paring down: beginnings

so, today, i thought i'd see how hard it would be to "trim down". what it would look like for me to have a "minimalist" closet. i don't expect that i'll be able to get down to twenty pieces, but maybe fifty. so i thought, well, how bout if i start by taking OUT 20 pieces, and we'll see how close i am to 50 then (if this post is not making sense to you, please read the previous one - it should help... i hope ;). i ended up taking out 65 pieces to get rid of. pieces that have a)not been worn in a year, b)have been worn but shouldn't be due to stains, holes, not fitting, etc, or c)i have no plans of ever wearing again.  (yes, that is a finding nemo scrub top - i work at a children's hospital, ok?? ;)

SIXTY-FIVE! and i did a quick count of what i was "down to"... 176. not counting the clothes i've worn the last 5 days since i did laundry! wow. how much "extra" can a person really justifiably have??? so that was the easy part.
julie & cate over at twentypieces.org have had 6 months to think about this, try pieces & outfits & see what works... if i am going to (in any way) join (something close to) their initiative, 2012 is in 29 days! so, i'm thinking... i should do a trial run. choose 20(ish) pieces (can you tell how much faith i have in myself to actually follow through with this?) and mix & match for 20 days... as they've done this over time, they've been able to see what's missing from their original choices, what actually is versatile, classic, and well-made enough to be in a 20 pieces closet. hopefully this looming deadline will motivate me to do what they did over months & months in the course of 4 weeks! (doubtful ;)
and along the way, i'll force let you take the journey with me, with outfit shots, and musings... jason told me a couple weeks ago that my side of the closet was eating his, and when he came home and saw these stacks to "get rid of" today, he said it was like a dream come true (lol). but then he wanted to make sure that i didn't just do this. because he has seen my heart come out in the experimenting and playing. he's a good guy :) and i'll keep processing all of that before january ;)