The Challenge...of a different sort

Tonight I went shopping for jeans and I came home convinced my body is an anomaly of societal norms. There are just flat out no jeans that fit me and don't look like something a ghetto hoochie mama would wear. I did, however, find a new top that was on clearance.

I came home and put my new shirt in my closet and gazed at my abundance of clothes. Now, for the "typical" woman I probably don't have as many clothes. In fact, a few months ago while doing laundry I was amazed at how many more shirts I was hanging for Matt than myself and I added them up. I own less shirts than Matt. Dresses are a different story...but I'm getting off topic.

I have more than enough things to clothe my body with, regardless of whether or not I have more than one flattering pair of jeans. I thought, why don't I see how long I can go without wearing the same thing twice? Pants I'll have to duplicate or I'll get arrested for indecent exposure, but I'll make myself cycle through all the pants, trousers, skirts and dresses I own before I repeat them. Shoes will definitely have to repeat, but a pair of leopard ballet flats goes a long way in making an outfit. But tops I'll only wear once.

And then I had another thought. Just an hour ago on the news they were covering the Haiti disaster. A woman was sitting outside a hospital and showed the camera her leg. Her femur was clearly fractured though it had not broken the skin, and she had been waiting for over a day to get into the hospital. I have so much more than 99% of the people in the world. I bought my new shirt tonight for $15 at Express. Then I thought:

What difference could I make by donating $15 to a nonprofit that assists in Haiti for each day I'm able to wear something I already own?

I did a little research on Charity Navigator--a website that rates charities. In their words:

We rate charities by evaluating two broad areas of financial health, their organizational efficiency and their organizational capacity. We use a set of financial ratios or performance categories to rate each of these two areas, and we issue an overall rating that combines the charity's performance in both areas.

If you go to their home page http://www.charitynavigator.org, there is a section on the recent Haitian crisis and a list of top rated charities that help that area. I'm still not sure which exact charity to donate to...for now it will probably be the Red Cross. From what I've heard from my mom who's worked with them a lot they're a great organization.

So now as I come to the end of this post and the end of my day in which I should have gone to bed hours ago, I challenge you to look in your closet. If you can go longer than a week without repeating an outfit then consider joining me in donating to a nonprofit during this challenge. Heck you may even want to try the challenge yourself.

And no ideas are ever truly original...after I thought about wearing all my clothes I remembered The Uniform Project and her mission to raise money to educate kids in India. Check out her site--she has an even harder challenge to wear the same exact dress every day for a year! Its impressive!

And now I'm going to bed. Stay tuned for the first day of the challenge, and perhaps a peek into my closet and of things to come...

Any suggestions for a name for this Challenge? Rock Your Wardrobe? No...too reminiscent of election '08. Wearing is Caring? Nah, too preschool. All You Can Wear? Hm, that makes me want to sidle up to a buffet....I'll think of something later....