer also closes. I moved a few ridiculous items (Jayne hat) to a Ridiculous Items drawer (everyone needs one). I can actually find useful things, having gotten rid of things I only wear if they're first at hand, even if they're frayed or impractical. Things MATCH now. It's crazy.
But a goal like that DOES undeniably help you prioritize. Your priorities suddenly change when you're told to pick your 10 favorites from your bookshelf instead of being asked to remove the books you don't need.
Project 333 is a challenge to live 3 months with only 33 items of clothing, including accessories (but not including underwear, you can have any many underwear as you want!) The idea is that you pick your best, most useful, most versatile items of clothing and put the rest away, and you can prove to yourself how few items you really need in your daily rotation. Go ahead and repeat outfits. Why not? Most people won't notice, you'll get more of a signature look and you'll be able to wear your favorite items all the time.
This makes a lot of sense to me. I tend to fall into guilt about wearing my favorite items all the time, either for anthropomorphic reasons (the others need love too!) or because I feel like I should space them out so I don't wear them out. But I like shopping, and clothes generally aren't one-of-a-kind. If I wear out my favorite item, I can always replace it with something equivalent and have a new favorite item. And then I'll have worn my current 'favorite thing' 100% of the time instead of some of the time.
At the same time, I feel like 33 items of clothing, even wonderful ones, are too few for a robust wardrobe. There's a reason the challenge runs only three months. Three months will contain only one season. It will probably also contain only your normal levels of formality and utility. You are not terribly likely to face an unplanned-for wedding, funeral, job interview, night at the opera, first date, baby shower or meeting of the parents.
My personal challenge, also, that has caused me regret numerous times in previous wardrobe overhauls, is this: I need to be able to switch from a femme mood to a butch mood at a moment's notice. My men's jeans and polo shirts may lie untouched for three months while I flounce around in skirts and fluttery tops, or vice versa. I need sufficient items for both wardrobes, or I'll just end up buying one of them again, and probably going overboard.
So here are the challenges of my wardrobe:
- Must contain sufficient GENDER VARIETY because of my particular brand of genderqueer
- Must contain sufficient SEASON VARIETY because I live in a temperate climate
- Must contain sufficient FORMALITY VARIETY because while I mostly wear casual clothes, I do occasionally need to dress up, like everyone
And each of those varieties must be reflected within the others, e.g., I need butch AND femme summer AND winter clothes. Formality is less challenging gender-wise as I tend to go femme for formal events and even if I did get a suit, that would cover every masculine-formal event possible. Women's clothing has subtle gradations of formality that men's do not: women need to wear DIFFERENT dresses for each of wedding, funeral, job interview, night at the opera, first date, baby shower, and meeting the parents. However, formality still presents a season problem. I have several spring/summer dresses and skirts, but I also need to retain that one skirt and sweater you can wear to a formal winter event, even if it rarely gets any other airtime in my wardrobe.
Rather than an item of clothing, it's more useful to me to break down categories. How many T-shirts do I need? How many hoodies? Why? (For example: I think I need three hoodies: one warm thermal one, one normal weight, and one super light just to use as a cover-up for casual sleeveless outfits in the spring and summer.) It's possible I'm overestimating how many items I "need" by overcreating categories (do I really NEED separate sweater, hoodie, flannel, and light jacket categories?) but it's a start.
I've already seen a positive difference in my T-shirt and winter gear drawers, although I got neither of them down to the hard line needs guidelines I set out (I have more than twice my goal of 7 t-shirts, one for each day of the week if I wear T-shirts every day, which I usually do; and about twice my goal of 6 items of winter gear, consisting of 2 scarves, 2 hats, and 2 pairs of gloves, each item having a backup in case of inopportune losing. I have a lot of Anna-knit scarves and hats.) My T-shirt drawer now closes. It contains no shirts that rise above my belly when I lift my arms. Every shirt is one that I used to find amongst the many and say, "Oh hey, this shirt! I love this shirt!" My winter gear drawer also closes. I moved a few ridiculous items (Jayne hat) to a Ridiculous Items drawer (everyone needs one). I can actually find useful things, having gotten rid of things I only wear if they're first at hand, even if they're frayed or impractical. Things MATCH now. It's crazy.