Project 333: My 33 Piece Capsule Wardrobe

Hey everyone! I'm excited to talk to you today about a little experiment I've been up to lately. If you follow me on Instagram you've already seen a couple teasers for this, but I'm finally ready to share the whole process! For the last few months, I've been planning for and participating in the Project 333 challenge. Don't know what that is yet? Read on...

What is Project 333?

I first heard about Project 333 in The Minimalists' documentary, Minimalism. (It's streaming on Netflix, guys. Go watch it!) Courtney Carver from Be More With Less appears to talk about her MS diagnosis, how it changed her life and how it ultimately drove her to become a minimalist. As part of her journey towards minimalism, she created the Project 333 challenge.

The rules of the Project 333 challenge are simple: wear only 33 items for 3 months.

Including shoes, outerwear, accessories and jewelry.

Only 33?!?

Can you tell I'm still kind of intimidated by that tiny little number? Luckily Project 333 does not include underwear, loungewear, sleepwear, items you never take off (i.e. wedding rings, etc.) or workout gear. So that helps. Kind of...

Why Project 333?

So why am I putting myself through this?

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="176"] * This post contains affiliate links. This means that I may receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you) if you purchase something through these links. Thanks for supporting Beckasaurus![/caption]

As you might have guessed from some of my recent posts, I've been getting more and more into the idea of minimalism. It started with minimizing my Bullet Journal. I simplified that one aspect of my life and suddenly I was realizing how much effort other parts of my life were taking in comparison. While I have never been the tidiest of people, I began to think, hey, maybe that's because I've been fighting an uphill battle against all this stuff. I want to by tidy. I'm making efforts to make things tidy. I just can't keep it tidy. Then, just like practically every other blogger on the internet in 2016, I picked up Marie Kondo's Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Suddenly I was paring down everything in my house.

Reducing my wardrobe is just another step in this minimalist evolution. Even though my wardrobe is already a lot slimmer than it was before, thanks to the Kon Mari method, I still have plenty to choose from. All these options seem like such a great idea when it's Saturday afternoon and I'm wide awake and playing dress up, but at 6am in the morning when I'm getting ready for work, the last thing I want to do is have to plan an outfit. Having a small wardrobe where everything mixes and matches means there's one less thing for my tired brain to worry about.

Planning My Capsule Wardrobe

Trying to decide which items to keep in my wardrobe certainly wasn't an easy task. Before I started picking pieces out, I was worried that I'd want to include a lot more pieces than the project calls for. In an effort to get on paper a list of things I gravitated toward, regardless of how many items that was, I started gathering everything in my wardrobe that I was really liking at that moment. I divided everything into the following categories:

• Tops


• Bottoms


• Dresses/Skirts


• Shoes


• Jewelry


• Accessories


• Coats

With everything all laid out, I quickly made up a list of everything. This really helped me see just how many items I had for each area, and where I might have been a little overzealous or even a bit understocked. Here's a look at my first list:

After I made my master options list, I started into the daunting task of picking out only 33 items. And you know what happened? I actually ended up only picking out 32 items! I was so worried I'd be well over the challenge limit, but it turns out I'm already practically living this challenge anyway. Even my full master list only has 36 pieces! This is what my final clothing list looks like:

Tracking My Project 333 Experience

Once I came up with my final list, it was time to start the challenge! I wanted to get an idea of which pieces was using most along the way, so in true Bullet Journal-er form, I created a tracker. Since my items in my final clothing list were already numbered I just created a single page with a line for each day of the month. On the day's line I just noted the numbers from each item I wore. Here's a look at the first month's log.

As you can see, I really reached a lot for my black Gap skinny jeans. So much so that I practically wore them out. They were getting pretty worn already but wearing them almost every day really did some damage. You can see that there were actually several things that I either wore down quite a bit or decided I didn't really like after all, and so I switched them out for other items. Getting this kind of information has been really great for knowing which pieces I actually need to replace rather that just mindlessly adding more pieces to my wardrobe when I go shopping. This challenge has also forced me to come to terms with some items I've been hanging on to for a long time, but in reality I just don't like how I feel in them. Adios impossible straps and too-heavy-for-the-fabric zipper tank I've had around for five years. It's finally time to set you free.

Month Three Complete: My Thoughts So Far

I started my Project 333 challenge on February 1st, 2017. I'm now wrapping up the third month, and I have to say, this challenge has been quite freeing. Getting ready in the wee hours of the morning has been a breeze, but so has putting together an outfit when going out. I used to take as much time as I could get to get ready before going out and while I definitely don't think there's anything wrong with that (I actually find it to be a sort of self-care/fun time) this newfound quickness has let me get a lot more done (i.e. a longer nap) before it's time to start getting ready, which has been nice!

