What is the 333 Challenge?
Project 333, created by Courtney Carver, involves taking all of your clothing, minus 33 items and storing them away in a box for roughly three months (or for how ever long you wish to do it.) During that time those 33 items of clothing are your wardrobe. The idea is to be able to identify what you truly need in your life and what else is simply excess.
It is simple enough in principle but care ought to be taken in deciding what remains in your wardrobe. Things like a changeable weather system (a big factor for me as I live in England), various events requiring different attire on the timetable, the nature of your work (do you work in an office or do you wear a uniform like me?) all come into this very quickly.
You can attempt this challenge at any point and really the length of it is up to you but it ought to be for a minimum of a month to truly benefit from it.
Items such as work uniform, gym kit, nightstop kit (for those of us who fly for a living), underwear and sleepwear do not count – the point of this is meant to be for fun and experience, not suffering and living impractically. Accessories, like sun glasses and jewellery count to the list. The main point of the challenge is to free up space, time and reprioritise your decision making process about what is important. We are trying to identify what needs are as opposed to wants.
Pre-text to doing the 333 challenge.
My decision making process that led me to attempt Project 333 was simple. I was already downsizing my possessions and experimenting with minimalism. I’d known about the challenge for several months and waned to try it out. I stopped buying clothes as of September 2014 to prevent clutter from entering my life. I knew that I had far more than what I needed. But the excess remained.
Project 333 was the next step in identifying excess in my life.
Below is my list for Project 333, written in late November 2014 and intended to last for a month (I extended it for two months in the end.) It details every piece of clothing I allowed myself to wear, including accessories for day-to-day use.
At the time I was working two jobs, one as a Cabin Crew and one in a retail store. Both required uniform as clothing which meant I had space to include clothing I would actually prefer to wear, granting space for my list.
It was the start of winter so I needed to keep warm. But I also wanted to look stylish and well presented. So my list of clothes for two months is composed primarily of things that I felt were practical and of good quality (some of them I would adopt in 2026.) The final spur to do this challenge was that I had just spent 11 days in San Francisco living out of a small suitcase. Even then, there were pieces of clothing I didn’t wear on the trip.
Action was required to radicalise my minimalism, so I decided to be ruthless and force myself to take part in the challenge.
THE LIST:
- Three pairs of jeans
- Chinos
- 3 pairs of shoes: hiking boots, red trainers and leather shoes
- 6 t-shirts
- 3 jumpers
- Rain coat
- Warm coat
- Gloves
- Sun glasses (2x – ray bands and pair for driving.)
- 3 shirts
- Blazer
- Scarf (2x – grey one and red one.)
- Long sleeve top (2x)
- Hoodie
- Leather belt
- Backpack and messenger bag
Why did I do Project 333?
I went through with this challenge for several reasons. One was curiosity – I’d heard of many people online doing this project and through my pursuit of minimalism, I became fascinated by it. But really it was simple – I was fed up of spending time having to decide what to wear, to have to deal with uncertainties in my fashion choices. The excess. The time wasted. The disorganisation. Does this look good? Will this allow me to be more confident? If I told you the amount of time I spent trying on different clothes for occasions, fretting about what I was wearing or if it made me feel confident then I’m quite sure you could write a paper on the matter.
What was the outcome of doing it?
- There was less stress
- I had more time for the important things as I no longer had clutter weighing me down
- I was able to focus on my health and fitness
- It enabled me to pursue my path to minimalism
- I sold or donated about 75% of the clothes I didn’t wear after I completed Project 333, removing excessive amounts of clothing from my life. This allowed me to redefine my sense of fashion.
- I relaise I 2026 this list would look totally different and that is the joy of learning and growing
Why you should do the 333 challenge?
For all the reasons that I benefited from Project 333, I believe you too can reap the benefits. I urge you to try this project out for at least a month. You will find that with time there will be less stress, more opportunities to focus on your health and other things that you are passionate about. In short; it is well worth trying out. Make it fun, don’t take it too seriously but learn from it. Treat it as little more than a challenge. But it is my hope that it will open your mind to minimalism like it did for me.