Friday, January 1, 2016

simplicity 2016: the great purge

Last month I participated in an amazing campaign called Dressember. It exists to bring awareness to the darkness of human trafficking and allows people to raise money to support some really incredible organizations.

Essentially, you wear a dress every day for the entire month and use your personal fashion to start conversations and shed light on a serious issue. It's pretty rad.

When I started the month, I had many friends ask me, "Elizabeth, do you have enough dresses for the entire month??"

Oh you guys are adorable. Thank you so much for pretending like you don't already know I am a clothes hoarder.

You didn't know that? How is that possible? I mean, have you seen my closet?

You haven't? That's right..... I wear the same jeans and sweatshirts almost every week....

So when friends would ask if I had enough dresses, I chuckled maniacally and answered, "Yes. I have 30. 30 dresses. Not counting skirts. Do I have a problem? Maybe. But, it's not like I'm going to go to a meeting about it or anything...."

And so I began this journey, thinking I would have no problem figuring out what to wear and I would just float through the month.

Then I realized how out of control my clothing stash really was. I own 30 dresses and I didn't wear half of them.....

Which leads me right into my personal theme for this year. Simplicity.

Simplicity can take on many forms, and I am truly looking forward to seeing what this journey is going to hold for me.

Am I going to become an extreme minimalist who sleeps on the floor and eats rice all day?

Am I going to go entirely paperless because...trees?

Am I going to find that the responsibilities I tell myself I need to carry really don't need to be carried at all, but rather, released from my type A, vice like grip?

Who knows what I will have to say a year from now, but for today, or rather the month of January, I am focusing on a few things. A few being three. Why only three? #simplicity

I got up this morning, picked out my outfit, and went through all my dresses.

Then I went and got a box, and put 17 dresses inside that box.

17 dresses that I didn't wear one single time over the last 31 days.

17 dresses I don't want to get rid of because they are pretty, even though I don't remember when I last put them on.

So I had a little chat with myself. About how I don't need them. I won't wear them. Someone else can benefit from them...etc


And that is why, these 17 dresses will find a home at Hope Place, a woman and children's shelter run by Seattle's Union Gospel Mission. My life is filled with excess, and if my excess can fill someone's void, then that's what I want this year.

I have many more areas in my house and in my life to purge; but for now, my closet is cleaner, my heart feels lighter, and I revel in the fact that simplicity might just rock my world for the better.

#simplicity2016

2 comments:

  1. Love Simplicity! Great encouragement to find a good USE for our UN-USED!

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    1. Thanks Patrick! Looking forward to seeing what the Lord prompts me to purge as the year goes on :)

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