PROJECT 333 - CONSIDERATIONS

After some consideration, I have tweaked the “rules” of Project 333 to best fit my life.  I will be following the spirit of the project rather than the letter of its law.  I am doing this  Project for my own reasons and therefore want to do it my own way – the way that seems to make the most sense for what’s going on in my life.  

Wondering what this Project 333 thing is?  See my Project 333 Introduction and / or the Project 333 website.)

Things about my life that impact my participation in Project 333:

• I wear scrubs to work.  I have a laundry basket full of them, but (due to requirements of my employer) that collection is made up of a single color.  I will count my scrubs as one item on my list.
• I live in a football loving state.  (Go Huskers!)  I plan to keep two or three (maybe four?) Nebraska shirts in my collection and only count them as one item.  I vow to the internet world that I will only wear them on Husker game days and then only if I am attending a tailgate party or other game day festivity.
• Smack in the middle of my three month project, I have planned a vacation to another part of the country with a vastly different climate.  I have not yet determined what clothing I will bring along, but I will not force myself to stick with Project 333 during the trip.  Jeans and a sweater in 90 degree weather seem like a less than winning combination.
• I like shoes.  I am counting all of my shoes as one item.  This may not be the purist way to do it, but it’s the only way this is going to work for me.  In an effort to follow the spirit of this project, I did go through my shoe closet and put more than half of my shoe stash into storage.
  
•  With the exception of my engagement and wedding rings, I usually only wear jewelry a few times each month.  I would actually like to encourage myself to wear more jewelry rather than less.  So, it seemed pretty silly to limit myself to only a few pieces.  It also seemed kind of ridiculous to require myself to count jewelry items that very well may go unworn.  I need those numbers to fill in the rest of my wardrobe!  Thus, I am counting my jewelry as one item. 

A few more things:

• I did not count my underwear or items (such as tank tops) that I wear as under-wear.
• I did not count lounge wear or workout clothing that I will only wear around the house or when I exercise.
• I will allow myself to buy new items during the challenge, but must follow the “one in, one out” rule.

Hmm.  After accounting for all of these exceptions, it seems like this challenge may not really be that challenging.

That very well may be true, but in preparation for the project, I have already decreased the amount of clothing in my closet by at least two-thirds.  And, I didn’t limit the purge to my “good” clothes.  I also went through my underwear, lounge wear and giant pile of scrubs.

Since this is my first experience with Project 333, I didn’t want the rules to be prohibitively restrictive.  I think that too drastic of a change would result in my inability to follow through.  I really want to complete these three months within the guidelines that I have set for myself. 

I am hoping that success during these three months will spur me to continue on with the project.  I imagine that such an achievement will help me to realize that I need even fewer items of clothing.  I hope that they will lead to a repeat of the challenge for the months of January, February and March and a second look at the intended rules of Project 333.

I am still crafting my list of 33 items.  You can see a little sneak peek in the photo at the top of the post.  My list probably won't be finalized until September 30th (because I am a procrastinator like that), but I hope to have a draft that will pretty closely reflect the final list ready to publish for you (and for me!) on Monday.