When it comes to trying to live a more simple life, one of the easiest ways to get started is to start reducing the number of clothes we have.
There are a couple ways to eliminate clothes. Two ways that we’ve tried are the bring me joy method and the specific number method.
Bring Me Joy
In the first method, you literally dump everything out of your dressers and closets and pick up each item individually. Then ask yourself, “Does this bring me joy?”. The idea is that we have so many clothes that we don’t even like. We have clothes that are too old or too small or too big and we’re not wearing them. They take up space in our homes and our lives and someone else could be using them.
We originally stumbled on this method in “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” by Marie Kondo.
A variation on that question is, “Does this add value to my life?” For me, I was a touch skeptical of the “joy” question and thought it was relatively subjective. The value idea may be bit easier to swallow.
Arbitrary Number
The second method is somewhat arbitrarily setting a number and only keeping that many items. I had a ton of t-shirts. Now I have five t-shirts that I would wear basically anywhere and seven workout t-shirts. This works for me, it doesn’t have to be the same for you. I set a number that made sense for my lifestyle and went for it.
This works with shoes and belts as well. We don’t need 20 pairs of shoes. I have seven pairs. I have black dress, brown dress, casual boots, boat shoes, nicer sneakers, and two pairs of running shoes. This allows me to wear what I need to wear, but doesn’t clutter my closet with too many options.
Conclusion/Encouragement:
There is no need to feel like you need to have one pair of shoes or only two shirts. Every lifestyle is different and requires more or less in different categories. The goal is progress. If you have a desire to simplify, you likely have too much stuff. So start simplifying. Start with clothes. You can do this.