January 15, 2023
I’ve realized that it makes no sense – NONE WHATSOEVER – for me to pretend to wear different outfits every day. Some days, I wear pajamas all day! Some days, I’m dressed in “real” clothes for only a few hours, in which case I very likely wear the same outfit the next day…
So what a more normal woman might present as Outfit Of The Day has become Wardrobe Of the Week. Yes, I’m cheating on the acronym because I love the idea of a WOW wardrobe!
You can’t improve your wardrobe’s efficiency, and suitability to your needs and preferences, if you don’t know how you use your clothes – day by day or week by week.
Socratic wardrobe study!
love,
Janice
pearl earrings – Tiffany; gold earrings – Julie Vos; black sweater – L.L.Bean; chambray shirt – 4 Objects; sweater vest – Gentle Herd; turtleneck – Lands’ End; teal tee – Wool&; scarf – Crimson Paris; cardigan – Macy’s; tweed pants – Alex Mill; scarf – Wolf & Badger; jeans – L.L.Bean; black pants – Eileen Fisher; loafers – Minnetonka; boots – Blondo
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❤️ Love the idea of “Socratic wardrobe study”! Might have stayed in college if that had been an option. Really want to see how this progresses.
Love this! Would make a great packing idea, too.
We want to see the pajamas, too! (only partly joking)
When I was working, I wore one outfit a day and put it in the wash at the end of the day (I live in the tropics and had a casual work environment, so I usually wore a top and pants, with multiple cardigans at work). Now my life is more like yours, and I’m willing to wear items that I’ve just worn briefly another time. But my question is, how do you keep track? Do you put “already worn” in a special place? I’m just concerned that my clothes might smell less than fresh and I wouldn’t notice.
I put already worn clothes ‘away’ inside out so I know they have been worn
Once worn but not stinky is a problem for me, too. I don’t really like to return them to the closet, but they tend to end up in a pile on the chair, where I find the cats sleeping on them. I’m experimenting with hanging them in one part of the closet inside out, but would be interested in how others manage this.
I have hooks on my bathroom wall behind the door. I hang my briefly-worn items there to wear as there is also a vent on the floor just below, so they get well-aired as well, and they stay out of the closet.
Years ago, we went to an office furniture supply shop and bought a coat rack that we keep in our bedroom for just that purpose.
The hang inside out thing works great for me !
My closet has a long shelf above the hang rail, and I’ve reserved about 30cms of the space for clothes that have been worn, but not enough that they need washing. That’s the items that can be folded, which is the majority. Because it’s open shelving, they air. I look here first, when deciding what to wear, and also look through them at the end of the week for items that might as well go in the wash. I also keep any briefly worn layering items here that I might have taken off during the day, but will probably put back on in the evening. There’s never more than 10 items here, usually less. Anything that absolutely must be hung up is hung at the end of the hang rail, thus also gets lots of airing and it keeps it in my sight-line as something that should be worn again soon. And jeans and sweatpants (which I wear multiple times before washing) have their own piece of the shelf to live and air in. I’ve only been this organised since moving to the luxury of a walk-in closet in recent years. Previously, I also used the “keep it on a chair” approach, since I’ve never liked putting clothes that I’ve worn back into a closed space, such as the chest of drawers. I must have preferred rolling out the the cat hair!
I bought a bunch of really thick, brightly colored hair bands. I slip one onto the hamger of anything I wore that is getting hung back up. That way I can see very easily what has alresdy been worn.
Great idea! You inspired me to write “WORN” on some clothespins to use on my selection of cardigans.
This makes a heck of a lot of sense. I live and dress in much the same way!
This is a brilliant, REAL idea. Thank you!
I woke up still thinking about this… a mini-trip for the work week. Without the suitcase. Set my structure on Sunday and drop the fretting for the rest of the week! Someone asked for the “how to” template. Yes, please!
I have put together four Weekly Timeless Wardrobes (each season but more like each temperature range) and have found it great for dressing. Everything matches and there is enough variety with the accent colour/s & patterns to make it interesting. Every so often I wear clothes that are not in the WTW but it serves me well. There are some items that I don’t wear like my white t-shirt/singlet. I have some duplicates like navy shorts.
Enjoying the experience.
I love this idea! It’s the way I dress too. Happy to follow along and learn from your WOW posts :)
Awesome. I’m a little late to the party, I didn’t see this yesterday. During breaks and weekends I frequently wear the same thing two days in a row. Because of dog walking I don’t stay in jammies all day, but I wish! Sweats run a close second. Thank you!
Awesome. I would be interested in a WOW how-to post or two. I kind of do this, though not so elegantly, and it would be great to figure out how to do this at the beginning of the week and call it good. I don’t spend a lot of time staring into my closet, wondering, but I would like to be more organized about what I wear.
I love all the subtle color that has crept into your wardrobe of black/white and grey. This looks lovely! And all pants after the dress exercise? Maybe a coincidence. :)
Thanks so much for sharing. It is so nice to see reality (mine is much the same as yours!). I am lucky enough to have 2 master closets so I put gently worn clothes in the smaller closet. If I did not have that option, I would just rehang at one end of my main closet. I typically “shop” from the smaller closet first which means I often am wearing the same items for several days.
if I’ve worn an item and can wear it again before washing it I put it back on the hangar and hang the hanger backwards, with the opening toward the viewer. It’s easy to spot what was worn once this way.
I just put away all my clean clothes and moved the cleaned hanging clothes to their proper color section. Then I prepared a section for hanging my WoW clothing and a cleared shelf for my shoes. I emptied the jewelry dish on the counter and filled it with the easrings for the week.
Bottoms: dark blue jeans, gray jeans, and black stretch pants.
Tops: white SS tee, navy/light blue LS tee, blue marled 3/4 sleeve, navy SS tee, red marled tunic, purple/black stripe tunic.
Toppers: light blue sweatshirt jacket, navy vest, navy/light blue/gray plaid flannel shirt.
Shoes: navy slip-ons, black booties
I am ready to just kill it this week! I work part-time from home and care for my grandson two days a week. I may have two outings this week. I used to hang the day’s topper by the back door so I would remember to grab it on the way out.