Simple Style – Six Items or Less

We’re back from our summer hiatus and have another interesting wardrobe thinning challenge to tell you about. It begins in September so you have plenty of time to prepare for this experiment in simple living if you decide to take the challenge.

Can you choose just six items from your wardrobe and wear only those pieces for an entire month? That is what the Six Items or Less challenge asks you to do. The tag line of the Six Items or Less project is: a global experiment examining the power of what we don’t wear.

The first group of about 250 people from around the world completed the month long challenge in July. Now the project is looking for new recruits to take the wardrobe slimming plunge for the month of September.

Here are the details. Each participant agrees to wear a maximum of six items from her or his wardrobe for one month. There are (thankfully) exceptions that do not count towards your pick of six garments. They are:

undergarments, swim wear, work-out clothes, work uniforms, outer jackets (rain slicker, outdoor jacket), shoes and accessories. You can get multiples of the same item for laundry purposes, but different colors count as separate items.

Makes sense but is it doable? I’m going to find out by making the month of September a six item month for me. What an easy way to simplify life for 30 days.

The founders say they have no set philosophy behind their wardrobe challenge but I can think of at least a few reasons to take this on.

One good reason is that having only six items to choose from will make my daily dressing decisions easy thereby freeing up time, energy and creativity for other more satisfying tasks. Another reason, (the flip side of the first reason in some ways) is that wearing only six items may enhance my wardrobe creativity because if I challenge myself to use accessories, jewelry and shoes in ways to make six items into a unique look for each day of the month. And a third reason to give this challenge a try is that it may be a fun way to tame that big old American urge to consume that seems to be wired into many of us.

If one or more of these reasons resonates with you, give the wardrobe diet a try in September. You can learn more about how one participant met the challenge during July here.

--Your friends at Birch