Your outfits, ready to go.
What Does Outfit Planning Even Mean?
You know the feeling, when you are standing in front of your closet in your towel and nothing seems right. When getting ready in the morning involves piling discarded options all over your bed, or you are pulling on the same thing you wear practically everyday, something must be done. Your mornings and even your daily life will change when you put some time into outfit planning.
The night before you need to get ready, plan out your complete outfit. A little planning ahead paves the road to being a stylish person. You can easily spend 10 minutes, in the midst of your bedtime routine, pulling together what you will pull on in the morning. Use the weather app on your smart phone to know what outside temperatures you will be contending with. Consider all the things you will do in the day, and plan your outfit to fit all of them. Hang or pile all the items together that you will need to put on. Include jewelry, underpinnings and shoes. Go as far as packing your tote or handbag with any extra items you might need (umbrella, sweater, evening purse). In the morning you simply throw everything on and go, without giving it an extra thought.
5 Ways Outfit Planning Will Make the Difference
1. Reduce Morning Stress
Why do another task in the morning when there is already so much to do? It can be a mad scramble getting you and your family out the door as it is. Don’t spend precious moments reconsidering what goes together, what is appropriate for the day’s activities and what is clean. Why empty your closet as you toss things about, trying to find where you put that nude-for-you camisole, or those shoes you thought you put in the bin under your bed? Alternatively, if you gather all the parts of your outfit the night before, you reduce that morning craziness.
A work-week of outfits, ready to go.
When you plan ahead of time what you will wear, everything will be waiting for you to simply get dressed. It’s like having your own butler, except that butler is really just you. Outfit planning gives you a chance to make sure all of the things you want to wear are in good condition. Check for stains and signs of wear as you are pulling the pieces together. Any ironing needs can be dealt with the night before and not when you’re desperate to leave the house.
2. Eliminate Outfit Regrets
I have had plenty of times when I am not happy with what I have chosen to wear. But when you plan ahead, you are less likely to be focused on the failings of your outfit. If you are simply throwing on whatever you find in the morning, you might later think to yourself, “Hey, my metallic flats would have been much better,” or “Oh my god, this top is totally pill-y.” Too itchy, too see-through, too formal? These are concerns you can eliminate with a little forethought, and then not think about again once you leave the house. When you plan ahead, you are quite simply less likely to have outfit fails.
Clothes piled all over the bed.
3. Save Time
Our lives are busy. Saving time has become a priority for all of us. How does outfit planning help with this? First, pre-planning outfits means you don’t have to think about what to wear after the alarm rings. One less thing to worry about and many less decisions to make in the morning.
Second, you don’t have to return home to change before going to your next thing. If you have several places you plan to visit with somewhat different clothing requirements, take this into consideration the evening before. Maybe you will go from your office to happy hour and you have a bejewelled cardigan you will change out your blazer for. Perhaps you have to meet with your bank before you join your family for a picnic and a change of shoes is necessary for your comfort. Plan to wear an outfit that is modifiable to adapt to each stage of your day. This certainly saves coming home to change. It does require some forethought, but it sure can be a significant time saver in so many ways.
4. Introduce Variety to What You Wear (or, Wear More Of Your Clothes)Â
Generally, we have a tendency to wear 20% of our clothes 80% of the time. This seems like a bit of a waste of clothes, dollars and closet space. Make a plan to figure out how to wear those items that you never seem to wear. Put your closet to work for you. You are less likely to feel like you have nothing to wear if you spend a few extra minutes building an outfit around some of the clothing items you haven’t been wearing.
5. You Will Be More Content With Your Wardrobe and Ultimately, More Stylish
When you can put what you are wearing at the back of your mind, you feel happier about your clothes. If you are not irritated by the clothes you yanked on at the last minute, unhappy with the forced, early morning decisions you had to make, you will be more content with the clothing you already own.
Stylish people look put-together. It’s easier to look put-together when you’ve spent some time and thought putting an outfit together. If increasing your stylishness is your goal, outfit planning is a sure-fire way to get there.
Tips on How to Make It Happen
- When you are putting together an outfit, think about using a completer piece. Pick out the completer piece first and build the outfit around it.
- Some will pick out their shoes first and build the outfit around them. Shoes do a great job of setting the tone for what you will wear. Also, shoes are one closet item that bring a lot of people closet joy.
- If you plan your outfit ahead, you are more likely to wear accessories. Accessories go a long way to looking stylishly put-together. Accessories are like the icing on the cake. It’s hard to ice a cake when you’re eating bites of breakfast in between blowdrying and demands to sign permission forms.
- A tool that both Dee and I love is Stylebook App. The app offers a great place to do your outfit planning and preparation from any location. We really should get paid to talk about this app, as we recommend it so often!
We love putting situationally-appropriate outfits together for you with the things in your closet. Outfit remixing is our jam. Set a date with us for some closet planning and rehabilitation.
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