Jenifer Beaudean

Seeker of Simplicity and Executive Coach

Reality Sets In

Autumn in New England

As we moved during the last month, the New England leaves peaked, the boxes were unpacked, and “closet space reality” came into shocking perspective.

Let me describe the “walk-in closet” at the little house.

The closet is half mine and half my husband’s, and takes up a large portion of the 2nd bedroom. The front end of the room is our office (we share the desk… no, I’m not kidding), and then the closet space is behind the armoire, and divided into two areas with hanging racks, hooks and whatnot. It’s sort of genius and insanity all at the same time. And I will definitely be including a photo because it’s hard to even visualize.

The BEST is that MyUPSGuy discovered strip lighting at Costco – the lights are on a strip of plastic about 40 feet long. It now cleverly wraps around the inside of the closet and while it is incredibly bright and functional, it looks something like a carnival. AND it turns red, green and blue with its own clicker. I walked into the room the other day and my husband had it set on rotating colors – it was a like a bad rendition of outdoor holiday lighting… but inside. Really, you can’t make this stuff up.

Closet space behind the armoire (with our Golden, Reilly, in front)

Despite downsizing my clothes and bringing four bags of stuff for donation, my sweaters and pants are still too tight in my side of the closet, which has only 4 ½ feet of hanging rod. And it does bring up the question – why do I still have so much stuff I don’t really wear?

Which means more downsizing… yet again.

Looking for ideas anywhere I can find them, I’ve been googling. One interesting website has to do with Project 333, a minimalist fashion challenge in which you stick to wearing 33 items for 3 months. My understanding is that “Courtney” was the first person to do this (in 2010) and successfully downsized her closet without anyone from her professional life noticing anything different. Project 333 was featured on the Today Show and in O, The Oprah magazine. By the way, the 33 items include clothing, accessories, outerwear and shoes.

What this says to me is that I once again must consider life differently. What outfit do I really love, flatters me, and makes me feel great? And why am I not wearing it more often?

But am I ready to wear just 33 items for 3 months? I’m not sure… maybe.

PS – As I considered the project of making up the donation clothing bag this week, I’ll be honest and tell you that instead of tackling the closet… I made snowflake sugar cookies for the first time and thoroughly enjoyed the process. Photos follow. (And by the way, the cookie decorating was way harder than I thought).

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Making sugar cookies in my new kitchen at the little house
Way harder to decorate than I thought…

4 Replies to “Reality Sets In”

  1. Love the sugar cookies! The closet thing would blow my mind. Between professional clothes, casual clothes and bum around the house clothes- I’d be doomed. You are a brave woman to fight these demons! Did I mention fancy clothes and workout clothes…

    1. Hi C, the cookies were a lot harder than I had anticipated. Was thinking that I would start creating cookie unicorns and such but I’m not sure I can pull it off!
      Thanks for commenting… the clothes thing is definitely a journey. J.

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