A Balanced Wardrobe For Your Lifestyle

Now that you’ve started wearing your spring clothes, you may be noticing that your wardrobe is out of balance for your lifestyle. You might have a closet full of dress clothes, while you spend most of your time at the park. I’ve noticed this with my own wardrobe, that I’ve got some clothes I’ve been wearing over and over, and some clothes that hardly ever get worn. Basically, I’m realizing that my spring wardrobe is a little out of balance. But, that’s ok. It’s still early in the season, so we’ve got time to take a look at our closets and make some adjustments to keep us going all summer with lots of options for our busy lives.

Before we spend another dime on shopping, it would be a good idea to stop and make a plan. That’s what we’re going to work on here. I’ve got seven steps to analyze our lifestyles and wardrobes to make sure they’re in balance.

7 STEPS TO A BALANCED WARDROBE

1) Write out your activities for this season. The following are some examples:

• Work
• Church
• Shopping and errands
• Weekend outings
• Date nights
• Business dinners
• Exercise and outdoor activities
• Relaxing at home
• Weddings
• Reunions
• Vacations

2)  For each activity, write what types of outfits you would need for each. The following are examples:

• Work – Dressy
• Church – Dressy
• Shopping and errands – Nice casual
• Weekend outings – Nice casual
• Date nights –  Dressy and Nice casual
• Business dinners – Dressy
• Exercise and outdoor activities – Very casual
• Relaxing at home – Very casual
• Weddings – Special occassion
• Reunions – Special occassion
• Vacations – Nice casual

3)  Divide your closet into sections for each category. For example:

• Special occasion section – Weddings, reunions
• Dressy section – Work, church, business dinners, date nights
• Nice casual section – Shopping, errands, weekend outings, date nights, vacation
• Very casual section – Exercise and outdoor activities, relaxing at home, cleaning and yard work

4)  Within each section, separate as follows:

• Tops
• Pants
• Skirts
• Dresses
• Cardigans and jackets for layering

5)  Make sure everything you have in each section is:

• In good condition
• Currently in style
• Flattering for your body type
• Flattering color
• Useful for your current lifestyle

6)  Make sure you have complete outfits for all your activities.

• Read here for my spring wardrobe planning system.
• Brainstorm what styles of tops and bottoms you’d like to have for each activity.
• Research and plan at least a few complete outfits for each of your activities. This will help you to see if you need to add some things to your shopping list.

7) Estimate what percentage of your time is spent in each category. For example:

• Special occassion = 5%
• Dressy  = 15%
• Nice casual = 50%
• Very casual = 30%

Now, what if you’ve done these seven steps and see that your wardrobe is way off from your real lifestyle? Don’t give up and feel like you have to throw everything out and start over. Start with what you have. From there, you’ve got three options for getting your wardrobe in balance with your lifestyle:

1. Add needed items to your shopping list and gradually build up your wardrobe.
2. Dress down your current items with more basic pieces.
3. Dress up current items with dressier pieces, accessories, or layering items.

The point of these seven steps is to make sure that your wardrobe is balanced for your real lifestyle. Even if your lifestyle is pretty casual in the spring and summer, but you would love to dress up every day, you’re wasting time and money on a wardrobe that doesn’t really work for you. But you can be realistic and still have clothes that you feel good in. For example, if your lifestyle requires mostly nice casual clothes, you can still wear really nice casual clothes, if you prefer. If you spend most of your time at home but love wearing dresses, buy a couple cute casual knit dresses to wear around the house with some trendy jewelry. 

Whatever your lifestyle requires, there’s lots of options to keep you happy and looking good all summer long. So, enjoy and make the most of it! 

For my complete system for planning and organizing your wardrobe, click here.

Till next time, have a wonderful day!