I was lucky to get away for a short vacation recently. Since I was going to see family and would have ready access to a washer and dryer, I packed super light. I was amazed at how easy that made my life. But this has happened before when I’ve gone away on a trip with a limited number of clothing options — suddenly, getting ready takes so little time. In fact, on this trip, I was even the first one ready a few times — my family members were gobsmacked (especially my husband).

When we got home, I decided to conduct a little experiment and live out of my bag for another week — we’d done all our laundry before flying home, so everything I’d packed was clean. A funny thing happened — even being here with my entire closet in reach, I wasn’t tempted to sway from the plan. And, just like in Rochester, my getting ready time was downright speedy. And I didn’t have one single “clothing crisis” — you know the thing I talk about at the beginning of my blog post on how to revitalize your wardrobe for free.

Then today, one of my coworkers (thanks, Rob!) sent an e-mail about an interesting article in the New York Times, “Shoppers on a ‘Diet’ Tame the Urge to Buy.” If you haven’t read it yet, you should definitely check it out. It turns out some folks have been even more adventurous with their clothing diet — pairing their wardrobes down to six items for an entire month!

The Web challenge Six Items or Less inspired approximately 100 brave men and women from around the globe to give it a try. Before you begin to worry about having to work out in your work clothes, or — gasp — limiting yourself to one pair of shoes, there are a few exceptions to the main rule. True you’re limited to six main items of clothing, but things like accessories, shoes, underwear, work-out clothes and work uniforms aren’t restricted.

The NYT piece also mentions a yearlong challenge called The Great American Apparel Diet, which has people abstaining from purchasing any new clothing for an entire year. Whether you’re after a simpler routine, wanting to curb your spending habits, or you’re just sick of consumerism, this sounds like something that could prove beneficial. If you’re thinking a year might be difficult, you could certainly give it a try for a few months.

My weeklong clothing crash diet has inspired me to cull some items from my closet. Surprisingly (and to my husband’s delight) a lot of my shoes have made it to the “to donate” pile. It’s crystal clear to me now that just because those shoes are beautiful, if I don’t wear them, they need to be somewhere else where someone will. And there’s no doubt what I’ve read in the NYT today will also give me some new ideas.

Would you consider going on a clothing diet? Or any other sort of shopping diet?

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