Roughing It With Less Stuff

Recently, I cleaned my closet. No, it had nothing to do with Marie Kondo. Yes, it had everything to do with paring down my stuff. Am I roughing it? Let’s find out…

Decisions, decisions…

I have a hard time making decisions. Said everybody else under the sun, right? 😉 When it comes to orchestrating my day, deciding what to wear, or even what to eat, sometimes it’s too much and I can’t make a decision. This I find funny (and also sad), given that so many people in the world don’t have choices at all.

When it comes to clothes specifically, I have always been a “UGH, this again?!” sort of person. I have never really enjoyed putting together an outfit. However, as I’ve started realizing that it helps my mental clarity to have an organized wardrobe, I’m forcing myself to put effort into what I’m wearing. The qualities I aspire to achieve in my wardrobe include:

• Options, but not too many
• Colours, but not too many
• Textile variety, but not too much
• Longevity, always

But when I look in my closet, there are too many things. I know, I’m whining about a packed wardrobe when there are people out there who don’t have any clothes. I promise I will stop sounding snobby and start making sense soon.

Caveat: I own mostly second-hand clothing. I don’t feel bad about my wardrobe in that sense – my environmental footprint as far as clothing is concerned is way low and that’s the way I like it. In fact, this is something I’m quite proud of, and I’m thankful to all the people who have helped me create a less-impactful wardrobe. 🙂

So, back to this wardrobe/choice problem I have. Recently, I totally lost it over my packed closet and two wonderful things things happened: I discovered Project333, and I read a book called Roughing It In the Bush (one of my winter reading list titles). The timing couldn’t have been more perfect.

Project333

Project333 is the brainchild of Courtney Carver, author of Be More With Less. Courtney is amazing and her #project333 is also amazing in its simultaneous simplicity and abundance.

The Project333 concept goes something like this: reduce your wardrobe (the things you wear to work/school/out in public) down to 33 pieces, including shoes, accessories, and outerwear, then wear only those 33 items for 3 months. I know, it sounds bananas and immediate reactions from friends upon hearing this news have been along the lines of some kind of exclamation followed by many questions. Stay with me!

Roughing It In the Bush

Let’s talk about that book I mentioned earlier: Roughing It In the Bush, by Canadian author Susanna Moodie. She wrote the book in 1852, chronicling her experiences living and working on the frontier of eastern Canada, at a time when many were emigrating from England, Scotland, and elsewhere to try their hand at, well, roughing it in the bush. Choices for them were few and far between; they would probably laugh at the way we live today and the things we consider “hardships.”

The book is a fascinating look into what life was like on the frontier, many of whom had never before worked land ever in their lives. The hardships they endured for such little gains was astounding. Reading the book made me 1000000% grateful for all that we have and consider normal today: electricity, heat, doors with locks, refrigeration, etc…and it also made me stop complaining about all the clothes I own.

What is hardship?

Desperation was a theme that stuck with me while reading this book. Moodie’s family always seemed to be on the brink of destitution. First their crops failed. Then their roof caught on fire in the middle of winter. Their neighbours were constantly “borrowing” (aka stealing) from them, and people would just show up and decide to live with them for 9 months. Ridiculous. Then there’s me over here, complaining about how I can’t decide what to wear each day. Girl, puhhhhlease.

The settlers in those days, including Moodie and her family, were trying to turn forested land and rocky fields (that had never before yielded food), into something that would yield food. I wake up in the morning, turn on my laptop to work, and press a button for coffee. Oh, woe is me.

Which brings me back to Project333. Are you still thinking “This is bonkers!! Who would do something like that?!” To be totally honest, it’s actually kind of amazing. And it is anything but “roughing it.”

On the surface, Project333 looks to be a slog, a real challenge…but people, it is anything but. Moodie and her family roughed it when they uprooted their lives from the relative comfort and safety of England to relocate into the Canadian wilderness in the 1800s. They were roughing it when her children went without shoes for several months, and she had to mend every single piece of clothing they owned, multiple times over, because they couldn’t afford to trade for or purchase something new. These were actual hardships.

Me? I filled a giant box full of clothes to take to the thrift store, and there are two more boxes in my closet that I’m not sure what to do with. Now I’m talking about all this on a blog, that I wrote in my pajamas. Hardly roughing it.

Modern day livin’

You might be thinking: “Ryan, this is the 21st centry and aren’t you sooo glad you don’t live on the frontier?! Be grateful for modern conveniences!” And I am. I am! Our life expectancy is higher, our quality of life is far, far, greater, yadd yadda yadda…and yet, I still appreciate the simple way frontiersmen lived.

For me, reading Roughing It In the Bush calmed me down about the idea of “going without” or “using less” because frankly, back in yonder day, people just didn’t have stuff! They couldn’t afford to haul around tons of crap and even if they did, there was nowhere to put any of it in their teeny weeny log cabins.

So after you exclaim, “OHMYGODICOULDNEVERDOTHAT!” (which I did at first, too)…maybe sit down with your closet for a second and take a gander. I’m not saying we need to all destroy our wardrobes and live like minimalists or frontiersmen, and I’m certainly not trying to guilt us all into feeling bad for owning clothes.

What I am suggesting is that maybe we should all spend some time considering our clothes. Are they repairable? Why did we buy them in the first place? Where did we buy them? What are they made of? How were they made? Who made them?

A life filled with less.

Reducing my wardrobe down to 33 items has been immensely freeing, and fun. I have a clearer mind. I have less stuff, and it is quite nice. I’ve ticked off all the boxes on my “optimal wardrobe” list (previously mentioned). I love all of my clothes. I’m not roughing it, but I have less, and it is abundant and grand. (And it turns out, I’ve done this before, which is perhaps why I’m so jazzed about this project after all. O:-))

Of course, as of this writing I’m only on Day 12, so Project333 is still a novel idea. I’ll check back in in a month to give you an update. Maybe by then it really will feel like I’m roughing it. O:-) But for now, here’s to having more time and “roughing it” with less stuff.

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