It’s the end of the spring season of Project 333 and the beginning of the summer season. Another chance to choose what I’m going to wear! And another chance to review what I’ve been wearing and how well my wardrobe is working.
I did the same review that I’ve been doing for the last 2 months {x} and I have the spreadsheet shared {here} and as usual I was surprised at how little I wear each item of clothing.
You’ll be pleased to see I finally took photos! It took me a while, but I found a good spot in the house to hang stuff up and take pictures without too much of a color cast :) oh how I envy people with a big white wall or a full length mirror for taking outfit photos!
My most worn items, with 6 or 7 wears each, were my navy cardigan, my black cardigan, my grey sweatshirt, my striped tank dress, my denim skirt, my sweatpants, my tanks (4 items) and my leggings (2 items, although I think I only wore one pair, my skirted-capris). These are all very basic pieces, mostly the kinds of things I grab when I don’t want to think about what I’m wearing. They’re also the kinds of things I wear when I’m sick, which I was for part of the month. I spent 2 weeks at home with the pug while she was recovering from surgery, and for a week of that I had a bad cold, so getting dressed was a very low priority. I wouldn’t have gotten dressed at all except that I had to go out to walk the pug and do my hen-sitting duties.
The navy cardigan was something I pulled out of storage part way through the spring season, and it has been extremely useful. I think I wore brightly colored cardis more in past years, but I’m in a more neutral zone lately. The striped grey and black tank dress was a bonus choice as well – unflattering but very useful on hot days and if I need something to wear with capris for working in the garden or around the house.
Funny thing about the grey sweatshirt – it has a star next to it on my sheet because I didn’t think it was very nice or useful and I was thinking about tossing it. But for the last 3 months I have consistently worn it more than once a week. If I didn’t have it I figured I would be wearing it’s fraternal twin, the pink sweatshirt. But would I? Hot pink just isn’t right every day. Grey isn’t my best (most flattering) color, but there are a lot of days when it’s my comfort zone.
My next most-worn items were my pink striped tshirt, my lilac tank, my pink sweatshirt, my grey striped maxi skirt, and my black and white long sleeved tshirt. The long sleeved tee was probably part of my early June sick wardrobe. I haven’t worn it lately. It’s been too hot :) BTW that pink sweatshirt is impossible to photograph well! It’s a much truer hot pink than this picture would suggest, closer to the color of the striped tee. Oh, and those stripes might be doing crazy things on your screen. Sorry.
I have been “splitting my wears” when it comes to my dresses. Late in the month I added a couple of summer dresses as part of my changeover (I pulled them out about a week early and put away my winter wear) so I now have too many dresses hanging in my closet. They are so pretty, but I think I should narrow my choices down a bit, or accept that I’m unlikely to wear each one more than a couple of times a month. That might be OK, as long as having so many choices doesn’t make life more difficult. I wore 7 different dresses once or twice each last month. I had two dresses that I didn’t wear, at least among the dresses that were on my spring list. I have several more dresses hanging up that I haven’t worn yet this year, some of which may not fit very well any more. I have sorted a couple of dresses into the donate pile already.
Half way through the month I replaced my grey “knicker” shorts with a pair of slate blue capris. They don’t fit quite as well as I had hoped and I doubt that they are flattering, but they are very useful and comfortable and I wore them 6 times in 2.5 weeks. I would have worn them once or twice more if they had been clean – as it was I had to wash them specifically so I could wear them again. I even wore them the same day I bought them. So obviously they are meeting an important need. I found them especially useful for the days I spent helping with a decluttering project in someone else’s home (ie. I couldn’t wear my pajama capris!) I might need to find a better fitting, better looking version of these pants. I learned that blue shorts are much more useful than grey shorts – I have several grey tops that looked horrible with my old grey shorts but they worked perfectly with my new blue pants. I will remember that lesson for future bottoms purchases.
I’m looking closely at the things that got no wears. Some were just unseasonably warm. Others I have worn in the first few days of July, so they are OK. There are a few things that go together that I haven’t worn because of the way June turned out – a lot fewer fun days and a lot more hard work days. But I’ve got a couple of things that might be on their way out. I always keep a bag in my closet to collect donations. It lets me make a quick choice, but I can change my mind and pull things out if I regret my choice. I rarely do.
I’ve started a post to follow very soon about my new selections for summer. I’m giving myself a week or two to whittle my summer wardrobe down to a reasonable level. Giving myself the same exclusions as I’ve been working with so far (not counting bags, shoes, jewelry, counting loungewear if I wear it all the time) I seem to be right around 40 items right now. I’ll work on it little by little and see what I’m really wearing.
It’s only just starting to be consistently hot, as is typical in the Pacific NW. I won’t be wearing my sweatpants at all for the next 3 months. I guess I should put them away. I’ve already stashed my sweaters away. Next year I probably won’t keep them out for the spring season at all. It’s always tricky to know what is going to work in the spring. We’ve had an unusually lovely spring this year with lots of warmth and sun. Who knows if this is our new normal or just an anomaly.
Back soon!
Thanks for stopping by,
Jo:)
adventures in the here now 
That spreadsheet idea is genius!