I also learned a lot about how to edit my closet – what I need, what I don’t need – and I have a few bags ready to be donated. To that end, I thought I’d share some tips with you. Even if you’re not ready or willing to limit yourself to six items of clothing – trust me, I understand – it can be really freeing to clean out your closet and live a little more simply, whatever that means to you. The extra money in your pocket is just icing on the cake.

Set yourself up with staples. I certainly found out what mine were over the last month, and I’ll tell you, my black pencil skirt and black cardigan saved me on more than one occasion. A few versatile pieces are really the foundation of your closet, and you can mix and match them to your taste. Suggestions from Jill Heller, a sustainable fashion stylist and founder of PureThread, include a pair of medium to dark wash jeans, a crisp white shirt (with or without a collar – your choice), a cardigan in a neutral color like grey, and a black dress. You can pick and choose to fit your own lifestyle, but the idea is to select items that can be worn in a variety of different ways. That cardigan, for example, can be worn over a dress, your white shirt, or buttoned up with jeans or a skirt.

Start at the store. A well-edited closet means having a lot of self-control. If you’re wondering how many times you’ll wear something, put it back on the rack, says Heller. Instead, you want to look at the cost and compare it with how often and how long you’ll be able to wear the item. “Spend a little more here, because it’s really about multiple usage, and getting the most mileage out of things. I’ve even seen reversible cardigans, where one side is brown and one side is black, so with one item, you get two colors,” says Heller. She also suggests dresses that you can wear a variety of different ways, like sustainable bamboo one from ANGeLRoX. Remember, you’re going for quality over quantity.

Accessorize. You don’t have to get crazy, but one thing I learned is that a couple of bright scarves or a few pieces of jewelry can give the same old outfits a brand new look. These kinds of pieces are generally inexpensive, so they allow you to dabble in trends or switch up your look from season to season without breaking the bank. “Fashion is about change and newness, and so when we buy something that we’ll get a long life out of, it sort of goes against the fashion industry. So you want to get your fantastic quality basics that last a long time and fit great, and then play with accessories and color in a way that doesn’t cost much,” explains Heller.

Repurpose. We all have a few things that we just can’t wear any more, but we can’t part with them either. Maybe the material is beautiful, but the dress doesn’t fit, or your favorite old leather jacket has a small tear in the sleeve. Consider recycling the material into something new and different – that jacket could become a handbag. There are a lot of new designers popping up these days that specialize in this kind of sustainable fashion, called upcycling. One Heller recommends, specifically for handbags, is reMade USA.

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I didn’t post yesterday because I was running around like a crazy person. But I finally wore item 6, a plain light blue shift dress. For anyone considering doing this experiment, here’s my advice: Wait to pick an item until you really need it. I didn’t need the blue dress so much yesterday, but my husband and I were invited to an event by his new boss later this month and all of a sudden I needed something summery and appropriate. Voila. Item six. If I had gone with what I originally thought would be six – a purple cardigan that could have gone over any of my other pieces, I would have been stuck.

People – ahemm Meredith Vieira – are starting to kid me: “Didn’t you wear that yesterday?” In fact, the answer is more often no than yes, unless it’s a weekend, when the answer is always yes. By day 20 I am sure I’ll feel differently.

I am starting to see my interest in shopping for clothes fall off. Confession: At 11 a.m. most days, I visit Ruelala.com to see what’s on the sample sale. At 12 noon most days, I visit Gilt. Often I’ll pick up a little something. This week my visits have been sporadic and I haven’t bought anything in a month (maybe I was getting mentally prepared.) Next week I will clean out my closet and see how that feels. I’m wondering if I will see new combinations of old favorites. Although I suppose it doesn’t matter – I can’t wear them anyway, can I?

I didn’t post yesterday because I ran off to give a speech to a group of financial planners in Boston (you didn’t miss much clothing wise, I wore the same thing I wore on Day 1).  What was interesting to me, though, was that getting dressed didn’t make me as crazy as it had the couple of days before.  I knew it would take me less time to choose so I gave myself 15 more minutes on the treadmill – and felt better as a result throughout the day.

On my ride home, I caught up with Barry Schwartz, author of The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less and asked him to weigh in on my Sixperiment.  He explained that because I had decided to understake this challenge, I’d be less likely to feel it as an imposition than someone who was forced to do it.   “The thing that makes people crazy about not having choices is who decides that you don’t have a choice,” he said.  “If you control the agenda and you limit the number of options you may get bored, but you won’t get crazy. People want and need control and autonomy.  If someone else imposes the system, you’re depriving people of autonomy.”

That made total sense to me.  I had decided to take this on voluntarily.  What’s making me a little nuts (not today, but other days) is not the fact that my items are limited but that they’re limited to 6.  I’d rather have 10.  Or – because my life at home is so different than my life at work – 6 for work and 6 for home.  I would have preferred to set my own number.  Which is not to say I’m giving up.  The first weekend is upon us, which means my shorts, tank-top and bathing suits (which do not count, thank goodness), will get a decent work-out.   And my washer will as well.

