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This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Purdue chapter.

The past few weeks, I’ve started, what I like to call, “meal prepping” my outfits. This essentially
means setting aside clothes every weekend to wear during the upcoming week, and it has been
super helpful for me so far. There are a few reasons why I initially started doing this:

  1. Though I enjoy styling looks, I struggled to find the time every morning or night to come up with what to wear… so I ended up only wearing a couple good outfits per week and sweats every other day.
  2. I found a lot of pieces in my closet that I rarely wear because they require more thought to style, but I still couldn’t bring myself to donate them because I knew I could create looks with them that I really like if I challenged myself and took the time to do it. I wanted to find a way to get the most our of my wardrobe instead of repeating the same few items and neglecting others.
  3. I was accumulating too many clothes, especially pants, that were worn once but weren’t dirty enough to wash yet. I needed a way of managing which items had already been worn, so I could try to wear them again and clear them off “the chair” that held all the clothes in limbo between clean and dirty.

Now to break down my process:

  1. The Grocery List: The bulk of my outfit prep system takes place over the weekend, while I do laundry. This is when I decide on the main “ingredients” of my outfits for the week – tops and pants mainly. I pull them out, pair the items together, and set them aside in my closet as a physical list of what I am working with that week. Again, here I pretty much only put together the actual clothes I plan to wear; I don’t really worry about accessories at this point. I normally don’t assign the outfits to specific days either, because I like to decide which one I feel like wearing on the day of.
  2. Cooking: I like to put my “meals” together in the morning when I get dressed for the day, but it can also be done the night before. This is when I decide on all my accessories: jewelry, shoes, belts, socks, etc. I am able to get the satisfaction of styling an outfit, a process I enjoy, without having to spend more than 10 minutes in the morning figuring out what clothes I even own. There’s no more worry of “I have nothing to wear,” which saves me a ton of time.
  3. Leftovers: The “leftovers” refer to those worn but not quite dirty clothes. As I go throughout my week and accumulate a pair of jeans or two that should be worn again before washing, I keep track of them and make sure to include them where I can in my next week’s list.

At first, I thought it might be daunting to plan my whole week’s worth of clothes in advance, but
it has made my life so much easier than I expected. It saves me a ton of time in the mornings,
only having to worry about finishing touches instead of starting from scratch. This allows me to
actually have a good outfit I really like every single day, instead of getting stressed out, rushing,
and deciding to just go out in pajama pants. I’m also happy that I get more variation out of my
wardrobe because I can dig deeper into my closet over the weekend, rather than choosing the
first thing I see in the morning.

Normally, it’s impossible for me to stick to a routine—but I am really looking forward to keeping
this up, so I highly recommend trying this out for yourself!

Katherine Raykova is the President at the Her Campus at Purdue chapter. She’s been a part of Purdue’s Her Campus chapter since fall of 2020! She oversees chapter meetings, brand partnerships, a monthly chapter newsletter, and general maintenance to keep her chapter afloat. Her favorite areas to write about are fashion, books, plants, and all things witchy. Katherine is currently a senior at Purdue University, double majoring in Mechanical Engineering and English with a minor in Intellectual Property Law for Engineers. She has completed a year of industry experience working in aerospace consulting and is currently an undergraduate research assistant for the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue. Outside of classes and Her Campus, Katherine is also a writing tutor at Purdue’s On-Campus Writing Lab (OWL) and a mentor for the Women in Engineering program. She hopes to attend law school next year to become a patent attorney. When she gets the chance, Katherine reads and spends as much time outside as possible. She loves listening to music and going on long walks around campus and nearby nature centers – even in the winter. Most days, she practices yoga, plays with tarot cards, and drinks multiple cups of tea. When she feels inspired, Katherine writes fiction or takes on a sewing/knitting project.