Project 333

Project 333 is the kind of great idea that doesn’t even feel like an idea. People tend to forget that someone like Courtney Carver actually innovated something. The more simple and elegant a solution is, the more it seems obvious - yet it sure wasn’t!

The premise of Project 333 is to take a break from what might be an out-of-control closet and only wear 33 items for three months. That’s where the ‘333’ comes from.

I know precisely one person - one of my clients - who probably has fewer than 33 items in her wardrobe.

Then there’s my husband. I just asked him, and since we’ve been WFH he has been using:

5 t-shirts
5 pairs of shorts
1 pair of shoes

= 11 items.

Carver’s book includes 33 chapters (of course) exploring the technicalities of the project. She offers a few examples of people who have tried it out, with lists of which items they included and what color.

This is fascinating stuff, and there could probably be a companion volume to Project 333 of just color grids of various people’s capsule wardrobes.

I used to be an inveterate thrift store shopper, and I had so many clothes that my closet rod snapped and dumped everything onto the floor. It turns out that being ‘organized’ and cramming everything in on special hangers is... heavy.

So was the unconscious burden of keeping clothes across six sizes, never knowing which size I’d be wearing three months later.

The more I worked with my people, the chronically disorganized and the hoarders, the more clarity I got about my wardrobe. I had a lot in common with my clients.

Buying things for the pattern or the fabric even if I didn’t wear them

Keeping gifts even if they didn’t go with anything else

Hanging onto old clothes even if they didn’t fit

Trying on several things, not realizing that most of them always wind up back in the pile

Always having a reason to keep something and never having a reason to let something go

I call this the ‘bottom up’ method. Look at what we have and work from there. What I gradually learned was a more systemic ‘top down’ method, figuring out what is actually needed.

The concept of designing a wardrobe was totally lost on me. This whole idea of choosing only things that work on my body type and interchange with each other... huh? How do people do that??

I’m exactly the audience for a book like Project 333.

Courtney Carver is right. Working with a minimal wardrobe really is better and easier. There are so many more interesting and important things to think about rather than what we’re wearing every day. Especially first thing in the morning, it’s a huge improvement to be able to grab something and feel right about it on the first try. Getting ready to start the day is one of the toughest times for the chronically disorganized. Project 333 is an ideal way to cut down on complications and have at least one area of life go smoothly.

Favorite quote:

Dress for the life you have right now, and you will move through it with more ease and grace.