I just read about this project, called “Six Items Or Less“. The challenge is to wear only 6 items of clothing for one month. Underwear, work-out clothes and outer wear are not included. I have missed the start date, but I could do my own experiment. I need to think about this one though. The 100 Thing Challenge has been easier simply because it is a 100 things, not just 6 pieces of clothing! Yikes. That’s a small number. Luckily I do not have to dress up to go to work each day. I can easily wear jeans and flip flops and a t-shirt. I do dress nicer for church on Sundays and when my husband and I are having a “date night” occasionally, so this should not be too hard for me, but I’m still hesitant.
I love these challenges though. They represent simplifying at it’s finest.
I did do a total overhaul of my closet about a year ago. I let my husband help me go through everything I owned. If it was something he didn’t like and I was just “so-so” about, it was out. It felt so good, but I still have quite a bit more than only 6 things. I’m going to think about this one and get back to you.
Do you think you could live on only 6 items of clothing for a month or more?
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9 Responses to Six Items Or Less
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I think 6 items might be possible in some regions and some areas of the country, but I live in a Southern city and have a varied life–I need a washable lightweight dress to wear under my choir robes–which I might get away with wearing to Rotary, except Rotary is on Monday and I absolutely would need to wash the dress after wearing it Sunday and sweating through it. So two dresses. Then jeans to wear to improv class, with a couple of tops–I really would want to trade off week to week, which if I selected carefully I could wear with a dressier pair of pants or a skirt….that’s no cardigans or blazers…I suppose I could in summer, but in winter–I’d need at least one more piece. (It still gets sweaty hot under the choir robes in winter, so I wear a dress with a cardigan back and forth.)
I think it would be hard to sit down and figure out exactly which 6 pieces. I may try for 10 at first and see how that goes. I’m still thinking about it, but I love the concept. It just helps you realize that in general we probably need a lot less than we have.
I love this concept but I had to chuckle since I’m down to about only 6 items (is it even that many?) that I can fit into right now…need. to. exercise.
I am with you on that one! There are definitely more clothes in my closet than I can comfortably fit into.
while it makes sense to me to not have so many clothes that some things never get worn, and not to have a closet that is so jammed that access is difficult, it seems also not sensible quite wasteful to have to do laundry as often as having only six garments would require. I can see how for some people such a “clothing diet” could work like an intervention, though it is not personally relevant, since my difficulty is in the opposite direction.
My personal goal is to have enough clothing that I only need to do laundry once a week, which (for me) means having eight outfits*. I’ve written about my wardrobe planning thoughts on my blog here: http://artisanry.blogspot.com/2010/06/thursday-thoughts-on-sewing-for-myself.html
* just a dress in the summertime; jumper + dress or jumper+ top in the other seasons
Alison – I thought the same thing…that you would be doing a lot of small loads of wash! I do think 6 items is a bit steep, but I like the concept of showing us that we only need a small amount of clothes. I think 8 outfits is great and still quite minimalistic. And if you can do laundry only once a week, that seems to be more efficient. Thanks for the comment!
Hi Michelle,
I think the original idea behind the six items was to create a uniform to free up time and creativity. The founders had multiples of most items so that means normal laundry (although I think some of the participants really only had 6 articles of clothing and used Febreze which is gross). I am planning on participating in the next 6 Items month but I will have multiples of my items. My items are gray dress, gray skirt, black tank, black blazer, white button-up blouse and jeans. I have multiples of each. Some are exact copies but I have quite a few solid gray sheath dresses so they will act as 1 item. My reason for doing it is an interest in having a uniform. My style icons are women who wore/wear basically the same thing everyday (Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and Laura Bennett of Project Runway). I find that I buy similar things anyway and when I buy something different, I don’t wear it. It should be an interesting experiment – but it need not be stinky!
Yes, I agree that not having clean clothes would be a big issue for me. I think any way we can reduce what we have or what we “think” we need is a good thing. If this exercise helps people come to that conclusion, then it is well worth it! Good luck and let me know how it goes!
Just stumbled on your blog!
My husband and I just got back from a month long camping/road trip with a total of 6 outfits each. For me that was about 10 articles of clothing… Laundry was easy (one load each week, with towels and bedding), but I am very glad to be back with a little variety and some cute things I missed. Gives a different perspective!