What am I wearing?

I’ve been reading recently about Project 333, and I’m building up towards giving it a try. I’ve been gradually identifying clothing items and shoes to be given away and donating them one small bag at a time, through my declutter-one-thing-a-day efforts. I’m plateauing a bit, though, so I thought limiting my daily access to clothes by putting the rest in a box and out of sight for three months might sharpen my focus.

Project 333 basically means selecting 33 items of clothing and accessories to wear for three months. You can read more about it here. There are some exceptions - sport items, pajamas, underwear and socks - and you can make your own exceptions or change the numbers around, but it seems to be a good way to evaluate what you are wearing and how you are combining clothes. One advantage is that it is seasonal so only really involves focusing on one part of your wardrobe at a time.

Reading about this in my lunch break today, I thought it might be interesting to try to list the 33 while at work. Without looking. If I had to choose 33 items of shoes, clothing and accessories from memory, which would they be?

Around number 22, I realised two things. Firstly, I was running out of items to put. I couldn’t think of anything more from my wardrobe that I particularly like wearing. I still can’t think of a 33rd item. Secondly, almost every single thing I wear on a regular basis is black, brown or blue. There are one or two grey and white pieces but in general there is very little variety in colour, and it’s all very drab, dark and dull. Towards the end of my list I tried to think of more colourful items which I could use with a wide range of outfits but pretty much only came up with the red scarf and purple pashmina (both gifts.)

In fact, almost all the more colourful, dynamic or expressive pieces in my wardrobe were gifts. I seem very reluctant to experiment with brighter or lighter colours, and I’m not entirely sure why, but now I’m looking at my wardrobe more critically and seeing the gaps, which I never have before.

My wardrobe seems at first glance to include plenty of colour, but now I realise it is almost entirely summer clothes that I would not wear to work - short-ish skirts, floaty dresses, strappy tops. Why? Why no purple jumpers, or green dresses, or very pale blue blouses? Or even light grey? I realise I wear a uniform - dark trousers, pale shirt, block-coloured v-neck sweater. Why no patterns? Why no shape?

In the interests of honesty, I am sharing my wardrobe as it is at present. As you can see, apart from the red skirt and the red hoody (neither of which I can wear to work), it's pretty dark. And very cluttered and chaotic. My boyfriend jokes that this is so messy because a racoon has moved in and is using my clothes to build a nest.