Trying on Project 333
March 26, 2012 in Minimalist Tips
Here are my cloths before project 333
I found this challenge a few weeks ago on Be More With Less and thought I would try it out. I pass on the challenge now to you 
Project 333
Can you get down to 33 items in your closet?
Included is:
- All your cloths and outer wear like coats etc
- All your jewelry
- All your shoes
Not included:
- sentimental jewelry (like wedding ring) you never take off
- Work out cloths (that you only wear to work out)
- Undergarments, lounge, and sleep wear
Can you do that for three months? Can you set a wardrobe for April through June?
You don’t have to get rid of them entirely. Just get them out of your closet and deep into storage – far, far away for the 3 months.
I thought I would try it. I have had a minimalist closet for about a year now and wanted to know how many things I did have. I pulled it all out and stacked it on the bed. Number came out at about 57. Not bad right? I got down to about 40 pretty easily but the last few things was harder. I made it down to 33. (not everything is pictured, 2 shirts in the laundry and the cloths I am wearing count into the 33)
After tackling my closet I decided to try it out with the kids. Worked great for them too. Here is the kids piles of 33 items:
I was asked what my kids kept. Here is a list. My kids are Lily (8) and Ian (5). I am going off memory on Wednesday and the picture because I didn’t want to pull it all out again and stuff is in the laundry already 
Lily:
- 4 pieces of jewelry (2 rings, bracelet, necklace)
- 6 pairs of shoes
- 1 sweater
- 3 dresses (2 for church and one less fancy for weekdays)
- 4 pants (2 jeans, 2 stretchy cotton)
- 4 pairs shorts
- 8 short sleeved shirts
- 2 long sleeved shirt
- mystery item I can’t remember (I know we had the 33 total on Sunday)
- 2 spring jackets (windbreaker and jean)
- 1 sweater
- sunglasses
- necklace
- 3 pairs of shoes
- 8 short sleeved shirts
- 2 long sleeved shirts
- 2 dress shirts (blue and white)
- 6 pairs of pants
- 4 pairs of shorts
- mystery 3 items (sorry)
Then I went and pulled my husbands stuff out of the closet and got him down (with his help of course) to 33 items. I forgot to get a picture before I put everything back in but here is a peek of our closet now.
This is all of our hanging cloths on the left hand side. The two baskets are my hubbies cloths separated between ‘good’ and work (construction). Not pictured well, on the right side I have 2 black cloth baskets. One for pants and one for shirts. 2 baskets below the hanging cloths hold our shoes and the rest of the closet holds our home office stuff (and the chocolate stash the kids don’t know about )
There you have it. Can you get down to 33 items? I haven’t been one for counting belongings before, but this exercise really helped with the closets. Give it a try this week for the start of April and let me know how it goes.
I was curious, so I counted. I have 43 items, which includes clothes for every season. I find that it works for me. I may be adding a few more pieces and swap some out. I’m looking forward to seeing how this works out for you
yeah, I had a hard time going below the 40ish mark too, but I found myself pulling out pieces at the end that I really didn’t wear much… I just thought I should wear more. …for one, I boxed up the running shoes… now they won’t be making me feel guilty
This sounds interesting. I spent last week going through our clothes for project simplify, you can see that post here http://www.townsend-house.com/2012/03/project-simplify-closets-counters-and.html but I am not sure how many pieces of clothing I actually have now…I think I might have to count and see!
the kids had fun with the counting and it cut down everyone’s closet by about a third.
I pretty much wear less than 33 items not counting my work uniforms (which I would substitute for the work out clothes as I don’t wear them any place else) but will find some time to count them up.
the shoes, dress up cloths and jewelry got me. I had more than I thought and I don’t wear any of them that often so it was a good push to cut back a bit.
I have been reducing the number of clothes in my closet for a lttile while now; however, I need to work on my children closets and drawers now.
Do you mind sharing exactlly what makes up your children’s 33 items? I go crazy every season with my children’s clothes. The drawers are always overstuffed, yet they only wear the few items near the top, because as soon as I wash and fold the clothes, they go right back into the drawers. The clothes on the bottom part of the drawers never even see the light of day until it is time to switch the clothes over for the next season. Thank you.
Belinda, Thanks so much for your comment! I meant to update the post today with what the kids have and somehow didn’t get to it. I should be able to get to it tomorrow. Just wanted to make sure you knew I saw it and was going to get back to you
Belinda,
I updated what I could remember of my kids 33 items. I totally understand what you are saying. My kids will just wear what is on the top and easiest to reach most of the time too. I do laundry at least 2 times a week (whenever there is enough for a load) so that helps. I would say that they need 8-9 top options if you want to do weekly laundry so it covers the 7 days plus what they are wearing during laundry day with a few extras. Otherwise bottoms can often be worn more than once for older kids.
One thing I have done in the past is put extras up on a top shelf of the closet. If something is stained and needs replaced or in an ‘emergency’ some day when we discover we don’t have a clean shirt and we are running out the door you can grab a new one from the pile. The kids don’t have access to it and it isn’t in their way or cluttering their stuff.
What helped me a lot with this exercise was that it wasn’t necessarily going for getting rid of the cloths but just limiting what was in the closet. The kids still have more ‘extra’s’ from each category and I just put them in storage for a while. It is hard to pull out a perfectly good shirt from their drawer, but they don’t need 20ish to pick from every morning
Good luck!
Oh Lori! I am with you! I tried to get my wardrobe down to 33 items back in January. I managed pretty well, and brought my closet items down to about 50 (but I have a ridiculous collection of tank tops that I wear almost every day…) so I think I did pretty well.
The big challenge for me is to maintain and and do a One-Comes-In-One-Goes-Out with new items. Great job!!
just knowing how many things you have in your closet is doing pretty well
Congrats!
hi there,
im just a ramdom viewer but this article looks interesting!
i did the same thing last year and now i have only got 20 cloths. dont even need a wardrobe any more, so my room looks so much tidier than before! i feel like i can move out any time ( actually i want to but dont have the courage to…)
thanks for stopping by
So…what about your … “unspeakables” (a.k.a. lingerie You know, to make the Mr. Happy!
Not included in the 33
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