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Saturday, May 1, 2010

May, The No Spend Month

I am really inspired by SoZo's Me-Made-May. In which she is wearing only clothes she has made herself. I would love to be able to participate in Me Made May but to be honest I haven't sewn any clothes for myself for a really long time. And I think it would be way too cold to just be wearing summer skirts I made four years ago. But her challenge has made me think about my own wardrobe and sense of style (or lack there of).
I am going to spend the month of May reorganising our clothing, making our wardrobes well put together and also orgainising and getting rid of the general clutter that is slowly taking over our house.
To do this I have decided that is going to be easier to get it done if I don't introduce anything new into the mix.
So I have decided to challenge myself to a No Spend Month. Where I only buy necessities, food, groceries, paying bills etc, and if we do need to buy anything else, it is a well thought through purchase and not just an impulse buy. I think it will be a good exercise in self control and also reteaching myself good habits when it comes to planning purchases as well. I will say now that I am a compulsive buyer when it comes to sewing, craft, fabric supplies. If I like it I will usually buy it. If I see someone on a blog recommend it or I see a beautiful fabric I will usually hunt it down. So this is not going to be easy for me.
This also means no trips to the opshop. For me, opshopping is the epitome of impulse shopping, my theory is if you see it and you like it, GRAB IT NOW. Because chances are if you leave it and then decide to go back to it, it will be long gone.
So what will I be doing instead? Reorganising my wardrobe, the kid's wardrobes, and making our clothes more manageable.  I have found that I have what seems like a mountain of washing to fold up, the never ending mountain, and you may think we would run out of clothes, right? Wrong. The cupboards still seem to be full.
So it is time to get rid of everything that is too small, to old, stained or not worn anymore. Hopefully leaving me with a more manageable amount of stuff.
Then if I do see gaps in what we have I can (in June) go out and get what we NEED. And only what we need. And also make well planned decisions.
I also hope that I will be able to fill some of the gaps with clothes made by me, with fabric from my stash.
So that's where I am at right now. Planning and Organising and trying to make life easier for the Marshalls.
If you have any tips or ideas I would love to hear them as well. What has worked for you?

Thanks for reading and letting me get that out of my head,
Mel

5 comments:

  1. Ohhhh - I will join you in reorganizing efforts! All my closets need a good clean out. I have been meaning to do this - I did do a couple closets before the baby was born. What if we challenge each other to do one closet a week? Is that too lofty of a goal?

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  2. Wow you are very brave. I don't think I could do this. I should but can not. Everytime I go to the shop I come back with something to do with craft. It may only be a ball of string but I have to have it.

    If you can do it then I will have to have a go.

    I once saw Oprah organise her wardrobe and she colour co ordinated it. I now do this and it works great. I have all shirts together, t shirts, singlets and in those groups they are sorted into colours. It only takes a few extra minutes when your putting clothes away.

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  3. I think reorganising will give you also more 'room' in your head to create things.
    In my life it works .....

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  4. Okay - we are on! I started my first closet :)

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  5. This is a great idea, I have baskets of washing to fold, but still the draws are full!
    I am heading down to Melbourne on the weekend to Stitches and Craft, don't like my chances of a no spend weekend!
    Jacqueline.
    Might start when I return :)

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