I spent the first week of this challenge not really doing anything productive toward my 100 items so I decided to actually go home after work today and take a look at my clothing situation. Logistically, I’m breaking my apartment up into sections in order to better manage my 100 Item Challenge; clothing, sports gear, furniture, kitchen, music, etc. I laid out all of my clothing (sans sports clothing) on my bed and took an inventory. The total number of items was 73.
Clothing mini-purge. The total number of items was 73 (including the clothes I was wearing but not including sportswear or winterwear).
My clothing in its entirety from a different angle. Not as bad as I suspected but this still doesn't count my sportswear, jackets, or any of my other non-clothes belongings.
As I was laying out my clothes I made a few phone calls to family members and decided I had enough family who are my size that I could bring all of my extra clothing to Maine for thanksgiving. That way they can get first dibs before sending my clothes to goodwill or the salvation army. Whatever is left over my parents will donate for me (thanks Mom and Dad). I’m sure my brothers will be stoked to get some new clothing (both are still in college and broke as F….).
There were a few things that I made immediate decisions on removing from my closet. There were many clothes that were simply super old/falling apart or that I haven’t worn in years; ratty ink-pen-stained jeans/khakis that I don’t wear, board shorts that I haven’t used in years, water shoes that I used once over two years, a few dress shirts that are too big so I don’t wear them, and a few t-shirts from races that I’ve done that aren’t really sentimental to me.
I also got rid of all my ties. I find ties to be super overrated, judge me on the merit of my professionalism (technical and otherwise) not the presence or absence of a tie. Plus my body manufactures heat constantly, so whenever I’m wearing a tie in a meeting or presentation I just end up sweating like crazy, not a good situation for anybody. That problem doesn’t exist (or at least to a lesser extent) when I go sans tie. If I find myself in a situation where I ABSOLUTELY need a tie, I’m sure I can borrow one from somebody, otherwise, good riddance. So if ties are overrated, then my two tie-racks are simply there to hold overrated stuff so I added those to the take-home-to-Maine pile. I also have three suits and a blazer that I’ve used over the past five years on job interviews and presentations at school. However, now I’m on a fellowship and don’t see myself interviewing for a job in the next 2-3 years, I probably don’t need three suits. I’ll probably keep one just in case I need to look schnazzy for work or some other formal event like a wedding.
As I stated in my first 100 Item Challenge blog post, I’m counting socks and underwear as one item each for hygienic reasons. Most likely if it came to keeping most of my outdoor gear or guitar accessories I would immediately go commando, but this isn’t exactly the cleanest scenario. I’ll be taking a look at my underwear/sock situation to make sure that it’s not out of control though.
Here’s the spreadsheet that I put together cataloging my clothing items. I plan on doing this for each area of my life and then keeping them updated as I purge. It’ll be a good way for me to keep track. Tonight I went from 73 to 42 items really without thinking to hard about it. Now I just need a professional opinion (read “professional” as “female”) in order to keep clothes that are multifunctional (work and play) while maintaining some variety. This is my clothing spreadsheet as of today, it’ll change as the month wears on and I start to whittle down on my items.
| Clothing Items | # Before | # Purged | #After |
| Two Piece Suits | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Blazer | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Ties | 6 | 6 | 0 |
| Tie Rack | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| Dress Pants | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| Dress Shirts (Button Down) | 13 | 4 | 9 |
| Polo Shirts | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Jeans | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| Other Pants | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| Cargo Shorts | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Board Shorts | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| T-Shirts | 16 | 6 | 10 |
| Long Sleeve Shirts | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| Dress Shoes | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Sneakers | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| Water Shoes | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Hiking Boots | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Running Shoes | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Underwear (14) | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Socks (18) | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Total Items | 73 | 31 | 42 |
I did an inventory of ties in my closet-60 wow! I will give away 15 that I don’t wear, so that will still give me 45. I did an inventory of dress shirts-long sleeve 24-6=18; short sleeve 12-1=11; polos 6; Hawaiian/party shirts 4-1=3; work shirts 4; total 50-8=42 left after the first round of purging. More room in my closet and someone gets some use out of them.
Very Cool! Check out this guy’s blog too, he wrote a book called the 100 item challenge, basically what I’m doing this month. http://guynameddave.com/
He suggests doing an experiment. Select 14 outfits from your closet, one for each day for 2 weeks and then wear only those clothes. THEN go through your stuff again, it’ll give you a new sense of what you really need and what you really wear. I’m not sure I can scientifically back this up but I have a feeling that more room in your closet = more space in your brain for things that really matter. Keep up the good work.