Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Jill Chivers of http://shopyourwardrobe.com

Most women wear 20 – 30% of their wardrobes. Have you heard that before? It’s a much quoted statistic in the personal style world, and I’ve been asking women in workshops if they believe it’s true. I’ll ask for a show of hands — “how many of you wear 20 – 30% of your wardrobes?” and about 80% of hands usually go up. So, that’s my non-scientific non-double blind study verification that it’s true.

Why are many of us wearing only 20 – 30% of our wardrobes? It could be one or more of these reasons:

1. we didn’t buy well.
2. we were given items that we feel we can’t part with.
3. we have items in our closets from another time, another body, another life.
4. we haven’t reviewed what’s in there and done a cleansing clean-out for a while.
5. we don’t know how to make the most of what we already have – we don’t know how to tap into the hidden magic in our own wardrobes.
6. we feel a sense of comfort or security having all that gear, even though we aren’t wearing it.
7. we aren’t sure who’d we’d be if we had less stuff.
we don’t know what enough is – what it feels like, what it looks like.

That’s why projects like Project 333 are so fabulous. Project 333 forces you to examine what is enough, and what you can do with a small number of clothing over an extended period of time. It gives you an experience of living with less but learning to create more (more outfits, more options, more choice). It engages you on the practical, the emotional and the cognitive levels. P333 isn’t an academic exercise, but an experience that creates a shift in what you do, how you feel and what you think.

My own wardrobe contains many more than 33 items. But I wear close to 90% of my wardrobe, throughout the course of the year. Every week, I do a mini-review of what’s working and what isn’t, and I consign to my give-away or sell basket those items which need to be let go of. I call this a Weekly Wardrobe Warrior session, and I confine it to 10 minutes a week – but I do it every week. It keeps my wardrobe fresh, dynamic and relevant. There’s nothing in there that isn’t “paying its rent” and working for me.

Tapping into the hidden magic and mileage in your wardrobe is about letting go, opening up, and experimenting. It’s about releasing the things that aren’t working, employing the things that could be working better, and trying new combinations. It’s amazing what you can discover in your own closet!

Jill Chivers completed a radical challenge – a year without clothes shopping – in December 2010. As a result of that life-changing experience, Jill created a program for other women who want to develop a healthier relationship to shopping, themselves, their wardrobes and their wallets. Learn more and do the free assessment at www.shopyourwardrobe.com

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