I don’t even know where to begin. This month hasn’t been going like I had planned.
I mean, in my mind this month was going to be pretty easy. Pick my 7 items, wear those 7 items, demonstrate that I can survive with fewer clothes in my closet. La. De. Da.
Lemme just say… this has been the most difficult self-reduction month ever! Reducing yourself to 7 articles of clothing is impossible. Well not impossible, because people do it daily all over the world, but really really tricky. The worst aspect of it is when I have to change clothes because of the task I’m doing. I have been doing a lot of work in the community garden these past few weeks. Garden = dirt = dirty clothes. Every time I go I wear my blue running shorts, gray t-shirt, and black tennis shoes. Once back from the garden all of those things need to be washed, so I have to put on my other ‘outfit’ while the garden clothes are being washed: skinny jeans, white shirt, flip flops.  It’s a crazy cycle, and happens about 5 times a week on my days off {I work in the garden in the morning, then back home for the rest of the day}.  The other 2 days are work days and I wear my scrubs. All this to say, I am doing laundry a lot. Usually by hand, which is tedious.
I have definitely gone out of the house wearing damp clothing on more than one occasion in the past 2 weeks.
Here are a few of the issues I have encountered with this limited clothing supply:
On Tuesday as I was rushing out of the door for work I found my black tennis shoes caked in dirt and mud from the veggie garden. If I were the ‘plan ahead, responsible type’ {which I am not} then I would have washed them immediately after working in the garden on Monday morning so they’d be ready for work on Tuesday morning.Obviously I didn’t do that, so I decided to wear a different clean pair of shoes to work. After all, I’m representing a company and would like to keep my job.
On Wednesday  I discovered that my blue running shorts were missing. Tuesday it was blazing hot here in Chesapeake, Virginia. I would probably have been carted to the ER for heat stroke if I had worn my only other ‘bottom half’ clothing: jeans. I searched everywhere and even now as I type this {a week later}, I still haven’t found them! It is driving me bonkers! How can shorts just disappear?!
On Saturday Charlotte came down with a stomach virus. The ‘try to get home quickly but she still threw up in the car twice’ kind of tummy bug. It was absolutely awful hearing her say ‘all done’ to throwing up and crying for ‘bread’ even though I couldn’t give her any. I really had no choice but to break my 7 clothing rules the moment vomit became involved. Together, Charlotte and I probably went through 10 different shirt changes Saturday night. That wasn’t really the worst part, though. The worst part was taking her carseat cover off, washing it, then wrestling with the seat to get the clean cover back on. I’ve never been more relieved to have a washer and dryer in my home. I can’t imagine trying to cart those yucky linens to a laundromat.
Other than those bloopers I’ve been able to stick with the parameters of my little experiment so far {it is now day 12}. I am definitely learning to be thankful that I DO have access to more than 7 things to wear, though. And I am so looking forward to wearing clothing item #7 to a wedding this weekend. Bring on THE DRESS!!