Q: Tell me about The Twenty Pieces Project

Julie: It started one day when Cate and I, two frustrated artists (she a writer and I a painter) planned a “creative day.” We would get together and start actually doing the stuff we know we ought to be.  We shared our work back and forth, me my paintings and Cate her writing.  Through the course of the day we talked about life, frustrations, jobs, boys, hopes for the future and some how all of this got us onto the topic of our clothes. I am not sure how? Do you remember Cate?  I guess we wear clothes in all of these life experiences? Can’t totally remember.  But I think we started to hit on how overwhelming life can be and how we longed for something simpler, then Cate mentioned the Vogue article she had read years ago.

Cate: I think the conversation turned to beauty and simplicity, and how both were needed for a creative life. This Vogue article (which I talk about in more detail on one of our first posts on the blog) was about a woman who only owned around ten pieces of clothes (including shoes!), but everything she owned was the best of the best and perfectly fit her minimalist style. I had always loved the idea, but never had the determination to actually get rid of my BELOVED clothes. As we started talking about the project we realized it could be such a neat combination of creativity, style, and embracing a philosophy of low-consumerism and supporting true artisans rather than mass-producers of crappy clothes. The more we talked, the more the opportunity of actually doing it and writing about it was just too good to give up!

Q: What made you decide/what inspired you to start this?

Julie: While I think we had good reasons (as stated above), I think there was something sort of magic about that day.  We were just ready to go! Ready to make a change! I think the creative energy had been building to the point where we simply couldn’t not start pulling the clothes out of Cate’s closet and do it!

Cate: Yeah, we were definitely on a kind of art high, as corny as that sounds. We had finally managed to set aside a whole day to pursue our passions and just be in them and that led to wanting to make bigger changes in our lives that would allow for more beauty, more creativity, more simplicity, and better ethics in what we buy and how we use it. But seriously, I would have put it off, maybe indefinitely, if we hadn’t happened to be in my apartment and Julie hadn’t started rummaging through my closet pulling everything out!

Q: Twenty pieces..wow that’s scary!  How do you plan to accomplish this?

Julie: As we have thought it through, we think it can be done in a southern California climate, for other climates, it may need variation (check the blog to see those progress as seasons change!).  Both of us are spiritual directors by training and education, and while this may sound like it has nothing to do with fashion, it has a lot to do with this project.  Our specialty is gentle, long-lasting, incremental change that leads to growth from the inside out.  We are not cold turkey kind of people. We hope to lead our readers through experiences that will help them learn to live a twenty pieces lifestyle and love it.  And we will find out if it works because we ourselves will be the guinea pigs! Some of what we have already done is given a few easy steps to begin the closet purging process, then some questions to help our readers learn from their purchase mistakes and notice where their victories have been! Awareness leads to the ability to make better choices, the choices that are right for them, for their natural aesthetic and lifestyle, not just what a magazine is telling them to do.

Cate: I say amen to everything Julie said, but yes it is scary! I am a clothes collector and an Anthropologie addict, so I had a lot to say good-bye too, and have a lot more to go before January. But we counted through what we thought we’d need given our lifestyle and climate and twenty pieces seemed totally doable, while still challenging. So that was the number we went with!

Q: Any tips for readers on how to clean out their closets?  Its often difficult and overwhelming to get started!

Julie: One practical hint Cate and I stumbled on: take all of the clothes out of your closet and put them on your neatly made bed.  There is something about working from a tidy space that will make you want to keep it that way.  If your room is too cluttered, choose another room! Let the cleanliness of the space appropriately contrast the closet chaos.  It will help you want to get rid of stuff!

Cate: Another tip: Don’t even try to do it alone. Do it with a good, kind, but honest, friend, sister, or daughter. I wouldn’t have done this at all without Julie. Pull everything out of your closet and dresser (EVERYTHING), lay it out, and only put back the really good stuff.  It will help you identify where you have too much and what you really need (my process was helped by the fact that I’d just done a ton of laundry and hadn’t put it away yet, so I just emptied out the basket on the couch). And for those of you in SoCal who need help culling, we do consultations!

