31

I should've taken a before picture, but suffice to say I basically covered the floor of a spare bedroom with hangers and clothes I haven't worn in months. Too tight, too big (#typicalnewlywedweightchange), too short, too hot, too sheer, why did I buy this. Maybe you're nodding your head because you understand. My closet was a hot mess of clothes I bought on a whim. Maybe I'm purposefully not showing you the amount of clothes I own because I'm embarrassed by it. (I am.) 

Then I started reading about Capsule Wardrobes on Un-Fancy and I became obsessed. It led me to evaluate my feelings about clothes, about what I wear, and why I buy what I buy. I don't even dare calculate how much I've spent on clothes in the past year, it probably would make me sick. I'm ready for a change.

This is my closet as of last night. 31 pieces including shoes. I'm obsessed. It's basically all the things I wear over and over anyway, and I sighed a sigh of relief when I realized I have SO many things I already love. 31 feels generous. I only have to wear each top twice this month if I choose... so yeah, pretty ridiculously generous. And I'm not even donating the clothes in the spare bedroom for awhile just to make sure I'm fully committed. But my heart feels so committed I can't imagine going back. 

I've been re-reading 7: An Experiemental Mutiny Against Excess. Oh how this book speaks to my heart...

"I'm not sure 'I think you're stupid,' is in the same category as 'I'm going to kill you' as far as spiritual backlash goes. But it does forge a sense of solidarity with Jesus as he was always misunderstood for his counter-cultural ideas.

The least shall be greatest.

Blessed are the meek. 

Humble yourself like a child. 

Sell all your things to give to the poor.

I can't imagine these were popular ideas either. I'm sure Jesus got the 'I thought you were normal but now I see I was plainly wrong' face plenty of times. He seriously knew how to thin out a crowd. He always gunned for less, reduced, simplified. He was the most fully and completely unselfish, ungreedy, unpretentious man ever to live, and I just want to be more like Him. It's as simple and hard as that." 

Do I really think paring down my closet and wearing less will make me more like the Savior? Truthfully? Yes. I find myself getting slogged down in the materialism that is so easily set before us. We make more, we spend more. We want more. We want new. We want in style. We want the 2016 model not our 2015 version that is 'so last year'. I fall for it. Over and over, every day.

And when I get dressed each morning from my simplified closet I'm reminding myself that Jesus probably didn't spare a thought on whether or not his clothes were trendy or flawless. He was too busy serving. I look at my closet of 31 items I adore and remind myself how blessed I am to have so much abundance. I'm asking myself how I can be more like the Savior. I'm asking what I can do today to build His kingdom. It's really as simple and hard as that.