I started Project 333 with a smidge of trepidation. After years of being a confirmed clotheshorse reducing down to 33 items for 3 months was grossly out of character with my previous maximalist lifestyle. I bought a few clothes right before I started it to replace some worn out items and had thought that I would need to buy a few more to “complete” my wardrobe. Yeah – like I really “needed” another pair of boots. Turns out – my wardrobe is complete enough.

I did receive some hand-me-down clothes from a friend of mine. The old me would have kept the entire mountain of clothes. The new me went through the mountain (at her home), and only took pieces that I thought would suit me (we have similar tastes but vastly different complexions and body types). At home I tried the pieces on and kept most of them, and returned the few that really wouldn’t work for me. Those that I kept are more “spring” colors so I tossed them into my hold bin.

I have bought a few new pieces recently – jeans to replace some dying jeans, shirts to replace some stained shirts. One thing I’ve noticed about being minimal is that when something wears out you really need to fill that hole. I have one pair of earrings – and lost one of them this past Sunday. I’m now on a search for another perfect pair. I only buy handcrafted jewelry so I’m scanning Etsy and other sites. Until then, I’ll go without.

I’ve also noticed that there are some items that I still haven’t worn 2 months in – and they’re either going away or getting put in the hold bin. One is a little black dress that I thought I would wear for dressier occasions but I’ve found I like my velvet split skirt better right now, it’s more of a summer dress anyway so it’s going in the bin. There are a few winter shirts that I apparently just don’t like anymore – they have gone away, and a few lighter shirts that it’s now too cold to wear – they’ve gone into the bin – no need to look at them everyday.

Even though the 33 items have changed a bit I’m still under 33  – and that is a victory for me. This fall has been unseasonably warm – so I’m glad I kept so much of the lightweight stuff in my closet but returning them to the bin and embracing my full-on winter wardrobe has been nice too. I don’t see any reason to make any changes until spring (unless something else dies on me) - boots and jeans and cords and cozy knit shirts will be the uniform until March at least.

I spoke to Chris today and he is up for trying out Project 333 in January. And we (most probably I) will be reducing the kids’ wardrobes to 33 items each also. My plan is to do a little culling this week – and then do a final run through after Christmas in case they receive some clothes as gifts.

8' x 9' master bedroom!

Around November I thought I had finished purging. I knew there was some maintenance, of course, but that I would never have my porch full of “stuff” like it was back this summer. Oh yeah, never say never. Chris and I did some major purging the last couple of days.

We also  had promised Katie that we would swap rooms with her so that she can have a “big” room like William has. Katie was really given the short end of the stick when we moved into this house.  Her room was tiny, had what we had deemed as an “unusable” closet, and no fan. Katie had mentioned to Chris recently that she would like to have a big room – and if Katie asks something of Daddy, Daddy gets it for her.

So we swapped things out on Saturday – and amazingly we now have our queen bed in the room,  have storage space for all of our underwear, workout wear, kicking around the house clothes, and I have all of my clothes hanging on a garment rack in the craptastic closet. And the room feels light and airy!  Crazy!

And in one of those “the universe will provide” moments our friend called us Saturday morning to ask if Chris would be willing to help with some furniture moving. He showed up and instead of moving furniture we were gifted with a bedroom suite that is perfect for Katiebaby. We were able to purge some of the not-so-pretty bins and baskets that we had been using to store her clothes and toys and now she also has all of her stuff in her room, as opposed to most of  it being stored in William’s room. Score!

Chris purged over half of his wardrobe. I found three leather coats that I moved from Albuquerque and left in a garment bag  - one of them still with tags. Sigh – I’m such a freaking hoarder! We also purged some kids clothes, toys, a shredder that doesn’t work, storage containers, bookshelves we no longer need, curtains I’ve never liked, and recycled what feels like a ton of paper. The porch is once again full of our castoffs. Now to find appropriate new homes for all of this stuff!