I definitely haven't been perfect during this challenge though either. Even in the first month you can see that there were days I wore something not on the list (for some fancier meetings) or forgot to log at all. As the days have stretched on, I've found myself switching some of my items out with more seasonally appropriate items (hello spring!) or even just adding something different here and there. Even with these "cheats" I do think I've stuck pretty close to the challenge requirements. At the very least, I've certainly taken to heart what I believe to be the overarching concept:

Live with less, choose additions wisely, and love what you have (even if it means doing laundry way more often).

See you next time!

---

My Bullet Journal Tools

* This post contains affiliate links. This means that I may receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you) if you purchase something through these links. I promise I'll only ever post something that I know and love! You can see my full disclosure and policy here. Thank you for supporting Beckasaurus!


Leuchtturm1917 Dotted A5 Hardcover Notebook


Staedtler Triplus Fineliner Black 0.3mm


Tombow Dual Brush Pen, N89


Westcott Stainless Steel Ruler with Non Slip Cork Base, 6-Inch

Bullet Journal Monthly Layouts - April 2017

Welcome back, guys! March certainly flew by didn't it? But then again, when does a month ever go by slowly? Anyway, I spent some time this last weekend reviewing last month's layouts and creating my April Bullet Journal monthly layouts. As always, I'm excited to share them with you and talk a bit about my ever-evolving planning process!

Monthly Overview

I know I've been waxing poetic about my calendar grid layout as my monthly overview for the last view months now (ok maybe a bit more than a few months.). So why in the world am I back to a single page vertical layout this month? Well, sometimes you've got to stare at your Pop-Tart and decide if you still love it.

Certainly there are some fellow hardcore Gilmore Girls fans out there that got that reference right? Ok, perhaps not. Let me explain...

Basically, it all comes back to intention. Since you're reading this post, I'm going to assume you're already pretty interested in creating a examined life for yourself. You care about planning ahead, organization and personal development. You spend a lot of time coming up with ways to organize all the various facets of life. But then what happens once you've come up with an a good system? A lot of times, the examining stops there. For Lorelai in Gilmore Girls, she reaches for a Pop-Tart every day, and she has for years. Then one day she realizes she's not even sure if she *likes* Pop-Tarts. This month, I'm staring at my metaphorical Pop-Tart.

If I hate this vertical layout, then I've lost nothing. In fact, I just prove how right I've been all along. But if I love this layout, I still win. I've found something that's simpler than my grid layout, that takes up fewer pages (#savetheplanet) and that I still find incredibly useful! We'll have to wait for April to play out to see which breakfast snack I like best. ;)

Goal Setting, Chore Tracking and Future Planning

Because my monthly overview is only a single page, I don't have any room there for things I was squeezing onto my old grid view. Queue this multipurpose spread! I've crammed goal setting, chore tracking and future planning all into a single layout.

As I've been doing each month, I reassess where I feel like I'm at with my modified Level 10 Life categories. This month I'm explicitly setting a goal in each category below my self-assessment. These monthly goals directly relate to my yearly goals and I plan to set a mini-goal each day of April that corresponds to one of these monthly goals. This way I'll always keep those big goals in my mind's eye!

The next part of this spread is a small chore tracker. This month I ditched the chore tracker I had been using entirely! I decided that a lot of the chores I had originally scheduled as once a week were actually quite fine to do once monthly. In fact, there were only three chores I deemed necessary to repeat every week, so I moved those to my weekly view. The rest of the chores will live here and I'll mark them off with the date as they're completed throughout the month. (P.S. - If you're curious about how I set up my cleaning schedule, I explain all of that here).

Habit Tracker

There was only some small change to my tracker that month. I whittled down my habit list in an effort to focus on one "Wildly Important" new goal at a time. Once I've successfully made this new habit, I'll a a new one, but continue to track the successfully formed habits.

Last month I spent some time organizing the habits by group. When I did this I added a space between each group. It turns out that's really confusing when you're on the last few days of the month. Bye bye extra space!

Practicing Gratitude

Does anything ever really change with this layout? Oh well :)

Budgeting and Money

This one also stayed the same this month, after some minor tweaks I made last month. If you want a better explanation of my budgeting and money management, you can read all about that here.

Health and Fitness

This spread is a result of some consolidation after reviewing last month's meal planning and workout layouts, and a new workout plan starting in April. I was doing Kayla Itsines's Bikini Body Guide circuits for the first 12 weeks of the year, but after completing that for the 3rd time, I decided to focus back on weight lifting routine for a bit. My weight lifting plan shown here will get me through 3 weeks with only a single set of exercises. I'll be able to see each routine, check the days off and write down the weights, all in one space! If you'd like to see more on how I plan my weight lifting routines, or even just my workouts in general, leave me a comment below!

The bottom half of this spread is for meal planning. I didn't really need a huge space to plan out dinners and the lunch I meal prep for the whole week, so I'm experimenting with squishing all four weeks into a half page layout. We'll see how it goes!

Well, that's it for April! I hope you guys have enjoyed learning a bit about my decision making process for each layout. If you have any ideas you'd like to share, please leave a comment below! I'd love to hear what you're doing.

