Day 22 I have been hearing this a lot lately, “How’s the static wardrobe going?” followed shortly by something along the lines of, “In theory, I think it is a great concept, but I would get so bored doing that.” I totally get that response. I thought the same thing … that is part of why I decided to try it out: to test my limits, see how bored I would get or the emotions I felt about what I wore.
But I have a question for you moms: how many days a week do you run around I yoga pants? Does that get boring? Now, my daughter is bored of my wardrobe – she wants to see her Mamma in the colors she loves. “Mom, I can’t wait for you to wear your coral shirt and the pretty colors you wear.” I hate to break it to her, but the Static Wardrobehas been perfectly on trend, with my green jewel-tone sweater, denim and white, my platforms, Birkenstocks, and white sneakers. I am enjoying the groove and in many ways the routine is actually a comfort for me, like a rhythm.
I talked to a friend recently who was chatting with someone who works with youth in underprivileged areas. They live in designated low rent buildings but their parents are going into debt to buy them the coolest new sneakers or coolest new jeans. I feel like this is just another example of the ugly side of the fashion industry. Nike doesn’t care about them, the fashion companies don’t care about them, they are perfectly ok with them going into debt for a look. Keeping people saddled down with debt so they cannot get out of their situations, because these kids have to have the coolest, newest outfit. I know this first hand from my own teen years. If I could speak to the younger me, I would say, “be happy that you are clothed with clean respectable clothes, and instead of obsessing about the next cool trend, just have fun with your friends! You can’t get those hours and hours you spent getting ready everyday back! That time is for friendship and loving others. Clothing is not who you are.”
I am not entirely bored of the static wardrobe, but I did get almost-overly excited today when the first shipment for my next wardrobe experiment arrived: Rent the Runway. Now this is an economical way to get outfits for special events, meetings, and dates. I have 8 days left of this experiment and I am excited to try some new stuff! I got three items today and they came in a cute zipper garment bag. If what I pick from their online offering doesn’t fit, it gets zipped back up and sent right back, then I get to try more. I did time it for my next cheat day coming up in a few days: my 16th Anniversary. Then hopefully my next shipment will arrive by Mother’s Day, then the next week is my Birthday! Yes, you guessed it: just about all our family special occasions land in May. So I can send back as much as I want with no additional charge. This is working out to be great for the budget.
I do love looking at and choosing designer items that I normally would not even try on because of the price point under the constraints of 3 kids in private school: $600 for a casual dress or $250 for a shirt is out of my current price range. And the best thing: they do the dry cleaning for me. I think Rent the Runway way is a great compliment to the static wardrobe. You are thinking and planning ahead for special events, but during the daily grind I can wear my static wardrobe and save on laundry and brain power.
I also have decided to put a small dent in laundry by using the local 2U laundryLaundry service. A little bit of city luxury out in the country, but at least now I just drag it out to the front porch steps instead of a fourth floor walkup and around the corner. This is all in the attempts to make my mind freer and my life a little more manageable. They picked up my stuffed-to-the-gills laundry bag yesterday and brought it back warm and folded today, smelling like vanilla. It was fun unwrapping the laundry and letting the kids sort their own piles and take them up to put them away. First round, I will give it a thumbs up!
This bare bones extremely minimalist approach works for many different aspects of life and many different life styles. It’s just an important reminder to not get your head wrapped up in the tremendous amount of marketing that causes your brain to say, “I must have that, I must have the coolest new item.” Car companies are brilliant with this, causing you to think you have to have a new car every two years and you can with a lease … or what we call affectionately in our house a “fleece” (we stole that from Dave Ramsay). I feel like I have pretty much overcome that monster, since I drive a 12 year old SUV with 200,000 miles. Sometimes I get tempted when I see a beautiful shiny new model or when we have car problems, but it does feel good not to get sucked in by the twinges of embarrassment when a teacher is helping my child into the car and a part of the step literally breaks off as my son gets in, I just laugh it off and say “ha-ha don’t worry about that, this is our kid car.“ Cars, clothes, home furnishings … there are trends, and the reason there are trends is to make you feel like you need more or different, that you are missing out if you do not have whatever the cool thing is. Playing on your emotions; why let these companies control you? Decide for yourself to be different!