limits that free part 3

A few months ago, I went out to dinner with a couple of gals. One of them suggested stopping at a clothing store. Before I could pipe up and decline, the other gal said that her credit card was maxed at this particular store and she couldn't allow herself to go there until she had paid it off.

She wears a uniform at work, so I know she isn't paying money for work clothes. Thankfully, she was disciplined enough to stop shopping at her max, but I wonder if the joy of buying the clothing offset the discomfort the debt brought.

I'm not judging her, she is a sweetie and a good friend.

I'm hoping she can some day enjoy a closet with empty spaces and a credit card with no balance.

Less clothes=less debt. More space=more freedom.

Sometimes we need to ask ourselves hard questions. Do I need this? Do I have enough? Can I pay for it?

Obviously questions not asked by these folks with super-sized closets. Apparently Eva Longoria doesn't adhere to my three jeans guidelines. :) My response to the question 'can a girl have too many jeans?' is a resounding 'YES!'.

Such a different mindset than the young man who felt two shirts was enough and did not want responsibility or the burden of care of a third.

Lest I sound like a clothes scrooge, let me assure you that I am not opposed to buying clothes when needed. My definition of 'when needed' may differ from others.

My dressier jeans are beginning to show signs of wear and will soon be shifted to my everyday jeans. I am watching sales and checking thrift stores for something that will fit the bill for my new dressy jeans.

My walking shoes are also in need of replacement. Hopefully sometime this month I will find a sale on the shoes I prefer.

I am very aware of how blessed I am. I have the ability and means to replace clothes that wear out. I would not care to have a closet the size of most people's bedrooms. But I do have choices - and plenty of them even with less than 33 items of clothing. It is enough. And more.

By limiting my clothing options, I have freed up some money that can be used to help others in genuine need. So many in our world have so few options when it comes to clothing.

Hopefully these past few posts have given you food for thought as you consider: "What's in your closet?"

I would really like feedback on these thoughts. Do you think I am off the wall? Has this challenged your way of looking at clothing? Do you think I have too many clothes? Did you count your clothes? (Ann did.) We can all learn from each other.

limits that free part 2

Imelda Marcos Shoe Museum

I have continued to purge my closet over the years. I have a 'one-in, one-out' rule, that keeps me from returning to my stuffed closet days.

Everything I have I wear. Everything I have fits. Everything I have, I like.

Win. Win. Win.


Maybe it is the current state of the economy that has people rethinking their spendy-trendy ways. In my web wanderings, I have come across four clothing challenges:
(please note, I do not necessarily recommend the philosophies of any of these blogs, just found their experiments interesting):

• the woman who wore a brown dress every day for a year
• the woman who wore a black dress every day for a year
• the group who challenged each other to wear only 6 separate items for a month - mix and match (excluding sleepwear and workout clothes)
• project 333 choose from 33 items including clothing, accessories, jewelry, outerwear and shoes - for three months

The only project that I remotely considered being involved in was project 333. I went to my closet to count my clothes.

I don't even own 33 items of clothing (not including workout wear and sleep wear).

Now, to be fair - I do not work outside the home. But I do get dressed everyday. Presentably. I think if I worked full time I could get away with a bare bones wardrobe as well.

I tried a little experiment this summer. I wore the exact same thing to church each Sunday. Tan linen short sleeve blouse with a black skirt. No one seemed to notice my lack of variety (or turned me in to What Not to Wear). Yet, anyway.

You may want to consider simplifying and downsizing your closet. You might find it very freeing.

I sure did.

(BTW, I can be packed and ready to go on a trip in a matter of minutes. LOVE THAT!).

What's in your closet?

limits that free part 1

disclaimer: not my closet

Staring at my side of our walk in closet, I thought of the young man who was content to only own two shirts.

While no one would ever accuse me of being a clothes horse or a slave to fashion, I definitely had plenty of clothes.

I started looking at my clothes in a new way. Since I lived in the Northwoods and not Guatamala, there were several things that were needed for warmth and protection in the winter. Long sleeved blouses, boots, a warm coat, hat mittens/gloves and scarf. But how many of these things did I really need?

I began to pare down. Out went everything that I did not care to wear anymore (taken to Goodwill - you can get a receipt for tax purposes). My closet looked less full. It was a very gratifying feeling.

But I also felt bad that I had wasted some of Pat's hard earned money on these items. So, I purposed to be very careful about how I shopped. Nothing trendy, only classics. This part was pretty easy. I hate to shop. Always have - ask my mom.

Mom (cheerfully): Let's go shopping and get you some new clothes for school!
My junior high self: Okay (said decidedly Eeyoreishly), if we have to (ugh).

Never been a fan of shopping.

I once heard Elisabeth Elliot tell of helping one of her granddaughters clean her room. As they picked clothes up from the floor, the problem became apparent. There were many clothes for the dresser. Many would go buy another dresser. But our wise friend Elisabeth asked her granddaughter, after counting and folding 25 tee shirts, how many tee shirts she really thought she needed. The answer was 10. She chose her favorite 10 and donated the rest. Now it was much easier to dress each day and to keep her room clean.

As I looked through my closet, I assigned my own limits. How many jeans does a person really need? For me it was three pairs: one for gardening and hauling wood, one for running errands and one dressier pair. You might have a different number. As the years went by, the jeans would move down the chain. The gardening and hauling jeans reached a point where they were only fit for the rag bag, the running errands jeans became the gardening and hauling jeans and the dressier pair became the running errands pair. Then, and only then, would I allow myself to buy a new pair of jeans.

More tomorrow...

sorry for lying etc.

I mentioned the other day that I was close to 2,000 posts and that there would be a giveaway to celebrate that milestone. As I was doing some editing (yes, I actually DO edit my blog despite appearances to the contrary), I noticed I had several posts (in draft form) which had never been published. As I went through and deleted these (cuz it didn't seem right to count them in my 2,000) my new number of posts was: 1, 916.

Bummer. That is nowhere near 2,000.

We will still have a giveaway and it will be a handmade Christmas ornament. Any one who leaves a comment between October 25 and November 10 will be entered into a drawing for the giveaway.
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What I really wanted to discuss today, though, has been on my mind for quite some time.

One of my favorite 'reads' is 'Living More with Less' by Doris Janzen Longacre. I bought this book in the early '80's after reading her cookbook 'More with Less'. Both books were life changing books for me. I re-read them often.

The book Living More with Less is subtitled: a pattern for living with less and a wealth of practical suggestions from the worldwide experiences of Mennonites.

This book covers 1) why we should live with less and 2) how we can live with less. Some of the 'how to's' covered are money, travel and transportation, food, clothing, celebration and recreation.

Let me share a quote from the chapter on clothing. We can mull over it and tomorrow, I will share some of my thoughts.

"When we lived in Guatamala, a fourteen-year-old Kekchi boy names Amiliano worked for us. My husband had some shirts he couldn't wear anymore, and I wanted to get rid of them. I offered one to Amiliano, but he said, "No, thank you. I have two shirts, and I don't want more. With two, I wash one while I wear the other. If I had a third one, it would just
mildew."
(this entry was provided for the book by a former missionary to Guatamala).

This quote profoundly affected me. I'll expound more on this tomorrow. If you have any thoughts on this quote - please comment!