Organizing your home: Could you wear the same dress for a month?

I did. Three years ago, I joined a local woman in her year-long One Dress Protest. I only joined up for 30 days.

I was so nervous, I didn’t even take any photos of my closet, my dress, or the daily wearing (I was a new blogger! What did I know!?).

Lately I’ve been reading about minimalist wardrobes, capsule wardrobes, and I’ve even tried creating virtual ones of my own. Because all these blogs about paring down our “stuff” and using just what fits us and brings joy reminded me of that month-long experiment.

So many people are sharing about these minimalist wardrobes and asking, “Can people really do that!?” I’m here to say, yes it is possible! We’re emotionally attached to the clothes in our closets for various reasons, but the reality is, I’ve read most people only wear 20% of what is in their closet!

Wearing one dress for thirty days (plus sleepwear and workout) was entirely possible and not even all that painful, except for a few social moments where I hoped nobody would say anything. Ha!

I remember these things from the 30 day one-dress affair:

Almost nobody noticed what I was wearing. If anybody realized I was wearing the same dress day after day, they never said anything! I hadn’t told anybody except my mom, sister, and the friend who did it with me. I also had the option to wear a cardigan, leggings, and a few other accessories to vary my look. So my conclusion is that 1) people didn’t notice, 2) people didn’t care 3) people felt so bad for me they couldn’t say anything!

I didn’t NEED all the clothing I had in the closet. When I went back to my regular wardrobe thirty days later, I was at a loss for what to wear first. I almost felt like “scrap all this!” because if I could go thirty days without it, was it necessary?

It’s helpful to have more than one item in your closet! (haha). Now… for variety’s sake, and laundry sanity, yes, I’d recommend having more than one item to wear! But I also realized that so much of my closet was just storage, so I did a huge purge of  my closet, and kept only what fit right then, and what I liked. I still have probably 70+ items in my closet, but I got ride of at least 50!!

I doubt I could do another 30 days in one dress, but I know I could reduce more. It was an interesting experience, but rather boring and I had to wash my dress a lot! But I would be interested in the Capsule Wardrobe idea, where you have about 33-54 items in your closet (for each season) and that’s it (plus sleepwear and workout wear).

Could you do a capsule wardrobe? Have you ever?

Read more about how to create a versatile wardrobe using detailed solids.

What’s the biggest area of your home that you need to re-organize?