Simplicity: Part 4
Simplifying our Apparel
By Casey McDonald and Gavin Bennett
Tutorial on Simplifying Your Closet
Listen to a short tutorial on simplifying your closet with Joshua Becker from Becoming Minimalist. There are practical tips on how to make tough decisions when it comes to minimizing your wardrobe.
Begin with prayer (5 minutes)
Gather together as a Community in a comfortable setting. Have somebody lead a prayer asking the Holy Spirit to lead and guide your time together.
Debrief in Triads (5–10 minutes)
Did you try last week’s practice, choosing to be silent instead of speaking? How did it go?
In which situations did you find it most challenging not to speak?
Did you discover anything about when and why you most want to speak?
Read this overview (5 minutes)
Throughout the Scriptures, Jesus and the writers of the Bible encourage us to live and dress simply, modestly, and not in order to impress others or show off our wealth. Instead, we ought to concern ourselves with the things of God, not worrying about what we’ll wear.
This is much easier said than done. Most of us have an emotional relationship with our clothing and how it impacts the way people judge or perceive us. As a result, many if not all of us have accumulated far more in our closets than we need.
While there is certainly nothing wrong with personal style and expression, for many of us, clothing and excess are inextricably tied. As with simplicity in other areas, paring down our wardrobe to that which we love and use allows us to think less about what we’re going to wear and more about the things that matter most to us.
Work through these questions together as a Community (25 minutes)
Do you have more clothes than you regularly wear? Why is that?
Day to day, why do you wear what you wear? (E.g. people you’ll see, what you need to do that day, what’s clean, expression of style, something else…?)
Do you carry much emotional attachment to your wardrobe? Why might that be?
Discuss the coming week’s Practice (10 minutes)
The Practice for this week is simple: to begin simplifying our wardrobe. This is our first “minimalism” exercise. In the quest to simplify our life, we thought it would be fitting to start with our closet.
There are three basic steps:
Take everything out of your closet, and put it in a pile on your bed.
Sort your apparel into four piles:
Giveaway: Clothes you’d like to give away to a friend, family member, or neighbor (consider your local Buy Nothing group), or donate via Salvation Army or Goodwill (note: you can donate shoes through nonprofit Soles4Souls).
Sell: Items you’d like to sell at a resale store (such as Buffalo Exchange or Crossroads, or on an app like Poshmark).
Throw away or recycle: Items beyond repair that are ready to be discarded.
Wait: This pile is key! Usually, it’s things you’re emotionally still attached to. Just stick any items you’re not quite ready to get rid of in this pile, and then stick it in a closet or garage and set a reminder 3–6 months from now. If at any point, you want to get an item back out, go for it. But more likely, you won’t think about it until you reopen the bag or box, at which point, it will be much easier to get rid of, should you decide to.
Set a self-imposed limit on the number of items in your wardrobe. Here are a few ideas for you to consider, but feel free to come up with your own parameters:
Project 333: Started by Courtney Carver, the idea is to live with thirty-three items for three months.
The Ten Item Wardrobe: You can watch a great Ted Talk on this from Jennifer Scott. The basic idea is to limit your wardrobe to ten core items (not including things like underwear or workout clothing).
The 2–3 Outfit Rule: Put together two or three outfits per season you rotate through.
The Uniform: this is the most intense option, long adopted by nuns and monks as well as creatives. Eliminating decision-making allows for the maximum amount of space for spirituality, creativity in other areas, and a life of impact.
Clean your closet and put your clothes back in. (This is a great time to reorganize your space, so when you know where each item goes.)
Don’t forget to have fun with this! Consider inviting your Community into the process: order a pizza and have a good time!
Work through these questions before calling it a night (10 minutes)
How do you feel or what do you think about this Practice? Does one method or another appeal to you?Any creative ideas or suggestions for how to go about this Practice?
Close in prayer (10 minutes)
