Is this too easy? Let's make it harder....

“You don’t make things easy on yourself do you?”

Honestly I feel like someone says this to me at least once a week. Not just in relation to the challenge but everything I choose to do….

When we first got Squeak, she ate my sofa and both of my armchairs, tore up skirting boards and freaked out every time she was left alone for 5 minutes. I of course immediately adored her, but several friends asked me why on earth I’d want to take on a dog that was such hard work.

But not my best friends mum, she’s known me since I was eight and to her it made total sense “Of course you’d take on a rescue dog, and a clumsy, anxious one at that. You’ve always found easy things boring” – and she was right.

 

Squeak - showing off her appetite for destruction!

That sofa Squeak ate – did I buy it from a shop and have it delivered ready to go like a normal, sensible person with a full time job would? Of course not. I bought a second hand vintage suite, went on an upholstery course and spent 6 painful months taking the chairs apart and putting them back together. We sat in and enjoyed the chairs for maybe 3 months before we got Squeak……

The thing is Squeak has been worth the sofa, and the changes to our life, the expense, the vet’s bills, and the constant worry about if we are giving her a good life. She has an amazing personality and has repaid us tenfold in love and laughter for every effort we put in. And actually I’ve found that about almost everything I’ve ever worked hard at (except maybe that sofa – that I will admit was a momentous waste of time). If I have to push myself to do something then I value it, I almost always learn something new and I LOVE learning.

Squeak - worth the effort for food cleaning up support alone!

I hit the 100 days mark on the challenge on Monday. In the last 100 days some awesome things have happened – 2 weddings, several engagements, trips to the zoo, family parties, nights away with Matt, at work there have been award nominations (lots of them!), interviews, events, conferences, round tables – a really busy, challenging and rewarding 100 days. And through that 100 days, 23 items of clothing worn, a photo taken every day and 38 posts on the blog.

And I’ve learnt LOADS about myself. But maybe not enough – because last week I made a decision that will bring me great joy – but is going to make this whole challenge that little bit harder. In January I’m going to take a month off work to travel around India.

I am hugely excited about this – I love India and it’s been a decade since I was last there, I’m going with a friend that I love dearly and who makes me laugh so much I snort things out of my nose.

And so mainly I’m excited - but there is a teeny tiny part of me that is (very) worried about clothes. I have 12 items left to add to my year’s allowance (13 if you guys decide to let me swap the broken sandals for the new pair I got). And as everyone who’s seen Game of Thrones knows – winter is coming.

In my summer wardrobe I didn’t include a single long skirt or lightweight pair of trousers- both of which I’ll need in India, I’m also going to need another long sleeved shirt – ideally these will be lightweight as it is going to be hot.

But winter here? Christmas? February? (Especially on return from a hot country) – That’s going to be cold. So I’m still going to need winter boots, a flannel shirt, a couple of long sleeved t-shirts, a couple of jumpers, a coat, a warm skirt, a second pair of jeans, a hat, scarf and gloves – oh and something to wear to Bob and Laura’s wedding. Which the mathematicians amongst you will notice is 16 new items, out of a maximum of 13 things I can buy between now and May. And that doesn’t leave even a tiny bit of wiggle room for things wearing out.

So I’m going to have to think about this really carefully – how cold is it likely to be here this winter? Do I need a winter coat or will I be able to get away with layering jumpers under my Mac? What about if the jumpers are long sleeved? Can I manage without gloves?

I think it’ll be doable (just). But it isn’t going to be easy – of course not – everyone knows I don’t make things easy on myself!

*A huge thankyou to everyone reading the blog. At the time of writing this there has been a hugmongous 18,500 page views. I’m loving hearing from you all – keep the comments, tweets and messages coming! And remember I’m doing this whole shindig for charity so if you feel moved to donate you can do so here.

Enjoy your weekends.

Finding hardwearing sandals to last all year - how hard can it be?

So if you’re a regular reader you’ll remember that about a month ago I posted about my sandals dying. 

Now it is always annoying when a pair of shoes you love finally give up the ghost but for me this was an even bigger deal than usual because these sandals were one of 5 pairs of shoes I’d allocated myself to wear over the whole year of my capsule wardrobe challenge and the only open toed pair.

