I challenged myself to only wear 10 items of clothing for 10 days.
You can read more about my choice to do this as well as how I have been trying to minimize wardrobe in this post here.
This was a daunting change as I am used to a full closet with tons of choices each day. It was also daunting because I had to find things for both hanging out and lounging clothes as well as clothes for my first week at my first post-grad job which means business casual clothing.
It took a bit to pick out the clothes I wanted to wear and as I was doing it I definitely started to notice a pattern. I already wear mostly neutrals and those were the clothes that I started to chose as I needed things I can mix and match easily. I also needed things for both warmer days and some cooler days and early mornings. The colours I did use were on the green spectrum, olive and mint, and that did cause a problem on one of the days.
So these are the clothing that I chose for my 10 items. Some of these items were thrifted and others are fast fashion items that I had purchased before I decided to stop purchasing items from fast fashion retailers. (Read more about that here).
- Grey sleeveless blouse
- Olive long-sleeved blouse
- Black shirt (says “black is the new black” on it)
- Navy and white striped sleeveless dress
- Black paper-bay style cropped pants
- White and black skirt
- White t-shirt
- Denim shorts
- Olive military style jacket
- Mint pants
So I hoped that those ten items would be good for the next ten days and got started.
Here is what I wore each of the days and thanks to Nigel for taking photos of me each day.
Day 1: Black shirt and denim shorts. Today was spent doing groceries, switching our ID’s with the move to a new province, and other various errands.
Day 2: Grey blouse and mint jeans. Today was mostly spent at home, but Nigel and I also went out for a walk in the afternoon and it was a beautiful day.
Day 3: Black and white skirt, white shirt, olive jacket. Today my family came over and we had a delicious waffle brunch. Then we went out to some thrift stores (yes I did get a few new clothing items while restricting my wardrobe, irony I know) and then back to their house to celebrate my brother’s birthday.
Day 4: Mint jeans and black shirt. Today I went to church and then spent the rest of the day relaxing at home.
Day 5: White shirt and denim shorts. Today was a beautiful day and I spent it prepping for the week starting work and cleaning up the house.
Day 6: Olive blouse, and black pants. First day of work and I wanted to look put together, but it was also comfy and not too warm for the day.
Day 7: Navy and white dress, olive jacket. Comfy but also looking nice is my goal every day and this certainly matched that goal. Today I didn’t see Nigel all day so this selfie will have to do.
Day 8: Mint pants, white shirt, and AND 11TH ITEM grey cardigan. Today I sadly had to add one more item as it was chilly and the only jacket I had didn’t go with the outfit. I was glad I added the cardigan however and it was my only addition for the week.
Day 9: Grey blouse, black and white skirt, and olive jacket. Friday! It was a cooler day today so I needed the jacket, but this was very comfy all day.
Day 10: Today was my first day off after a week at work so I spent most of the day in my pajama’s but I did get dressed to make myself be a little productive and to take this photo.
Now there were some pro’s and some con’s to this challenges.
PROS:
- It was so easy to get dressed in the morning as there were such minimal choices to make. This was so helpful that I planned out my outfits for this week as well. My 5am brain thanks me.
- I found new combinations of clothes and I am sure I could find even more if I did this for longer
- I decided after the challenge was over to get rid of the grey blouse and I wasn’t entirely comfortable in it and comfort is big for me and my wardrobe
CONS:
- It was a bit chillier than I expected at the beginning of the 10 days which meant I had to add an item
- Having to have clothes for both at home and work was tough and some items couldn’t work for either of them
- I only do laundry once a week so some items got stained and I couldn’t wear them again as I needed to wash them and didn’t have the time on some days
Overall this was very fun and quite successful. I am not going to be downsizing my wardrobe to 10 items anytime soon, but I enjoyed doing this and I think I will do it again in the fall/winter when I have different clothes items to wear.
What about you? Would you try a 10×10 challenge (or something similar?)
fivestarredlife.ca 
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