Tonia Does 30 for 30

Posted on February 8th, 2011 by Tonia 8 Comments

Last week my mom came to stay with us for a few days. We sewed and watched movies and had a nice relaxing visit together. And she did our laundry!!!!

This is an inside joke in my family, because when my Grandma {mom’s mom} comes to visit, she always does my mom and dad’s laundry, and it drives my mom crazy. Grandma can’t just sit around and be a guest, she needs to feel useful. Looks like this trait has been handed down…except, it doesn’t drive ME crazy when MY mom does MY laundry!

Look, Mike and I are still learning the whole homemaking thing. We’re getting better at cooking and planning ahead for our meals. We do the dishes a lot. I dust and sweep when it’s needed. I’m even kind of anal about the toilet being clean {no pun intended??}. But laundry is our downfall, and I’m not sure why. It’s really tough to stay on top of it, and you all know how quickly it piles up.

But after my mom did most of our laundry, we were confronted with several large piles of clean, folded clothes, and we realized we didn’t even have enough closet and drawer space to put it all away. I looked through the piles and came to the conclusion that Mike owns way {WAY!} too many t-shirts. I’ve never seen him wear half of them.

Right then and there we decided our closet needed to be purged, and big huge amounts of clothes needed to be brought to the Helping Hand in town, or handed down to our sibs. We do this every spring, but for some reason we always end up giving away only one bagful or so of clothes {probably because most of what we own is dirty, sitting in the laundry room…} Seeing it all sitting there, clean, homeless in piles, was a wake-up call.

It didn’t take that long to bag up about 50% of our clothes. Most of the items going in the bags are really nice, but we just never wear them {doesn’t fit right, not quite our style, etc.} The folks who shop exclusively at the Helping Hand have some quality clothing coming their way! We now have room to put away the clothes we’re keeping, and it feels great to open the closet and only see things I love to wear in there.

Which brings me to my next point…I probably like fashion/clothes/shopping too much. I don’t actually go to stores and SHOP {that’s for financially stable people who live in cities, neither of which I am} but I do spend a lot of time fantasizing about what I would wear if I lived in Brooklyn and was really tall {neither of which…}. I put together imaginary outfits from images on the internet and look and them, and only sometimes buy them.

I have talked about my love of fashion before, but I feel the need to bring it up again because it is pretty much my one big huge nasty eco-vice. Here we are, living our green dream on a solar powered hobby farm, pursuing the simple life and denouncing things like paper towel and anything that’s not biodegradable, and yet I LIKE FASHION AND I DON’T CARE HOW/WHERE THAT OUTFIT IS MADE BECAUSE IT’S SUPER PRETTY AND I WANT IT! UGH.

My solution to this vice so far has been to try to learn to sew. I tell myself “you could make that” whenever I see an item I want…even though I have very basic sewing skills at the moment. I feel like if I make it myself, I am at least saving the planet some of the production energy of that garment, and the packaging and shipping. My other solution has been to just deny myself any new stuff. This idea lasted about a week, and then my birthday came along and Grandma sent me money, and I bought a purse. IT’S A REALLY CUTE PURSE!! I’M YELLING A LOT BECAUSE I FEEL DEFENSIVE!!

I obviously need some way of holding myself to my resolution not to buy clothes {at least for a while. I can’t go on like that forever!!} And so enters “30 for 30“, the brilliant challenge created by Kendi over at Kendi Everyday.

The rules go like this:

1. Pick 30 items or less from your closet. Shoes are included, but accessories and jewelry are not.

2. Remix the 30 items into 30 different outfits.

3. Don’t shop for 30 days.

I’m gonna do it!! I doubt my daily outfits will be as cute as Kendi’s are…she’s just really cute in general, I’m not sure how much the clothes have to do with that, but I’m going to give it my best shot. This means I will actually have to get dressed some days. I’m going to be straight up and say I won’t do an outfit eeeeevery day, because I’m a serious believer in a special little combo I like to call Sweats And a T-Shirt. It’s actually what I wear most days, now that I work from home. But, when I DO get dressed, it will be an outfit created from my 30 items, and I will take a photo and share it so you can see how 30 items can be remixed over the course of 30 {although not consecutive} days.

My hope here is that I will re-fall-in-love with what remains of my wardrobe and therefore the nagging need to shop will subside a bit. I think I’m doing myself a favor with this challenge, but also the environment too. Just THINK how many Urban Outfitters tops I would have fallen victim to in the next 30 days had I not been doing this challenge! All that cheaply made China crap, being produced in un-environmentally friendly conditions, and shipped using fossil fuels to my remote doorstep!! Shiver.

Thank you, Kendi, for allowing me to be one of your Remixers. I’m truly excited about this, and I obviously need it. Stay tuned for the reveal of my 30 items!!

8 Comments

  1. Caitlyn says:

    That is such a fun idea!

  2. this is a great idea. I’m pretty much minimalist with clothes, I have a few items in each ‘type’ of clothing (so a few winter clothes, a few summer clothes, a few party items, a few smart business items). I mix and match every so often and have come up with some nice new outfits like that. When i want to buy something new, Edinburgh is great, full of good quality second hand shops!

    Good luck with your project!

  3. Tonia says:

    My mother-in-law kindly reminded me that donating clothes is a tax write-off, too! Another benefit of this whole challenge!! Take pictures of the clothes you’re donating, and you can write off the amount that a store would pay for them…sometimes it’s as much as $500 total!

  4. […] quick and easy way to make reusable grocery bags, you guys! And this is a great follow up post to my previous rant about how many t-shirts Mike is in possession of. It’s a great way to reuse old T’s that you no longer […]

  5. kristina says:

    Love this idea. Just did this recently for the new year after having baby number two and it feels really good to purge. Another great idea is a clothing swap. I did this with some girlfriends recently, and we all got some great “new” clothes, didn’t spend a dime, and didn’t consume/purchase new items!

  6. […] pretty excited about the 30 for 30 Challenge! I spent the whole weekend doing laundry so I would have some clean clothes to work with. […]

  7. brittney says:

    i think you hit the nail on the head with a fabulous balanced ensemble. the hat is the clincher–you look awesome in it! even if you didn’t get to wear it “for real.” :)
    -brittney
    http://adayinlifetoo.blogspot.com (fellow remixer)

  8. […] guys have probably been wondering what happened to the 30 for 30 Challenge, huh? Sorry about that. I didn’t get through all 30 outfits like I was supposed to. The thing […]

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