In which I spend more then 51 days choosing my outfit
Posted by Isabel on December 15th, 2009. Filed under: Addictions, I Rock.Last week I heard that the average person spends 51 days picking out clothes to wear over their entire lifetime.
51 days!
While that may seem like a lot of wasted time to you, to me it seems like time well spent. And to be honest, I’m pretty sure that by the time my life is over I’ll have spent well over 51 days picking out my outfits.
It all started back in middle school when I had to get myself up and dressed for school in the morning. I would stand in front of my closet and just stare at my clothes. It’s not like I had so many adorable Esprit and Guess clothes to choose from. In fact it was the exact opposite. My clothing options were very limited, thus taking me more time to decide what to wear.
My mom quickly got fed up with the amount of time I wasted in the mornings choosing my outfit for the day. She suggested I figure it out the night before. What a great idea. Man, my mom is a genius. From that day on I would chose my outfit before I went to bed each night.
Ta-Da.
It was fabulous to not have to stress about clothing options in the morning. My mind was much clearer the night before. It took me half as long to decide tomorrow’s outfit if picked out the night before.
Plus at night I would have time to iron anything that needed ironing instead of doing it at 6 am. Or, let’s be honest, just not ironing it at all.
It’s been over 20 years and I’m still choosing my outfits the night before.
Each evening, before The King and I put Babboo to bed, I go into my closet and do my “routine”. First I choose a pair of trousers to wear. I can pretty much wear anything to my office, but I choose to look “nice” (which is totally subjective). I have a few slacks and fancy jeans to choose from. Once I know what bottoms I’ll be rocking, I figure out what top to wear. This takes a little bit longer then figuring out what pants I’m wearing. Mostly because a top can include more then one item: shirt, jacket, or cardigan.
I then iron anything that needs ironing. (It must be noted that at this point The King will gather any shirts that he has that might also need some ironing.)
I grab my selected outfit, along with the needed under clothing, and take them into the bathroom and put them on the shelf of my vanity. In the winter I like to hang them on my towel warmer. Nothing like putting warm clothes on after a shower.
I leave my shoe and accessory decisions for the morning. For some unknown reason that task isn’t as daunting as clothing seems to be.
I’ve never timed my routine but I’m positive it would equal to more then 51 days in my entire lifetime. And while I’ve been thinking about this the last week, I can’t seem to decide if more then 51 days is too long or not.
So tell me, what’s your system for choosing your daily attire?
December 15th, 2009 at 9:44 pm
I’ve got about the same routine as you. Though, I do often lay out the accessories and shoes, socks & underwear. I like to be able to grab the whole pile as I head into the bathroom. The less thinking I have to do in the mornings as I stumble about, the better…I do the same prepping my kiddos clothes and diaper/lunch bags. Lay out her clothes and dipes, pack the bags and have everything “jump in and go” ready.
December 15th, 2009 at 10:38 pm
Heh heh! You said “trousers.” For some reason I find that amusing… trousers…
December 15th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
First I must answer some questions:
1. Am I leaving the house today
-If yes, proceed to next question
-If no, stay in pajamas. Wash face, brush teeth & hair. Good to go.
2. Am I taking a shower, or will I need to cover up with a sweater?
-If yes, proceed to question 4
3. Am I going running later? If so, why even bother getting dressed. Put running clothes on immediately & wear for the next 12 hours.
4. After shower, look in top drawer. Pick out top.
5. Put on bottom (I love skirts, so I wear those about 1/2 the time).
6. Fix hair and put on makeup (overachiever!)
The End.
(Sometimes I wish I had an office job just so I could have a reason to get pretty. Now the only people who see me pretty are at church or the elementary school. Sorry Mr. May!)
December 15th, 2009 at 11:36 pm
I tried the night before outfit choosing in high school and it was an epic fail. I never felt like wearing the outfit I’d picked the night before and spent doubly as long stressing, waking my poor sister up, trying on more clothes, and working myself into a frenzy. I really admire your night before clothes picking abilities, I have never been able to achieve it.
In my earlier 20s I put more care into hair and makeup and attire but now in my later 20s I just can’t seem to care anymore. I used to blowdry and curl my hair daily, now that is a once a week thing tops. I grab pants first, like you, figure out what top to wear, throw it all on my bed and get dressed. I currently have two pairs of shoes for work and I wear white socks with the brown oxfords and black socks with the black oxfords. If my hair is wet/dry/second day dirty/anything I slap it in a bun, put on sunscreen and go. I may not like what I see midday when I glance in the mirror but it gets me out the door before I start worrying about whether today’s ugly pinstriped shirt and blazer combo is too much like yesterday’s ugly pinstriped shirt and blazer combo.
December 16th, 2009 at 12:16 am
But inquiring minds want to know – did you get the burrito and did you like it? Enjoy your blog very much.
December 16th, 2009 at 3:15 am
Towel warmer….tell me more about this. It sounds delightful!
