31 Days to a Minimalist Lifestyle Day 20

I am writing every day in October--taking on the challenge set forth by The Nester for bloggers to write a "31 Days to..." blog series. I'm tackling Minimalist Living and you can click here to read Day 19's post.


Time to start delving into my drawers and closets. I think the average adult American adult owns enough clothes for several people, and I'm not an exception. I keep things far too long and don't always follow the "if you didn't wear it this season, toss it" rule.

We have a nice sized master closet. It's a walk-in and we haven't done a thing to it. In other words, it's got a hanging bar across one side with a shelf on top. We each have a dresser on the opposite wall (yeah, those are our dressers from childhood. Nifty.) I have a nightstand with 2 drawers and an additional dresser in our bedroom. It's a nice piece of furniture, looks good, etc. But do I really *need* two dressers PLUS all that closet space?

No.

Here's the dresser I'm talking about-the nice one in our bedroom. It only has MY stuff in it.

Not so bad, right? (I take the blame for the yellow wall color!) But I do have clothes in ANOTHER dresser in the closet, plus I have a good 5' of hanging space in there PLUS the shelf on top and the floor space below. Time to clean things out.

Here's what I managed to pull out of the dresser-enough to fill a large garbage bag! It's all stuff that I didn't wear in the past year. Time to go!!!

The results were one fully empty drawer-whoo hoo!!!

I liked the empty drawer so much I decided to see if I could re-home items from the top 3 shallower drawers. I have room in my closet dresser AND in that 2 drawer nightstand. A few minutes later...

3 MORE DRAWERS EMPTY!!!

I won't be without clothes, I just won't have so many clothes. I'm working on a minimalist wardrobe, following the ideas of Project 333 which is wearing 33 articles of clothing for 3 months, then switching it up for the next 3 months. It's about developing a "uniform" of sorts for yourself. I like the idea of having fewer choices to make regarding clothes. I think it'll save me time AND frustration if everything I own fits and looks nice.

I'm not going crazy with this, however. I live in a 4 season climate, so I'm keeping things like my winter parka and snow-shoveling boots. I also will keep my grungy gardening clothes. Items like that (plus unmentionables) will not count against my 33 items.

We're not done with clothes. I'll be tackling my closet next!!!

Day 1 email

Day 2 magazines

Day 3 kitchen tools 

Day 4 junk drawer

Day 5 bathroom counter

Day 6 first aid & medicines

Day 7 kitchen sink

Day 8 plastic containers

Day 10 spices

Day 11 mail

Day 12 linen closet part 1

Day 13 linen closet part 2

Day 14 donate!!!

Day 15 outdoor spaces

Day 16 bakeware

Day 17 pantry

Day 18 laundry

Day 19 office