The Closet Project

The Beginning of the Closet Project

For years, I bought things because they were on-sale or a "good deal" or on impulse or out of desperation (i'm glaring at you pantyhose).  I ended up with a lot of "stuff" but no real idea of what I already owned or what I needed.  I tried using those "essential items" lists or "20 things every woman should own" as a guide, but they always felt incomplete.  They never fully met my unique needs or lifestyle.  I felt like I was constantly uttering that mantra: "I have nothing to wear".

One day the light bulb went off.  In my normal, non-internet life, I analyze data.  I started to think, if I can take a company's financial or personnel records and use them to tell them where they need to hire or cutback, why couldn't I use data, my own data, to be a better shopper?  Thus was born the nerdiest fashion project in the history of the world.  And what do you do when you start a project like this? Well, you decide to put it on the internet.  This blog is a way for me to document my efforts to analyze my own closet, build my "ideal" wardrobe, and, let's face it, keep me honest about what I actually own.

Related Posts:

• A Data Nerd's Approach to Fashion
• Planning: Building a Roadmap
• Planning: Data Journeys
• Planning: Data Journeys (Continued)

Moving Forward

As I started going through my stuff, I noticed a lot of items that were in good condition, but that I no longer needed or never wore.  It seemed like a shame to just throw it away and so I started building a donation pile.  Just in the first round, I found I could donate almost 25% of the clothes that I'd counted.  That was way more than I expected and I figured that number would only grow.  So, I decided to start keeping track of the items I wanted to donate and, at the end of my project, I'll give them all away to a single cause.  I'm still researching the best way to do this, but I'll keep you posted on how this works out!  

**I try to be as accurate as possible with the numbers on this blog.  However, the numbers will change as I add items to my closet, pull clothes out of storage and start logging them, or find things that were hidden in the recesses of my laundry basket.  If you ever have any questions about my numbers, please leave a comment below and I'll do my best to address it!