December 16th, 2009 at 3:31 am
I usually pick out my clothes the night before (sans towel warmer, sob!), but I start with a pair of shoes and build an outfit around it. Sigh…I do love shoes.
)
I think, overall, I will spend approximately 137 days of my life deciding what to wear. Yes, I think that is a good estimate.
xox
December 16th, 2009 at 5:09 am
As a still-recent SAHM, my current approach to picking out the day’s outfit is this: will my husband see me in it? If yes, then pick something that he likes (skinny jeans or tight yoga pants). If no, then pick the most comfortable thing that’s near the top (fleece pants or not tight yoga pants), then pick a top that works with it. There are a few deviations, like if I have a church meeting or a client meeting or something else, but I pretty much fish it out of the closet when I get up in the morning.
When I worked, however, I got a week’s worth of outfits figured out on Sunday and hung them, in order, in the closet. Usually based on the extended weather forecast.
December 16th, 2009 at 7:01 am
Gosh, I’ve never really had that… at school we always wore a uniform (actually, when I started primary school it wasn’t obligatory but I chose t wear one because when you’re a kid it seems cool and from about the age of 8 it became the norm). When I went to uni I started having to think about what I wore and it *could* take me a while to figure that one out and I adored scouring the charity shops for classy second hand clothes (being a poor student and all and not being able to afford the normal shops). Then I started my working life… I only worked at the opticians for 6 weeks, not long enough to get a uniform but also not long enough to get more than 3 “smart” outfits. Then I worked in a nursery, with a uniform. Then I started work at the uni and also dating Tim… that’s when I started to really pay attention to what I wore! But, unfortunately, I lost a lot of weight at that time and so most of my clothes no longer fit properly and I was left with only a few choices of good outfits so again my task was made easier. And then I moved to Cambridge and worked in another nursery with a uniform. And now I work in the tourist office with yet another uniform. So, you see, although I get to choose my clothes for days off and holidays, I very often just have to get up and put my work clothes on, banishing the need to choose my outfit, so I guess I’ll have spent far less than the 51 days the average person takes… then again, because it is so rare I get to wear what I want, it can take me an awful long time to choose an outfit when going somewhere nice… (oh, and I have no routine, I’m a “argh, I’ve got to go out in half an hour and haven’t got anything to wear” kinda-gal, scurrying around trying to desperately find something that fits, because let’s be fair, my best clothes do no see much daylight, so when I get them out the wardrobe they often don’t look like I remember them!)
December 16th, 2009 at 7:13 am
I can’t pick the night before…what if the weather doesn’t cooperate? What if I have a fat day? etc. I think about it while I’m in the shower in the morning. I never ever iron so that’s not a problem …I’m a sweater/turtleneck/vest/dress girl in the winter and a dress/skirt girl in the summer. I put on lip gloss in the car on the way to daycare. The end.
December 16th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
I should do this. As it stands, I iron all of my clothes that were laundered over the weekend on Sunday evening. At least that way, once I DO decide what to wear, it will be ironed already. However, I have to admit that I spend an embarrassing amount of time just standing in my closet trying to decide what to wear. This time of year is worse–I just want to be warm, and most of my warm clothes just aren’t that cute. I think–no, I KNOW–I need more winter dresses…nothing is as easy as a dress and cute stockings. Maybe during the holidays, I’ll score some at deep discounts.
December 16th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
I rarely choose my outfits the night before but I am not especially stylish. I tend to just throw something on and hope it looks alright at 5:30 every morning before work. I don’t give myself enough time to change clothes so if I don’t like the first thing I’ve put on, I can only maybe change my mind once. It works well enough though. Also- I never iron anything. I would probably blame my train ride to work on my clothes getting wrinkled. hehe.
December 16th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
When I was in High School, I was so preoccupied with what I was going to wear, I would set out a time every Sunday night to plan out my outfits for the ENTIRE week. I even had a wardrobe notebook that I would write what I was wearing for that week in it, then refer to it every night to lay out my clothes for the next day. I know! I was ridiculous! Nowadays I only plan what I’m wearing when I’m teaching because I have to look nice and professional… otherwise, it’s just whatever I see first.
December 17th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
The best thing about severe underemployment is that the stress of “what to wear?” is drastically reduced. Especially in the winter, when no one at school drop off will see under my coat.
Unless my favorite sweatshirt gets spilled on, I might well wear it 3 or 4 days in a row. (With a clean shirt underneath, alternating favorite comfy jeans and favorite comfy cords.)
I only get “dressed” if I have a meeting.
However, in the holiday spirit, I have been busting out the Christmas socks.
December 17th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
I usually get an idea of what I want to wear the night before, after checking the weather and assessing whether I’m going to have a fat day or not. I also get up an hour before the husband, so I try to have everything organized in the walk in closet in the bathroom, because trying to find socks and unmentionables in a drawer in a dark room without making noise? Darn near impossible.