What I Love about Wednesdays

Have you heard of the six item clothing diet? Google it if you want more information, but basically, it’s this idea that you don’t really need more than six items of clothing (apart from undergarment type stuff), and that if you do go down to only six items, no one will even notice.

Now, I am not good enough to get down to six pieces of clothing, even if all the camisoles I own do not count toward the total. Still, I hate that I have so many clothes I don’t wear. I try to purge my closet twice a year and donate anything I don’t wear. And I have the rule that if I bring a new clothing item in to the house, at least one, and possibly two, items of similar clothing have to go. I did break this rule when I got myself a second pair of jeans, but that was because I specifically needed a second pair of jeans.

So what does this all have to do with Wednesdays? Well, one of the premises of the six item clothing diet is that no one will notice that you’re wearing the same pieces over and over again. One woman claims that her husband- who does the laundry for the house –didn’t even notice. And in my experience, this is true. You see, I’ve been wearing the exact same sweater every Wednesday for the past 6+ months.

If I’m being really organized, I will plan what I am wearing to work the night before. Sometimes I’ll even pull it out of the closet and lay it neatly on the bed (the spare bedroom serves as my dressing room) all set and ready to go. But most of the time, I don’t decide what I’m wearing until I’m hitting the snooze button.

But on Wednesdays, I don’t have to think about it. I know. The sweater goes with all of my skirts and slacks (not that I’m likely to wear a skirt). It is short sleeved, so in the summer can be worn over a camisole or in the winter over a long sleeved knit top. There’s almost no decision making involved.

At first I wondered if people would notice. I expect that some of them (most of the people I work with are woman) at least recognize the sweater as something I wear regularly, but as far as I can tell, no one but knows I wear it every week, on the exact same day of the week. Or if they do, no one cares.

The no one cares part I think is the hardest for women to understand. We care about our clothes. We care that we’ve worn the same outfit over and over again. And we see sitcoms where everyone notices when someone is wearing the same outfit as the day before (walk of shame type comments), but honestly, stop and think about it. Even as a woman, do you really pay that much attention to what the other women in the office are wearing?

Sure, if it’s something really cute, you’ll comment. But will you remember next Wednesday that they wore that same shirt last Wednesday? If they wear some kind of professional attire, can you really tell one suit from another? I stopped worrying about if anyone would notice that I was wearing the same top every Wednesday when I realized that I wouldn’t notice if someone else was doing the same.

So what is this doing in a personal finance blog? Think about it. Think about how little you would spend on clothes if you only had six items of clothing. (Or at least, only six items of work clothing.) And even if you’re like me and can’t cut down quite that much, think about the money you’ve spent on something you’ve worn only once or twice. Why do you need to spend that money.

My advice- when it comes to work clothes, do not own anything that doesn’t fit, doesn’t look good, and doesn’t make you feel fabulous. All of those things lead to a more professional presentation of yourself, and trust me, that’s what gets noticed, not that you’ve worn the same sweater every Wednesday, for the last 6+ months.