See you next time!

---

My Bullet Journal Tools

* This post contains affiliate links. This means that I may receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you) if you purchase something through these links. I promise I'll only ever post something that I know and love! You can see my full disclosure and policy here. Thank you for supporting Beckasaurus!


Leuchtturm1917 Dotted A5 Hardcover Notebook


Staedtler Triplus Fineliner Black 0.3mm


Tombow Dual Brush Pen, N89


Westcott Stainless Steel Ruler with Non Slip Cork Base, 6-Inch

Bullet Journal Monthly Layouts - March 2017

Hello lovelies! It feels like it's only been a few days since we talked about my February monthly layouts, but the short little month has flown by. I've been pretty busy lately with boring ol' life so I haven't been able to update you guys much on any of my projects. I'm sorry, please don't hate me! Hopefully that will change here soon. In the meantime, let's take a look at my March Bullet Journal monthly layouts!

For the most part, this month's pages remained the same. I have really found my groove with the minimalistic layouts I started this year. It keeps my setup time to a minimum and really highlights what's important -- actually living my life!

Month Overview

As always, I start with my monthly overview. One change this month is the removal of the general tasks list. I haven't used it that much in the past, so I'm trying a month without it. But who knows, it might get resurrected next month!

I also changed the next month small calendar and list to take up the full length of the page and removed my modified level 10 life assessment (you'll see where I moved to in a moment).

Finally, in yet another effort to simplify my Bullet Journaling process, I eliminated one of my tools. Sorry grey Staedtler triplus fineliner, I've traded you in for the other end of my trusty N89 Tombow dual brush pen.

Trackers

My tracker format has remained pretty much the same. The only changes this month are the regroupings in my habit tracker. I tried to break them up by category and then arrange them in order of a typical day. For instance, I grouped my Duolingo, reading and meditation habits together because they all have to do with expanding and caring for my mind. Hopefully this is easier to track throughout the day and might even help me form some habit associations!

Budgeting

Last month I tried making all the text of my budgeting worksheet be grey but I really hated it! Back to good old black text this month. :) I wouldn't be honest with you guys if I didn't point out my own imperfections: I definitely messed up with the dates in the "Leftovers" section this month. Oh well!

Finally, I've also added a new step to my budgeting tasks this month! I am trying to save more for retirement and start investing, so I added a task to remind me to contribute to my IRA and investment accounts. Yay adulthood...

Workouts & Meals

Finally! A new spread!

I've had separate meal planning and workout planning spreads for awhile now, but this month I'm trying them out as one single spread. After all, diet and exercise are highly interrelated right?

All I've done here is give each day a line, with the weekends highlighted with my Tombow dual brush pen so they stand out a little more. There are three columns: one for my workout (currently doing Kayla Itsines' BBG for about about the millionth time), one for my daytime meals (breakfast, two snacks, lunch -- I meal prep them all and take them to work), and one for my dinner. Nothing too fancy, but so far it seems to be just enough space.

Gratitude

Back to more layouts I'm sure you'll recognize. Nothing new to see here, just my trusty gratitude tracker.

Living Intentionally

Remember when I told you I'd show you where I moved my modified level 10 life spread to? Fear not, because now is when I make good on my promise!

This month I'm trying out something completely new, completely unplanned and will quite possibly fail spectacularly. Each month I have been reassessing where I'm at with my five modified Level 10 Life categories (relationships, mind & body, home, fun and money & career). I make some short term goals for the month so I make at least some small progress. But after I've finished my monthly spreads and it's well into the third and fourth weeks of the month, I often forget all about what those goals were. I needed to come up with something that kept my goals in the forefront of my mind and held me accountable for making progress.

The idea for this spread came to me while I was creating my gratitude tracker. I visit my gratitude tracker every day and it's been a great way to reflect on my life. That format seemed almost perfect for what I needed for goal tracking, and so this spread was born.

I moved my monthly assessment to the top of this spread, then added a line for every day of the month. It fit perfectly this month, with not a line to spare! Each day I will visit this spread after I'm done filling in my gratitude log (on the opposite page) and I'll write something down that I did that helped me progress with one of my Level 10 Life goals.

I already have a few tweaks in mind for this spread, but I'll stay mum about those until next time. :)

 And that's all for March folks! As always, it's been fun giving you the grand tour of my March Bullet Journal monthly layouts.

Comment down below and let me know what layouts you're trying out this month!

See you next time!

---

My Bullet Journal Tools

* This post contains affiliate links. This means that I may receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you) if you purchase something through these links. I promise I'll only ever post something that I know and love! You can see my full disclosure and policy here. Thank you for supporting Beckasaurus!


Leuchtturm1917 Dotted A5 Hardcover Notebook


Staedtler Triplus Fineliner Black 0.3mm


Tombow Dual Brush Pen, N89


Westcott Stainless Steel Ruler with Non Slip Cork Base, 6-Inch