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My experience with Project 333
A challenge of just 33 pieces of clothing for three month
Writing about clothing is hard for me. It orbits around so many subjects I'd like to talk about, specifically how clothing and style are tightly coupled with my anxiety and depression, that I fail to find a single thread of thought to guide my writing.
I'm rehearsing an article about personal style and another about how going towards full-black outfits mirrors my mood, but I just... can't. I always start them and stop in the middle, not happy with how they are going.
So, trying to unblock this topic, I decided to write about something clothing-related but specific, straightforward, and with a clear outline: Project 333.
But how?
I came upon Project 333 while researching ways to live with less, which has been a goal in my life since I lived in a 25 square meters apartment in Brazil. Changing countries and living in a furnished temporary flat made me think about what I could do to have not so much stuff to move around. I could even become a digital nomad in the future, so I wanted to read and watch enough material to know the theory of living in a minimalistic way.
As I was in a furnished apartment then, there wasn't much I could do related to having less furniture. What I could control, though, was clothes. Online research took me to the book The Curated Closet by Anuschka Rees — an exciting read about mixing and matching, building outfits and making the best of what you have. This piece, though, directed me to the subject of this article, the book Project 333 by Courtney Carver.
A brief pause.
Suppose you search for the clothing subject online. In that case, you will notice 98% of the results targets women — they are the ones that need to balance winter and summer clothes, that go on shopping sprees, and that need to be handcuffed and blindfolded (in a very non-sexy way) to avoid those pesky stores on sale.
I found one article talking about men's clothing habits. It was so old it still referred to the reader as a metrosexual. Yeah.
I don't have a conclusion like "men should dress better" or similar. I just wanted to point out this difference: it appears that there's no market for these subjects in the men's world.
What is Project 333?
Courtney Carver invented the Project in 2010 with the following rules: pick 33 items of clothing from your wardrobe — including accessories, jewelry, outerwear, and shoes; excluding pajamas, underwear, and some others — and box the rest. Wear only those 33 pieces for three months.
It might sound extreme, but after trying it, I can understand its value, and I'm ready to start my second Project 333 run soon enough.
If you are a bookworm like me, you will benefit from reading the book. If not, go to the blog and read the few articles there. It's more than enough to start.
My journey
Before
I read the book and felt ready. "Let's do this," I told myself on a rainy May 19th. I skipped the tip to start the Project at the first of the month because, well, anxiety.
First, I did as the book told me: I got myself a cardboard box. After having it, I put all of my clothing — shoes, sandals, rings, all of that included — in my bed and did a Marie Kondo-ish round on each piece:
Is this piece of clothing usable? If not, turn it into cleaning rags or throw it away.
Does this piece of clothing fit? If not, donate it. You will not "fit into it when you start going to the gym." Stop hoarding.
Does this piece of clothing spark joy? Do you like to wear them? Do you like its style? If not, put it in the box.
🤔 Reflection moment 1: having to put away clothes that didn't fit anymore made me feel more comfortable accepting my current body and weight. No more pressure from those old t-shirts that looked at me angrily from inside the drawers.
Those steps already filled a good part of the box. I had some clothes I brought from Brazil just because of their sentimental value but, honestly, they wouldn't fit so soon. I preferred to have them worn by someone else rather than them becoming cleaning rags.
The second step is the actual numbering of items. The idea is to have 33 pieces of clothing available at the end of this process. I had to balance what I wore daily and which clothes were reusable. How many times could I wear that shirt without it needing a wash? For this Project, would I rather have a very delicate pair of pants or a very flashy one instead of a more versatile one?
🤔 Reflection moment 2: this made me think about what I do with my week and what I usually wear. Who am I at the office? Who am I when going out with friends? Sure, I love skirts, but would I wear them at work? If not, why? Is it time to do it, or should it go to the box? Also, why do I have so many black pieces of clothing?
I had to consider what I wore daily and why I made those choices. This thinking hit me hard when I realized I had been wearing black t-shirts with black jeans and black shoes for the last few months just because I was tired and didn't want to express myself — or, better, I didn't want to be seen. Therapy time!
