Valentina Thörner da Cruz limits her wardrobe to 33 pieces of clothing for 3 months. People have dressed with less (other wardrobe diets include: 6 items or less challenge, 10-item capsule wardrobe, 1 little brown dress for 1 year), but Project 333 (started by Valentina’s friend Courtney Carver) includes shoes, jewelry, outerwear and accessories in the count and they’re not targeting minimalists.

Given studies that show that women use only about 20% of their wardrobe, shrinking your wardrobe is just a way to remove unnecessary clutter and eliminate stress. “There are some interesting studies that it’s very good to have some choices, but it actually makes you less happy if you have too many choices,” explains Valentina.

Valentina says she has less than 33 things because she is constantly decluttering her closet. “I always say, ‘nature abhors a vacuum’ and if there’s space something will come up to fill this space. I have a very minimal wardrobe, but it takes work. I review this wardrobe every 2 or 3 months to see what I didn’t wear.”

She does believe in change, but she doesn’t like buying new things so she uses fashion swaps to keep her closet tailored to her current tastes. Since we filmed with her she has reduced her wardrobe even further and now everything fits in a backpack and this makes her happy.

“In the end, our brain is not meant to take in more than a certain amount of things so whenever there is too much information coming in we start shutting off stuff, but this is a very stressful thing to do, especially because in the back of your mind you know that maybe I’m not choosing the right things of everything I have.”