For the second morning in a row, I was up at 4 a.m.  And again, I was focused on what I was going to wear.  This is totally not the point.

I’m an avid fan of the research of Swarthmore College Professor Barry Schwartz, author of The Paradox of Choice. He divides the world into maximizers and satisficers.  Maximizers are people who want more, more, more of everything.  They couldn’t have a closet big enough with enough choices.  There is rarely enough.  Satisficers are the opposite.  They search through options until they find one that is good enough, then they call it a day.

Schwartz says that being a satisficer is better.  It makes you happier over time and actually enables you to get going rather than getting stuck.  I believed, in thinking about the concept of six-items-or-less, that it would move me in the right direction on the maximizer – satisficer scale.  Now, though, with two fairly sleepless nights under my belt, I’m wondering if there can be too few choices for satisficers?  I’m going to give Schwartz (and perhaps Sheena Iyengar, author of The Art of Choosing) a call today and I’ll get back to you with their thoughts.

On the positive side, once I did get out of the shower, I was dressed in 5 minutes and ready to leave the house 10 minutes ahead of schedule.  That certainly put a smile on my face.

Last week’s NY Times story on the six-items-or-less phenomenon, where you choose six items of clothing, then commit to wearing them (and only them) for a month caught my eye.  Could I do this, I wondered?  Would I like it?  Hate it?  Somewhere in between?  I weighed the pros and cons.

Pro: I am one of those people who have trouble getting dressed in the morning.  I encourage my daughter to pick hers out the night before and I should really do the same.  Sometimes it takes a few tries, which is especially difficult when you’re trying to get from the suburbs to the city for an early segment.  This could be a time saver.

Con: It’s summer.  And although I work professionally, I also work from home.  That meant picking items that could go both casual and to an office.  That would be tough.

Pro: I’ve always admired how the French do more with fewer pieces.  This might give me a chance to learn those skills.

Con: I’m not a great accessorizer.  Maybe I could take scarf lessons from Mika Brzezinski.

Pro: Maybe wearing a uniform would make people pay more attention to what I’m saying — and less to what I’m wearing or how my hair looks.

Con: Laundry.

Pro: I like a challenge.

And so, today is Day One.  On the air today, I wore the purple dress (1), and the black cardigan (2) with heels and a belt.  Looked professional.
Now I’m home.  I’m still wearing the purple dress (1), but it’s now 85 degrees so I’ve layered it with the white tank (3) and I put on flats.  We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

Want to join me in the sixperiment?  Share your six!

The research – which is called The New American Pantry Study (PDF) – pointed to five different, new consumer behaviors. Take a look. Join in. You may be more satisfied with how you’re using your money if you do.

Gratification management. Say good-bye to instant gratification, and hello to delay. Some 40 percent of consumers surveyed said waiting to get what you want isn’t as much of a sacrifice as it used to be. Consumers have tuned in to the fact that many things – from cuts of meat to clothing – will eventually go on sale, so they’re willing to wait for the moment when that happens. Makes sense in the kitchen (those cookies always taste better after you smell them baking!). Makes sense in the bedroom. (No further explanation needed.) Why wouldn’t it make sense here?

Private Label Experimentation. I’d never give up my Post Raisin Bran (believe me, it’s better than Kellogg’s), but the olive oil I cook with every day is Costco’s private label brand: Kirkland. Three-quarters of consumers are more willing to try private labels – it makes them feel smart – and once they do, three-quarters are buying those things again. “In part, it’s because we believe the same manufacturers are making both,” says Doug Harrison who conducted the survey. We do it selectively. Maybe you’d never give up your Oreos. Harrison’s wife is loyal to her Vanity Fair napkins. But on other products we’re trying – and we’re liking.

Cooking From Scratch. Twenty percent of consumers are abandoning expensive prepared foods and cooking from scratch. New websites like 5dollardinners.com have shown people how they can save a ton of money by making food themselves (and save even more by taking the leftovers in the next day for lunch). Personally, Ina Garten’s original Barefoot Contessa Cookbook has become my summer bible. Last week I made the potato salad, the cold sesame noodles and the beet salad with orange zest. Took 90 minutes. We ate for five days.

Make Loyalty Cards Your BFF. Sure, you’ve been friendly with your store loyalty cards for a while, but now they’re your BFFs. At least they are for 60 percent of consumers. What’s changed here is that men and kids are getting in on the action. They are sharing in the feeling of satisfaction you get when, upon checkout, you scan to the bottom of the receipt and see that – yes! – not only did you get two-for-one-blueberries and a free baguette, you’ve saved $18.71. And – double yes! – since the beginning of the year, you’ve saved $432.23.

Extreme Couponing. Finally, these folks aren’t just clipping the occasional $1 off, they’re layering manufacturer’s coupons over store coupons to squeeze out every last dollar. They’re signed on (as I am) to couponmom.com. They’re downloading coupons to their loyalty cards so they can swipe them at checkout and save more and their PDAs so there is no paper needed.

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