Well, here it is – the last day of my 6 Items or Less project; the first in my year of 30-Day Experiments. Overall I found it pretty easy to get by with only six pieces of clothing for the entire month, even with a work trip to a tropical climate taking almost a week of it and lots of cold weather days here in Austin. The main drawback was I got a little tired, sometimes, of those same clothes over and over; but nothing about the project was hard. Having a set few items to choose from when dressing each morning certainly made things simple!

I wrote about my experience, about midway through it, on Austin City’s Best. And if you’re interested in signing up for the next 6 Items or Less experiment, they plan to do 4 or 5 more rounds this year, so just go to the website and sign up for email notifications about the next registration.

There has been a lot of discussion among the 6 Items community – known as Sixers – about how we define ourselves with fashion, and through shopping. I really liked what one Sixer, Joolie from the Netherlands, had to say about this topic:

I don’t need a hippie outfit to advertise to people that I care about the earth when I can just recycle and ride my bike to work. I don’t need my clothes to show people that I care about art or theatre if I am actually at a museum or performance. I guess I am confronting the question that came up recently, about what am I trying to convey that I can’t do with my 6 items, or with the wardrobe that I already have. But it is more than that. What am I trying to convey that I can’t do by myself, with my action and words, rather than using my wardrobe as some sort of scrubbed up representation of me?”

Now that my first 30-Day Experiment is behind me, I am moving on to the next one – my Giving Project. Starting tomorrow, for the next thirty days I will give something every day. It might be a monetary donation to a nonprofit, it might be volunteer hours, it might be items that I donate to Goodwill or the local shelter. It could be something as simple as buying lunch for a person who needs it or just doing something nice for someone and see what that brings back to me.

By the way, if anyone who’s following along with me on my journey is interested in participating with me on the Giving Project, feel free. The more giving the better. Add a comment below to let me know; I also have a little poll below to gauge people’s interest level in participating, please weigh in!

Peace in Giving,



