[Kara] Travel Clothes--A Project 333 Experiment

Have you heard of Project 333?  It's a minimalist clothing challenge to build a capsule wardrobe that is comfortable enough and versatile enough that you can wear no more than 33 items of clothing (including shoes, coats and jewelry!) for three months.  Thirty-three items of clothing for three months . . . 33 for 3 . . . 333.  (You can read about the Project 333 challenge here.)

I first read about it a few years ago and thought it was NUTS.  But it recently occurred to me that I've been living way under the 33 items of clothing for over five months now.  Here's a breakdown of the clothes I've brought on our trip.  According to the Project 333 rules, it's a total of 22 items of clothing and I've been pretty darned comfortable.

First, a note about climate:  We've generally planned our travels to coincide with warm weather in the locations we're visiting, but "warm" isn't the same everywhere.  We've endured temperatures over 115 degrees and cold, wet, blustery weather down to about 40 degrees in these clothes.  For purposes of this discussion, I'm leaving out the technical clothing we used for our trekking in the Himalayas (where the temperature was in the 20s).

Nine Tops

I have nine shirts with me.  They are all made of light-weight synthetic materials.  Two are exercise-style t-shirts (for exercise and casual wear), two have 3/4 length sleeves for cooler days and the other five have short sleeves and are button-down or blouse style rather than t-shirt style.  All of the shirts came from either REI or TJMaxx.  Each one will drip dry within 24 hours of washing and hanging and they all fit together into a single, pretty small, packing cube.

Seven Bottoms

I have three pairs of pants, one pair of (nice looking) shorts, one pair of exercise-style capri pants and three knee-length skirts.  Even thought that's a total of eight pieces, when we briefly stopped in the US for my brother's wedding, I left one pair of pants behind and added one of the skirts, so I've only had seven options at a time.  Two of my pairs of pants are hiking/travel style pants from REI and one is a pair of yoga pants (because sometimes I really want to be comfy).  All of these live together in one large packing cube in my suitcase.

These have been my favorite sandals for
several years and they have worked perfectly
for this trip.

Three Pairs of Shoes

I only have one pair of running shoes, one pair of sandals and one pair of flip flops.  When you only have three pairs of shoes, they better be good.  My sandals are Munro Pisces and they are amazing--cute enough to wear with a skirt and blouse when I want to look dressy and yet comfortable enough to walk in for miles and miles.

Two Jackets

We each brought a quilted down coat that packs down small, plus a packable rain jacket that fits over our down jackets for when we need to pile on the layers.

Two Pieces of Jewelry

I have worn a single pair of silver hoop earrings every day of this trip, and a single necklace (silver chain with a pearl pendant).  My wedding ring wouldn't count for purposes of Project 333, but I actually didn't bring my wedding ring on our trip and instead I'm wearing a $7 silver band I bought off of Amazon.

Other Items

I brought one pair of pajamas, one swimsuit, one set of long underwear (that I ditched in the US a few weeks ago because I only used them in Nepal), plus a 4-5 sets of socks and underwear.  These all share a large packing cube in my suitcase.

That's it!

Will this experience change how many clothes I own and wear when I'm no longer traveling? 

It will be interesting to see.  I know I will be happy to have a pair of jeans again, but they are simply not practical to travel with--bulky to pack, hot to wear and they take too long to drip dry.  I have noticed that with the capsule wardrobe I'm traveling with, it is easy for me to look more put together than I do at home (I'm usually wearing in a blouse and a skirt this summer) and I'm perfectly comfortable.  So maybe I will transition back to a slightly more polished look when I get home (as opposed to my daily jeans or yoga pants).  Time will tell.