I’m a Fashion Merchandising major, and because of that, I try to dress my best on a daily basis. I’m also a bit of a clothing hoarder, but, to get my money’s worth, I try to wear everything I own. One pretty strange thing that I do to accomplish those goals is planning my outfits out in advance. Not just the night before, or a week in advance, but months and months in advance. I’m a planner by nature, and also a tad obsessive, so I started doing this in high school around the same time I decided I was never going to roll out of bed and put sweats on for class again. It might sound crazy, but it has actually helped me get the most wear out of my clothes while also saving time when I get ready in the morning.
There are a lot of reasons I started doing this and a lot of reasons why it works for me. In high school, I had to be at school by 7:50am. Obviously, I wanted to get as much sleep as possible, so the 10-15 minutes I saved by waking up already knowing what I was going to wear that day were very valuable. I also find myself thinking about cool outfits to wear at a lot of different points during the day, but it always seems harder to remember those at the time you’re actually getting dressed. So, I started writing them down. I kept a list in the notes section on my phone so that I could add to it at any time, and eventually it turned into a schedule of sorts. I recorded winter outfits I thought of during the summer and vice versa. I call these outfits my “reserves” so I’m always prepared when the weather changes. If I see something in my closet that I haven’t worn in a long time but that I still like, I’ll add it to the list I keep of pieces to create an outfit around. It gives me the opportunity to try outfits on that I’m not sure about before I wear them, just in case they don’t look the way I thought they would in my head. Now that I’m in college, it also helps because I can align outfits with my class schedule so I’m always dressed appropriately for what I do that day. For example, if I have a fashion class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I will plan my best outfits for those days because there are more people in those types of classes to impress. If I am walking a long way to a class on Mondays and Wednesdays, I know not to plan outfits with uncomfortable shoes. If I only have one class on Friday, I’ll wear something more relaxed since fewer people are going to see me.
Obviously, my plans aren’t super strict. I look at the weather every morning before I get dressed and I’m flexible if it looks like the weather isn’t going to agree with the outfit I had planned for that day. This system definitely doesn’t work for everyone, some people like to be more spontaneous with their outfits and I totally respect that, but it’s worked well for me for almost five years now. As a student with a million things to think about, not having to think about the little things makes life a lot easier.