October 7, 2013 by Debbie Roes

September Accountability Update

It’s hard to believe that nine months of the year are already behind us! The year is going by fast and while I feel I’ve made progress with my “recovering shopaholic” project, I know I’ll need at least another year (if not longer!) to get to where I want to be. I have to continually remind myself that after over three decades of compulsive shopping behavior, I won’t conquer my problem overnight. As with all major life changes, it takes time to recover from shopping addiction.

Doing my monthly accountability updates is helpful, as they keep me aware and honest about my behavior. As I prepared my August accountability update, I was shocked at how many new pieces had made their way into my closet. This month, I was much more conscious of my shopping and as a result, my wardrobe additions were fewer and more well thought out. I still feel I made too many purchases, but the pendulum is swinging in the right direction. Read on for a full update on what left my closet, what came in, how much I spent, what I wore, and how I fared in adhering to my shopping rules. Continue reading →

September 3, 2013 by Debbie Roes

August Accountability and Benchwarmer Project Update

The sun has set on yet another month, so it’s time for another accountability update. In this post, I share what left my closet, what came in, and how I’m doing in terms of my clothing budget for the year. Also included are some stats on what I wore during August and an update on my “wardrobe benchwarmer” project.

You may remember that in my July benchwarmer update, I committed to making decisions on all 45 of the remaining “benchwarmers” in my wardrobe (for those who are new to this blog, a benchwarmer is something I wore only once or not at all during 2012). Well, those decisions have been made and I reveal my verdicts below.

I’m Still a Shopaholic, But I’m Learning and Growing

There’s a lot to cover in this post, so it’s a long one! The news is not all good, but the growth and learning continues. Although I am still a shopaholic in many senses of the word, I’m definitely in a much better place than I was at the beginning of 2013. While I still have a long way to go, I acknowledge the positive changes I’ve made and know I will continue to transform my relationship to shopping and my wardrobe as the months progress.

Continue reading →

August 28, 2013 by Debbie Roes

My New and Improved Shopping Rules

When I started this blog in January, one of my first posts outlined a list of shopping rules to help me address my compulsive buying problem. Over the ensuing months, I found myself adhering well to some rules (the budget, one in one out, and tracking) while ignoring others completely (item purchase limits). Because I found the purchase limits too restrictive, I started adding a list of exceptions that only served to muddy the waters.

New shopping rules

I feel it’s now time to revisit my initial rules and make some conscious and deliberate updates based upon what I’ve learned about myself, my wardrobe, and my shopping so far this year. This post details my revised shopping rules for the rest of 2013 and potentially into 2014 as well.

Continue reading →

August 7, 2013 by Debbie Roes

June and July Accountability Update

For those who are new to my blog, I’ve committed to posting monthly accountability summaries in which I share what came into my wardrobe, what left, and how well I adhered to my shopping budget. Knowing that I’ll be sharing this information with my readers every month helps to keep me on track.

I generally do these updates at the beginning of each month, but I got a bit off-track during July, as I was closing out Project 333, doing my mid-year closet inventory, and posting an update on my “wardrobe benchwarmer project.” As a result, today’s update covers both June and July. I’ll get back on track next month and post my August accountability update in early September.

What Left My Closet

I’ll start with some great news… While I did not audit my closet during June, I was able to purge 34 items from my wardrobe in July! Since doing Project 333, it’s become much easier for me to let go of sub-standard items in my closet. In fact, my standards have become much higher since I now know I don’t need nearly as many clothes as I once thought. I’m proud of myself and feel I’m making excellent progress toward my goal of a pared down and carefully curated wardrobe.

Continue reading →

July 18, 2013 by Debbie Roes

“Benchwarmer Project” Update – July 2013

At the beginning of this year, I designated two new categories for the items in my closet, “wardrobe all-stars” and “wardrobe benchwarmers.” Since I have been tracking how often I wear everything I own since the start of 2011, I had accumulated a lot of data about my clothing and shoes. I learned that like most people, I wear some items a lot and other pieces rarely, if at all. I decided to categorize all pieces that were worn at least eight times in a given year as “all-stars” and anything that I didn’t wear at all or only wore once as “benchwarmers.”

My Sad Statistics for 2011 and 2012

Sadly, I learned that in 2012, I only had 39 “all-stars” (26 garments and 13 pairs of shoes), which constituted roughly 12% of my wardrobe. In contrast, I had 146 “benchwarmers” (125 garments and 21 pairs of shoes), a full 45% of what was in my closet! That’s right; close to half of what I owned was only worn once at best last year. Clearly, something had to change! So I created what I termed “The Wardrobe Benchwarmer Project” in order to address the large proportion of my wardrobe that wasn’t seeing the light of day.