I don’t know about you – but I really can’t bear having sweaty feet, or even feet that are slightly warm – so I wear sandals pretty much from March to late October every day except if it rains (boots/ trainers) or I need to look polished (high heels). I bought myself a pair that had fairly thick cork soles just before I started the challenge, and felt pretty confident they’d last all year.

Given that you’re reading this post you’ve probably guessed – they didn’t. (you can read about how they died & me having a moan about it here)

Technically when an item breaks I can ask you to vote on whether I can do a straight swap for a similar item. But I felt like asking to do this 2 months into the challenge wasn’t really cricket. After all what’s to stop me ‘wearing out’ everything in the capsule? So no. I might come back and ask later in the year if I’m really struggling but in the meantime I decided that I could sacrifice a winter jumper for a new pair of sandals. But these needed to last a full bloody year!

So my requirements were (I thought) pretty reasonable. All I wanted was comfort, durability and not being so ugly that I hated myself everytime I put them on. In an ideal world I wanted to actively LIKE the way they looked but I figured that wasn’t essential.

I started by googling hardwearing sandals, walking sandals and durable sandals. I got pretty predictable results here, so Merrel and Keen walking sandals in colours that would be guaranteed to distract people from anything I’m saying. (“didn’t hear a word of her presentation over the screaming of those yellow shoes”). Don’t get me wrong I am a huge fan of walking sandals – but not to wear to work everyday for the next 6 months .

A friend recommended Camper and Ecco sandals so I ordered a couple of pairs online, I also ordered some L’Arche sandals ( oh they are lovely – but oh are they expensive. Too much for dirtying up on North East London pavements certainly).  Had a bit of a Goldilocks moment with 5 pairs of sandals in front of me with all of them being too big, too small, too ugly or too narrow – so I sent them all back.

And still had no sandals. 

So I got on with wearing the broken one’s which still hurt and (added bonus) had leaked gummy glue everywhere since the insoles melted in the sun. Everynight I had to go at my heels with a nailbrush to get rid of the gunk. This did not make me feel my most attractive ever!

And then one of my friends told me about Duckfeet. Apparently people in the 70’s wore them for years wandering around south East Asia and they still make them exactly the same way! I love their classic designs and they are so comfy. These are my lovely new shoes.

I’m really hoping that they last the distance cos if they do – these are going to be my 36^th Birthday present to myself.

Roll on May 2016….

How to clear out your wardrobe (for people who aren't naturally minimalist)

Today I am 55 days into my capsule wardrobe challenge, and I have finally, finally got enough emotional distance from the clearing of my wardrobe to be able to talk about it without being overcome by waves of fear and nausea. 

I’ve gone from having clothes overflowing from my double wardrobe, massive chest of drawers and ottoman, as well as strategic piles of clothes around the house (I wrote about the ridiculous amount of clothes I owned here) to wearing just 21 items for the last two months and 35 all year. I’m really enjoying how clear my wardrobe looks now. 

Doesn't it just fill you with a sense of calm?

 I’ve read loads of blogs recently about what a beautiful and cathartic experience an extreme clear out of your wardrobe is.  I’m here to say it wasn’t like that for me.

Those people who felt exhilarated and like their rooms suddenly had more light are potentially aliens and definitely better at this than me. Because when I finished I just felt knackered and grubby, and incapable of taking another decision ever.

For me it was two days of self doubt, punctuated by gin drinking and despair. Followed by about three weeks of revisiting the stuff I decided to keep and reducing it bit by bit.

Everyone says you should start by getting all your clothes out of the wardrobe (& wherever else you keep them) and putting them in a pile. So that’s what I did. I created a small mountain of clothes on the bed which my dog immediately decided looked like the most comfortable place in the house and planted herself on top of. This meant that every time I wanted to look at a piece of clothing I had to negotiate with an increasingly resentful dog who just wanted to sleep on the super comfy new bed I’d made for her.

Anything that had direct contact with Squeak had dogs hair on it which meant that rather than having a keep/ don’t keep pile I had a rather more complicated system of keep, keep needs washing, keep needs dry cleaning, throw away, resell, resell needs washing, resell needs dry cleaning – it was mayhem. And I hadn’t properly delineated the piles so they kept drifting into one another.

Deciding what went in which pile was pretty hellish. Stuff I totally hated, or had holes in was easy, but everything else not so much. It turns out I’ve got a load of things that I had weird guilt about  the idea of getting rid of - Because who in their right mind gets rid of a perfectly serviceable striped t-shirt – even if they do have another 20 that are practically identical? And cashmere, you can’t throw away cashmere, or silk- they are investments – they are supposed to last a lifetime. And things I wore in 6^th form – I must love them right? Otherwise why would I still own them 17 YEARS later?

