Note: This is not an affiliate post for any specific wool clothing brand. This is the first-hand experience of the author.
I have wanted to be a minimalist for most of my adult life. It was a dream I fostered while gathering and storing more and more. Once I became a prepper, it seemed that there was no end to the things that I should have because I might need it sometime.
Looking to Downsize
A few years ago, my husband and I had a crazy idea that we would move into the smaller home on our property, where his parents had lived until they passed, and ask my daughter and her family to move into the larger house on the lot, where we currently were living. The property has many features that would make it a good place to try to survive a SHTF event, but even during the quieter days, it’s a great place to live. The house that we were moving into was pretty small. I had the larger house pretty packed and the closets bulging. The thought of moving into a home about half the size seemed pretty overwhelming. But I was determined to do it. That meant maximizing every single storage space.
Capsule Wardrobe
So, while I love clothes and accessories and shoes and purses, I was conflicted about whether they were worthy of taking up space in my closet. That’s when that seed of minimalism grew a bit, and I started considering how to have the best of both worlds. I wanted to have storage for other things in my closet, along with having my clothes. So I began to really look at my wardrobe. I had a lot of clothes, and yet I found myself standing in front of my closet, wondering what to wear.
I loved the idea of having fewer clothes and mixing and matching them—a capsule wardrobe where most things would work with several other things. I started researching capsule wardrobes, and true to that creepy trend, ads for stuff started popping up! Don’t you hate that? But it worked in my favor this time.
There was an ad for a 100-Day Dress Challenge. I scrolled past it several times before actually reading it, and once I did, I became intrigued. The company wool& sponsors a dress challenge where you wear a Merino wool dress for 100 days and document it. You take a picture of yourself in the dress for 100 days and share the pictures with them at the end, and they give you a $100 gift card for their store. They believe that when you wear the dress for 100 days, you will see the benefits of Merino wool. And they are correct. Over 4,000 people have completed the challenge so far.
The 100-Day Challenge
I hadn’t worn a dress in many years except for a wedding. I had even worn dress pants to a funeral. I mostly lived in jeans. Jeans with a casual shirt to work. Jeans with a T-shirt to garden. Jeans with a nicer blouse to church. So, the thought of wearing a dress for 100 days was pretty out there. It was November 2021, and it was cold, and I was going to wear a dress? But the idea of simplifying for even 100 days was so appealing that I ordered a dress and decided to try it. I wasn’t even sure that I’d be able to tolerate it. I thought that I might be allergic to wool. It had always made me itchy. Even when I would find a sweater I thought seemed soft and cuddly, I’d put it on and be scratching and itchy within an hour. But this wool is a blend with some nylon, which I think is part of the reason the texture doesn’t seem like traditional wool at all.
There’s a Men’s Challenge, Too
So, the dress arrived, and I started my challenge. I loved the simplicity of wearing the same thing every day. I switched things up with jewelry, cardigans, or leggings, but it was so easy to get up and not have to spend time figuring out what I would wear.
I didn’t tell my husband. How long would it take ’til he noticed I was wearing the same dress every day? On day 21, I cracked and told him because I discovered that there was also a men’s challenge with a shirt from Wool & Prince. He was willing to try it, and we ordered his shirt. (On day 22, he said, “Hey, that looks familiar!.”) His shirt arrived, and he started his 100 Day challenge on my Day 28.
What I Love About My Wool
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