Make Getting Dressed easy with these tips
I'm not a morning person
Looking and feeling great in our outfits sounds like a great idea until the alarm goes off, when hitting the snooze button sounds like a better idea. A few smacks to the clock later, and we are left with just enough time to throw on one of our usual (but not necessarily favorite) outfits as we scurry and dash to get out the door.
Let’s be honest, 6 a.m. is not the time to make decisions. I’m not quite awake, but the kids are DEFINITELY awake…and hungry. Everyone in the household needs to be showered, fed, dressed, and shuffled off to their various locations: school, work, sports. There are so many decisions to make, and I’m not ready to make them when my eyes are still half-closed.
As a plan-ahead kind of girl, I relieve that kind of stress by planning and making choices ahead of time. Whether it’s menu planning, calendaring our lives a year at a time, or outfit planning, I try to have a plan in place BEFORE the moment arrives. It saves me so much time and stress.
This article and the video below are taken from the Stunning Style Weekly Style Snack! Join us Wednesdays at 1pm ET on the Stunning Style Facebook page or the FREE Capsule Wardrobes for Classic Style Facebook Group.
Have a routine
My husband says my routines are sexy…now that he sees the benefits of them. Structure, order, and routine make me efficient, and they are most important to me at times like this because I don’t want to stop and think, “What’s next?” Honestly, I don’t want to stop or think about anything that early. Each morning, I do everything in the same order so I can do it without thinking at all; I go through the movements seamlessly.
Because, let’s be honest, first thing in the morning, I need all the mental space I can get.
Shower the night before
If I say I’m going to take a quick shower, I’m lying. I mean it in the moment, my intentions are pure, but once I get in that hot water, time loses all meaning, and my motivation to be fast melts away with the stream of hot water pouring down over me. I love luxuriating in the hot water, taking my time, enjoying the water and the quiet, and I can’t do that in the morning. Well, I could if I got up extra early, but I won’t do that either.
Showering at night is a great way to decompress and wash away the day. I like to imagine all the stress going down the drain with the shampoo. When I had a gaggle of toddlers/infants (I had triplets + 2 more in 3 years), it was often the only moment of solitude in my entire day. At night, I can take my time and enjoy my shower, and when I wake up, the first thing I do is put on my clothes. Within two minutes I’m ready from the neck down.
Organize so things are easy to grab
Digging through drawers, hunting for this or that takes time and brain power, neither of which are abundant in the early a.m. hours. Keeping things handy in one spot makes getting ready efficient.
I have a basket that I keep in my bathroom drawer that has everything I use to get ready for the day. It’s easy to pull out and put away, which saves so much time. Clearing my bathroom counter is a breeze! I have another basket with stuff I use occasionally, but this is my everyday basket of items I use most often.
Plan Your Outfits
Have you ever stood in your closet and just stared at the racks and wondered what on earth to wear? What day is it? Where am I going? You start to get dressed and realize the top you were going to wear is actually dirty. Ugh. Plan B (but you didn’t actually have a plan A). Plan B is…what was plan B again? After trying on more outfits than you have time for, you settle for the thing you don’t hate as much because you’ve got to go!
Do you enjoy that scenario? Me neither. I did it for YEARS, and it was so stressful. Invariably I ended up wearing something I didn’t like, that didn’t suit the day or the weather, and rushed out the door not liking how I looked, with a pile of discarded clothes waiting for me to clean up…later.
Instead of that painful daily ritual, planning your outfits the night or the week before relieves that stress. On Sunday look at your calendar for the week and see what is coming up and check the weather. Once you know how your week looks, plan your outfits for the next seven days.
Pull each outfit together, hang them together and put that at the front of your closet in the order you plan to wear them. If doing it a whole week at a time is too much, you can even do this the night before.
Regardless of how you choose to do it, getting up and being able to put your clothes on without thinking is positively luxurious. It becomes part of that automated routine that requires no thought at a time of day when thinking is a little slow, and it eliminates all that stress.
Because you pulled the items out in advance, you know they’re clean and ready to put on, you have time to give it a little more thought to your outfits and accessories, and you won’t leave the house wearing one black and one navy shoe (I can’t be the only one who has done that…)
One of the member-favorite perks of the Stunning Style Society is the monthly wardrobe calendars. Not only do they get the Classic Wardrobe Guide with a curated wardrobe of 30+ pieces, an online shopping portal to buy anything they need, and 100 outfit templates to make putting together outfits effortless, they also don’t have to choose their outfit each day because I’ve done it for them.
Short of having a lady’s maid to dress you like a toddler, it doesn’t get any easier than this! The doors to join the Society are open for one week only, and when you become a member you get instant access to the Spring Classic Wardrobe Guide, the outfit calendars, and so much more!
AND Mr. Stunning surprised me and all the members with an amazing new feature! The members have been asking for something like this and he finally figured out how to make it happen.
You can now see each of the outfits in the members portal of the website and now they can:
- Click on the outfit and see it larger
- Sort by item
- Sort by multiple items
- Sort by month
- Save outfits to favorites
- Helps substitute items better
- Works great on mobile device too
Here’s what some of our members are saying as they discovered the surprise this morning!
“This is great! I can judge at a glance if a piece or color I’m considering as a sub will work with the existing outfits. Thanks!!”
“This is worth the price of admission! Stunning, Mr. Stunning!!!”
“Oh My God! That new feature is the bomb! For a person to be able to sort for pieces they don’t own will be priceless. They will easily be able to see what they can use as a sub for the entire season! And to be able to sort using multiples!”
We are constantly looking at how we can improve the Stunning Style Society experience for members, and I’m so excited about this one! I asked Mr. Stunning how he can possibly top this and he said, “I’ve got some ideas.”
5 thoughts on “How To Make Getting Dressed Quick And Painless”
Great post, April, thanks! I don’t have my beauty products as organized as you do but for years at the beginning of each season, I would make a list of potential outfits that I could use in the wee hours in the morning to help me pick an outfit without having to remember what is clean and ready to go! I mark each with the emoji of the week so I know what has been worn when and it’s easy to spot my favorite outfits! The lists are on my tablet so are easy to re-use the next season. Thank you for all the great advice & fashion insights; I’ve learned a lot!
These ideas are really helpful!
I would love to be able to take my shower at night, but I have fine, thin hair and have to wash and style my hair each morning.I cannot wash it the night before and sleep on it. A disaster! Any suggestions?
Sorry, I just saw this! I have the same problem. One thing I do on hair washing day is wash and sleep on it wet, then in the morning I rewet it and dry it.
Black socks with navy pants! Ugh. It was dark