Day 3: Minimizing our Wardrobes

The Task: Reduce our clothing to the bare (haha, pun intended) necessities.

The Why: By not putting reasonable limits on the clothing we own we find we are always kind of in shopping mode.  We walk past a store, or see a good deal, and think "why not?"  By reducing our clothing to what we really need and wear we can set a cap on our clothing possessions to save money and avoid stress when getting dressed.

Plus, all of the things we don't need will stop being wasted in our closets and can go to a thrift store where somebody who needs them can buy them for next to nothing.  My extra maternity clothes will be sent to a pregnancy crisis center.

The How:  It's easiest to trim down your wardrobe, I think, if you have a sort of uniform that you wear most of the time.  A go-to combination of clothing types that you can mix and match to wear on an ordinary day.  For example, a typical uniform for a stay at home mom could be a pair of jeans and a nice fitted t-shirt.  For me, it's a skirt (normally a long flowing hippy skirt!) a solid color t-shirt, and a pretty accessory like a scarf or colourful headband.   This means that if I have 4 skirts, 4 t-shirts, and a few scarves I can keep myself dressed in an array of fun combinations while only needing to launder my clothing twice a week.

What We Kept:  Keep in mind that we live in a climate where weather ranges from frigid cold to heat-wave hot.  Plus, I'm pregnant, so I need to keep maternity and non maternity clothing.  I think all that considered, we've achieved our goal  of keeping the clothes we need and ditching the ones we don't.

Kelly has:
4 skirts
4 sleeveless shirts
4 regular short sleeved t-shirts
4 maternity short sleeved t-shirts
3 regular long sleeved shirts
1 maternity long sleeved shirt
3 sweaters or cardigans of varying warmth
2 cute summer dresses
1 sweater dress
1 formal dress
2 sets of pajamas
2 pairs of running shorts
bras, underwear and socks
5 scarves and a funky headscarf
1 swimsuit

Luke has:
1 vest
3 pairs of work jeans
3 pairs of nice jeans
3 pairs of black pants (2 casual, one formal)
8 t-shirts! Some for work (he works in construction), and some nicer ones for leisure
3 polo shirts
3 casual short sleeved button up shirts
2 casual long sleeved button up shirts
2 white dress shirts (one short sleeved, one long sleeved)
4 sweaters
2 pairs of casual shorts
4 pairs of work shorts
ties, belts and 2 fedoras
2 pairs of pajama pants
underwear,socks  and undershirts


The Verdict:  For the first time in my life as a mommy I feel like getting dressed is a simple (and fun!) task. I grab a skirt, a seasonally appropriate solid coloured shirt and pretty scarf!  Easy Peasy.

And my absolute favourite part of getting dressed is picking out a pretty scarf to wear.  If you're worried about trimming down your wardrobe, consider a few nice accessories.  Five scarves can turn a small-ish wardrobe into seemingly endless possibilities!

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