Going on vacation provided me with a great opportunity to procrastinate. There wasn’t a lot of time between our camping trip and our vacation. So as soon as all the camping supplies were put away and we dealt with the mountain of laundry, I needed to start packing again. More than once I found myself thinking, After vacation I will go back into the attic/deal with Emma’s camp paperwork/figure out places for all the things laying about the house.

So I came home to a lengthy list of things to do, which makes me want to go away again. Another vacation is clearly not an option, but I gave myself a couple days to unpack and settle in again. Yesterday we made the 90-minute trip to go to lunch with my mom and pick up our dogs dogs from her house. When I got home from work today, I threw myself into Project 333, since that’s my main priority.

My time proceeded like this:

1. Re-read the instructions on the blog.
2. Read this post, which was very helpful.
3. Empty the closet and dresser drawers, and stare at the large pile of clothes.

Pile 1: I love and wear

4. Begin to sort the items into 4 piles as recommended by the above blog post: 1. things I love and wear, 2. things I love and don’t wear, 3. things which don’t fit my body or style, and 4. things that are in terrible condition. Spend some more time staring.
5. Consider the completed piles. Because I’ve been pretty aggressive with purging clothes, there was nothing in terrible condition, so pile 4 was non-existent. Pile 3 was also small, consisting of 2 t-shirts which shrunk in the dryer.

I love but don’t really wear…

6. Relocate the sorted piles after thinking about the next step and feeling a little overwhelmed.
And that’s as far as I got tonight. For those who might be unfamiliar, the goal of the project is to pare down your wardrobe to 33 pieces, which includes jewelry and accessories like scarves and shoes.

Analysis so far: We’re still working on vacation laundry so I know I’ll have more to add to my piles tomorrow. I feel like this is a tricky time of year to choose my wardrobe for the next three months, since this will take me into mid-October. As I write this, it’s 83 degrees in my living room, and while September is generally pretty warm, October will be much cooler. Today at work I was a little chilly, so I actually do have a need to keep my cardigans handy. I do like the idea of removing things but not giving them away yet. Because I’ve already gotten rid of so much, I can truly say that I really like or love everything I have, but I also feel I have more than I need. On Wednesday I’ll share my progress.

Speaking of procrastination, this month’s book is Eat That Frog: 21 Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time by Brian Tracy. I’ll be posting about this book at the end of the month. It’s a re-read for me, but it was a great book and I need a refresher.