The box was almost complete, and I looked at a carefully picked group of garments in my bed. They mixed and matched, made me feel comfortable, and went well on virtually any occasion.
As the book says, I wrote "Project 333" on the box, closed it, taped it as if it was a block of drugs in those airport shows, and stored it somewhere reachable but not quite so. I would free the box from captivity after three months.
Of course, you can change clothes during the Project — when I did mine, Munich was peaking at 25 C°. The following week, in a crazy change of events, it snowed... so I exchanged two t-shirts with two jackets from the box.
The plan is never to go over the 33 pieces. Switching is more than acceptable once or twice, but you should restrict access to the box — it's there only to avoid throwing away clothing you will want to revisit in the future, not to be an extension to your closet.
After I made my selection, it was time to... live life!
During
As said above, I did just a few visits to my box after I sealed it — exchanging t-shirts with jackets, and putting away a few other t-shirts after I bought two new ones from a concert.
One of the main drives of the Project is to avoid stress shopping. I was never much of that but lately, with all the self-esteem issues going on, having this limitation made me spare a lot of money I'd waste on new and unnecessary clothing.
Whenever I saw new shoes, a nice pair of pants, or a great jacket, I had to think about what I would need to put away to aggregate those in my 33 pieces. If I kept putting away t-shirts, I'd end up with none. To get a new shoe, I'd need to put another back, and I really liked the ones I had at the time.
I did buy new clothes but at a fraction of the possible time. I had way more focus, the choices were weighted, and the consequences — having to replace a versatile piece — made me think twice or thrice before swiping the digital credit card into the digital machine.
Also, waking up and knowing that any clothing combination you pick will work is relaxing.
🤔 Reflection moment 3: the book talks about repeating outfits and how we are usually the only ones fretting about that. No one notices we are using the same t-shirt from yesterday or, if you are more intelligent, from two days ago interleaved with another two reused t-shirts. Freeing yourself from the fear of judgment makes you feel even more comfortable wearing what you want, regardless of the outside look. Damn, here we go again to therapy time!
After
August 19th was the last day of my first Project 333 iteration. This post was in my "to write" list since then, but life went on. Ironically, I kept the box closed until yesterday.
After it finished, I had no energy to iterate on it, so I kept using my clothes in my closet. I added a few warmer jackets — realizing I need a custom rule that excludes heavier jackets from the box, as they are usually more about not freezing to death than looking good — and bought a pair of ugly but very comfortable sneakers.
The book tells you to open your box after three months. You should look at what you stored there and be honest: did I miss these clothes? Did they make any difference in my life?
I, for instance, loved to open my box and find a skirt and a caftan I had completely forgotten I owned. Both pieces went back to my closet, and I want hard to wear them asap. On the other hand, every other part of the clothing looked old, unnecessary, and exaggerated. I did not need to add these t-shirts to my already enough collection.
I donated 85% of my box.
🤔 Reflection moment 4: I keep thinking more and more about how I present myself to the world and what I like to see in the mirror. I don't know what's my style — I started writing a newsletter about that months ago but never finished it, as I had a panic attack while doing it after seeing lots and lots of fit models in fabulous clothes I'd never fit it. But I digress; I'd love to know my style, and I'm now actively looking for it.
The cycle
Today I plan on going to a clothing store and buying some stuff. Even before going, I'm already thinking: what should I buy and what will go into the box?
This kind of mentality to purchase the necessary or the pieces I love make everything easier for the mind and the wallet. Deciding to take a piece home or not becomes way more straightforward: would this survive Project 333? If not, then no deal.
🤔 Reflection moment 5: at the end, it's all about acceptance from you and others. It's about accepting only to wear what you like and feel good in and accepting that others must have little impact on that choice. Making fewer choices of what to wear daily makes up for the minor stress of not taking some incredible piece — that would've been worn only once and never again.
Conclusion
I recommend you try Project 333, especially if you are a male. Females should do it, of course, but I bet they think about clothing some three thousand percent more than us men because of how unfair society is structured.
This experience might reveal important insights about your image, body, style, and how you deal with exposing your inner self to others. If the eyes are the windows to the soul, clothes are the windows to the spirit.