Do you ever feel like you’ve just got too many tabs open in your brain? Sometimes I look up at my computer, really look at it, and see that I’ve got 20 tabs open at the top. And I think to myself, “No wonder it feels like this computer is acting so slow! I’ve got it running in all different directions at the same time.” Well, I think that happens a lot with my brain too – my thoughts are running around looking at and taking care of what feels like a zillion things all at once. Actually, it’s one of the miracle aspects of our brains – we’re so lucky that we have that capability.
However, with that being said, it sometimes feels like I just can’t add any more to the load, and often that expresses itself when it come time to get dressed in the morning. It’s like my whole system decides to churn and churn, with no solutions forthcoming. I know from working with my wardrobe clients that they have felt that way, and I suspect that you have too from time to time.
Luckily, with a little pre-planning you can use some tried-and-true techniques to get you past this ‘sticking point’. Here are a few I use:
*Have a few ‘go-to’ outfits. These are combinations that you’ve worn well before and know work for you. For some people it might be a particular pair of black pants, combined with a print blouse and a denim jacket or a particular sweater. Or maybe it’s a certain dress that you can pop a jacket over and be good to go. Take a few minutes and figure out what yours are – maybe even hanging them together in your closet. It’s not that you have to wear them every day, but on the days you’re stuck they’ll be a quick grab and go solution for you.
*Plan your accessory combinations in advance. A lot of women do pretty well when it comes to pulling an outfit together but they get derailed when it comes to accessorizing and will often just skip it all together. Accessories are the finishing touch to an outfit, and if you skip them completely you’re missing out on one of the key (and most fun) components that complete your outfit. If you plan your accessories in advance, getting dressed can be so much easier. A colleague and friend of mine, Brenda Kinsel, calls these “Beauty Bundles” and I love that term. In fact, I’ll share a recent blog post she wrote on the subject so you can see how she does it personally. The essence is that you pull together accessories that you know work together well, perhaps even storing them together, so that accessorizing your outfits becomes a breeze. You may even want to make notes to yourself at first about which bundles work with which outfits. You might even re-discover some accessories that you’d forgotten about and can now give them new life.
*Get rid of the ‘dead wood’. This is a longer term solution but is one I implement with clients all the time. Quite often the reason you’re not able to pull together what to wear in the morning is because you’ve got a lot of ‘dead wood’ taking up space in your closet. ‘Dead wood’ are clothes that don’t fit, items you never wear – ever, clothes that are damaged, shopping mistakes, clothes that are out of season. If you take the time to get these items out of your closet, you might be surprised at how much easier getting dressed will become. In fact, I almost guarantee it. If this seems too daunting, tackle one section at a time. Or give me a call – I’m happy to help.
*Rescue your ‘closet orphans.’ After you’ve purged the ‘dead wood’, you may find a few items that you still love but aren’t wearing because you don’t have everything you need to complete the outfit. For example, you bought a great new blouse thinking you had a skirt at home that would be perfect to wear with it. But once you got home, you realized that the colors were slightly off or it didn’t work as well as you thought for whatever reason. So you hung up the blouse and there it stayed, unworn and abandoned. If you’ve got a few of these, put them into a shopping bag and go to your favorite stores to find them mates. Bear in mind, this is only if you truly love the items. Lukewarm isn’t good enough – you need to be in love and make the promise to wear them once you’ve found their perfect pairing partner.
Have you got a few techniques to get you unstuck when your computer brain just isn’t cooperating? I’d love to hear them! Thanks for reading – stay stylish!
Adena