Long story short at the end of my first attempt at de cluttering my wardrobe I’d got the equivalent of a large suitcase worth of stuff to sell, 2 binbags to throw away, and 2 extra large vacuum pack bags designed to hold a families worth of duvets and pillows of things that I ‘needed’ to hold on to for next year (in case you are wondering there were 11 striped tshirts in that bag – because you know there might come a time when you can’t go into ANY SHOP ON THE HIGH STREET and find one).

So attempt number 1 was a bit of a fail. 

But over the next couple of weeks I got there. What worked for me was two things.

The first was instigating a strict rule – once something went in the sell pile it couldn’t come back out. This just meant I’ve emotionally divorced myself from anything in those piles and have happily started to sell them without looking back.

The second was that I didn’t let myself put any of the stuff I was saving back into my drawers or cupboards. They had to stay vacuum packed and in my bedroom. And those vacuum packs are huge and ugly so that was a hugely motivating factor over the next few weeks.

I grew to hate the sight of those bags, and so finally I made a deal with myself. I was allowed to put aside some clothes for next year, and I’d let myself use two of my drawers to put them in. Everything I wanted to keep had to fit in those drawers, and if it didn’t then it’d have to go in the vacuum pack and I’d have to keep the pack in sight of my bed all year.

Let me tell you it is much easier to get rid of a striped t-shirt when it is a choice between getting rid of it or living with the first thing you see every morning being a plastic and beige monstrosity filled with guilt clothes. 

So those are my clear out tips:

·         Once you’ve decided something can go don’t look back

·         If you have to own storage make it ugly – that way you are motivated not to need it!

Remember if you are having a clear out you can raise money for Contact a Family by selling your clothes on ebay and donating some or all of the sale price. It’s really easy and ebay donate the money for you automatically once the sale goes through. I wrote a helpful how to guide if you want to give this a go.

Alternatively you could just sponsor me to keep going here.

And finally for all you rule checkers here is what I wore on days 52,53 & 54

Take care folks,

Ed x

Capsule Catastrophes - Part 1.

When I decided to do this challenge I was pretty gungho about the whole thing. My assumption was that I’d be pretty bored clothes wise throughout the year, but that besides that it’d be fairly easy.

When I started to plan the clothes I needed I pictured my self doing one of two things, going to work and going to the pub with friends. That’s it. That’s what I boiled my life down to. And leaving aside the fact that actually that description of my life makes me sound like a functioning alcoholic – it’s also just not accurate!

In the last 2 weeks alone I have: gone to work, walked the dog in the boiling sun, taken a long train journey, had a family bbq, walked the dog in the tipping down rain, had friends round for tea twice, made a dinosaur head for dowser day, gone to a conference,  a wedding and the launch of a commission report, enjoyed a friend’s birthday meal, attempted gardening, cleaned the house and moved furniture. And tomorrow I am going to the zoo.

We are 6 weeks in today and there has already been loads of weather, and there will be more. I have a sunny holiday in October, and will head to Scotland in the depths of winter where there is bound to be snow.

And I don’t think I planned very well……..

Here’s what I currently have:

1 pair of summer sandals, 3 pairs of mild weather shoes, 1 mild weather waterproof coat, 2 summer dresses, 4 all seasons dresses, 1 warm jumper, 1 cotton jumper, 4 tshirts, 1 shirt, 2 skirts , 1 pair of jeans.  That’s 21 items in total. Leaving me with 14 items left for the rest of the year. Which sounds like a lot unless we get a cold winter. 

Even if the winter is mildish I’ll still need: a warm coat, a winter hat, a scarf, a pair of gloves, a pair of winter boots (with decent tread for if it’s icy), 2 more warm jumpers, 2 long sleeved t-shirts and another pair of trousers/ jeans.

These will take me to 31 items. And I need a dress to wear to Bob & Laura’s wedding. So all in 3 items left to play with, Oh and I have a stain down one of my t-shirts. What is they say in the army that proper planning and preparation prevents…….oh dear.

(my general hopelessness and misery is always alleviated by donations and bids on my ebay sales – so if you feel moved to cheer me up please do)