Q: How should one decide what to keep and what not to keep?

Julie: I think there are a few key rules that are no-brainers.  If it is falling apart, doesn’t fit, you haven’t worn it in a full calendar year, or just don’t like it, get rid of it, no question.  This is a great start for most people and you will already feel lighter and your closet will be so much more manageable!

Cate: Another rule: What you spent on it originally doesn’t matter. We both found that we had a much tougher time letting go of the stuff we spent too much money on in the first place, but it was a good lesson in being careful about what you buy, and serious about getting rid of what you don’t wear.

Q: Where do you stand on the “saving the skinny clothes” in the back of the closet even though you haven’t been able to get into them for years issue?

Julie: I didn’t anticipate this when we first started this, but I think one of the great unexpected side affects of Twenty Pieces is that it can help you accept yourself and your life just as it is right now, certainly not without goals, but challenging the some of the lies in our head that tell us “life will start when… .” I say no to the skinny clothes.  You can look great and feel confident now, at any size, and as you do, you actually put yourself in the best psychological place to lose the pounds and keep them off. (I could say much much more about this, but that’s a whole other blog!)

Cate: I’m with Julie. I was actually a little surprised by the amount of women who’ve already mentioned those skinny clothes lying in wait for them in the back of the closet. I had a friend tell me she’s been the same size for eight years, and still feels like she shouldn’t get rid of the clothes from the size she was before she had kids, because she wants to get back there. And you know what? No one needs that kind of emotional punch when looking in their closet. GET RID OF THEM! You don’t need to be shamed by your own clothes. They work for you, not you for them. Embrace your size, get clothes that look great on you, and if and when you lose weight, you’re going to have an awesome time shopping for your next twenty pieces!

Q: What about items you feel emotionally attached too, even though you don’t wear them?

Julie: That depends.  If it is your wedding dress, it does not have to count as your twenty pieces.  Family heirlooms, of course, but the T-shirt you wore the the Strokes concert when you were in college that has trace amounts of Julian Casablancas sweat on it, that you havebeen keeping all these years,  give-away-bin.

Cate: Here’s the thing: clothes are a really emotional issue for a lot of women. As Julie said, if it’s a wedding dress or your grandmother’s fur coat, or something truly irreplaceable and special, keep them and enjoy them (and why not think about wearing that fabulous coat more, hmm?). I have a small collection of 40s and 50s dresses that I will not be getting rid of, even if they don’t fit in my twenty pieces, because they’re just too special. They’re like my art collection. But, we hang on to stuff for all sorts of weird reasons, some of which can be unhealthy. So take a good look at WHY you’re hanging on to what you’ve got, make one of those tshirt quilts our of your old stuff if you must, and then get rid of them. We’ve got enough emotional baggage crowding our lives without it crowding our closets.

Q: Any tips for organizing your closet?  Fav products or systems you have developed?

Julie: I wish I were a better organizer.  It is actually because I am not the greatest organizer that Twenty Pieces is good for me.  Twenty Pieces don’t require a whole lot of organization, but as you are in the process of whittling down, I have discovered this trick.  After you have done a fair amount of purging and are down to say, sixty pieces, choose twenty to try to live from for the week, and put the rest in the back of the closet. At the end of the week, think if you would want to trade anything out for anything else.  Use this method to learn what really are your staples and if there are any items you may need, but don’t have. This is what I am doing now and there will be more about this method on the blog soon.

Cate: I’m a serious lover of tidiness, though manage to be chaotic within those tidy spaces anyway (for instance I keep all my important papers in my piano bench to keep them safe and out of the way, but it’s a total disaster in there and really needs some organization). But the less stuff you have, the easier it is to keep it organized, accessible, and beautiful. I’ve got a pretty small closet, but now that I’ve culled down to fifty pieces (with thirty more on their way out soon), I’ve got everything in a small dresser and on matching hangers inside the closet. It makes my life so much easier to be able to see everything I’ve got right before my eyes as I’m getting ready for work in the morning. I also think having a beautifully organized closet can be a big motivator for keeping your possessions to a minimum. If you’ve got too much stuff for you space, you’ll never be organized and tidy.