Project333, The 40 Hanger Closet--Making Minimalism Work For Me

There are still two weeks left of February, and I was going through my winter wardrobe (the one that had 50 items) and I was trying really hard to whittle down my stuff until I had 33 items instead.  I got so close. I am down to 40 items.  I really want to follow Project333 to the letter, but I'm finding that it just wouldn't work for me.  Not that Project333 ever claims you have to follow its parameters exactly.  Still, I was kinda feeling like a failure.

Then I found this idea called the 40 Hanger Closet on Pinterest and I was interested in the idea.  Apparently it was created by a blogger who liked the idea of Project333 but, like me, couldn't seem to accept the 33-item total it prescribed.  This blogger decided that, since her new fuzzy hangers came in a box of 40, that would be the number of hanging items in her closet.  This did not count her things that were not hung up.  I thought, Wow, that's exactly what I decided to do!  [Only, technically, my pajama tops, tanks, and workout clothes are hanging up, but that's because I'm weird.] It made me feel like so much less of a failure that someone else was doing the same thing.

I was so excited by this that I was motivated to get out my spring capsule wardrobe and sort through the 50 items to cut them down to 40.  I can live with 40 clothing items.  I can make that work!  The ten items that didn't make the cut are now hiding out in a bin under my bed.  We'll see if I decide I want to keep them or if I decide to sell them.  The rest of the items I ironed and hung up in a separate part of my closet in anticipation of the beginning of March.  I will be busy the next two weeks (conferences, grades due, data meetings, etc) and I was worried I wouldn't have the time to get it done.  Here's the new wardrobe hanging in my closet next to my workout clothes on one side and my "pajama hoodies" on the other:

Forty items is a lot, but it looks so small when seen in this picture.  You can't see individual items, but I tried to include my favorite spring things in there, like the new black and white striped skirt I bought a few months ago, my lime-green-ish cardigan, a cherry-blossom dress, and a yellow and gray t-shirt material maxi dress.

Even though I love my upcoming capsule wardrobe, I like playing around with creating capsule wardrobes on Pinterest now.  I made a few by creating pins from Cato Fashions and Maurices.  

I was super ambitious regarding the Cato wardrobe.  I wanted to see how much it would cost to create that entire capsule, so I tracked how much each item would have cost.  I was a little surprised by the price tag: a little under $625.  Ouch.  And Cato's stuff is cheap, ya'll.  It made me realize how much money I'd been spending on clothes.  While I would only buy, at most, three things at a time, that stuff was adding up quickly.  I probably got rid of a thousand dollars' worth of clothes when I purged.  Think of what I could have done with that money… For now I'll enjoy just "window-shopping" online.