Life gets busy. Does your wardrobe support that busyness? Check out these 7 time-saving style tips from Ginger Burr, founder of Total Image Consultants!
Does this sound like a typical morning experience for you? From the moment you put your feet on the floor you’re pulled in a million directions. Getting children or pets settled, making sure everyone is ready for their day, getting breakfast ready and perhaps even mediating any sibling squabbles for starters.
Phew! It feels like a full day has passed by 8 am!
After all that, you need to think about getting dressed, but you’re probably out of time so you race to grab the nearest thing and get on with your day!
Now what?
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You’re dressed and can go about your day, but do you feel great (inside and out) in what you’re wearing? Or have you given up and are just happy you are dressed at all!
I’m sure you’d agree that you have pressing things to deal with in your day. The last thing you want is even just a tiny thought niggling at the back of your mind questioning what you’re wearing. When you feel good in your clothes, it becomes a non-issue and you can put your entire focus on all the things that are more important.
If you’re nodding your head, yes, but you realize you have no idea how to get dressed quickly and love the result, then let’s look at how we can speed things up for you.
1. Wear Mostly Solid Colors
While prints are fun, they don’t have the ease and versatility that solid colors do. It’s so much easier to combine two solid colors than it is to mix and match with prints. That said, you also want to be sure you don’t overdo it with your color options. Having too many colors or ones that don’t play well together will make you crazy when you try to put together an outfit. Stick to solid colors you love and feel great wearing. Colors that don’t play well together will make you crazy when you try to put together an outfit. Stick to solid colors you love and feel great wearing.
That goes for your neutral colors, too. You don’t need every neutral under the sun in your closet. Having two or three will make it really easy whether it’s black and white or navy and cream or brown and camel and any combination mixed with denim. It eliminates decision fatigue and makes putting together wearable outfits so much easier!
2. Build on the Classics
Seasonal trends are great, and there’s no reason you can’t have some in your wardrobe. But classics are more likely to do two things to make getting dressed easier:
a. Stand the test of time.
b. Mix well with other items in your wardrobe.
Perhaps your go-to is jeans and a top or maybe dresses feel easy. Maybe you feel confident throwing a denim jacket over almost anything or you rock jeans with a blazer. Your preference might be for a cute t-shirt with joggers. You get to choose, but be sure to keep tip #1 in mind so you don’t feel overwhelmed by too many color choices. The bottom line is that simple clothing in beautiful colors with good fit can take you almost anywhere!
3. Create Your Daily Uniform
This one takes a little extra forethought, but the result will serve you over and over and save you lots of time. The good news is that I recently posted an article on the Peaceful Living Wellness website to walk you through how to create your daily uniform!
4. Get Rid of Clothes You Don’t Love
One of the biggest impediments to being able to get dressed with grace and ease is clutter! Too many clothes, especially when there’s a good percentage that you do not wear, amount to clutter. It’s very easy to accumulate clothing over time. While not the most glamorous pastime, it’s important to periodically clear out things that you no longer wear. Otherwise, your closet becomes a refuge for every item you’ve every purchased, whether you’ve worn it once or hundreds of times, and it invokes a feeling of overwhelm every time you open your closet.
There’s a terrific article here on the Peaceful Living Wellness site called, ‘You Create Clutter by Not Making Decisions.’ Conny shares that “Not making a decision is making a decision,” and that “Unmade decisions are weighing on us, making us feel heavy, they can feel like a big boulder to push through the day.”
This is exactly what happens when you keep things in your closet that don’t fit, aren’t comfortable, or don’t make sense with your lifestyle. When you clear those things out, and Conny gives you 3 important steps to take to help you do this, you’ll have a clearer sense of what you have and want to wear and your experience of getting dressed has more ease.
5. Organize Your Closet (It’s easier than you think)
Now that you’ve at least made a dent in any clutter in your closet, the next step is to organize it. Obviously, it’s easier if you have a large closet. But I’ve lived in old homes with small closets for years and it’s still doable. And, organizing is something you can do a little at a time each time you get dressed. Commit to taking one or two of the steps below towards organizing your closet every day and in a short amount of time, you’ll be delighted with the difference.
How do you organize what’s in there? Use these 4 steps:
4 Steps to Organize Your Closet
a. Keep only clothes that are in season in your closet. Everything else goes at the back of your closet or in another closet altogether.
b. Hang your clothes by type and color. For instance, hang all sleeveless tops together and within that section, organize them by color so all the red is together, blue is together, etc.
c. Keep everything visible. If your clothes are scattered between hanging space, shelves and drawers you’ll still feel overwhelmed when you look for something. If it’s out of sight, it’s often out of mind. Hang as much as possible and then store what you don’t hang either on a shelf or in a drawer so they are easy to locate. I encourage you to keep like items together. For example, all your workout tops in a drawer or all your sweaters on a shelf. If they are scattered in too many places, you’ll spend too much time looking for something or you’ll simply forget about some of it.
d. Stay on top of extras. A button falls off or you notice a spot on a top you were wearing. If you put these items back in your closet thinking you’ll take care of it later, guess what happens? You grab one of those items the next time you get dressed and, ugh, you realize you never fixed the problem! Now you have to find something else to wear in a hurry. Keep those items that need a little extra TLC separate until you make the necessary changes.
6. Have an Easy Hairstyle
I know this isn’t about clothing, but, for some of us, managing our hair can feel cumbersome. If you’re short on time, work with your hairstylist to create a haircut that you can easily handle at home on your own. Whether it’s being able to pull it back in a pretty ponytail or keep your hair short so maintenance is at a minimum or whatever your hair needs and your time constraints can handle.
Not everyone can have a wash and wear style. Well, let me rephrase that. Everyone can wash their hair and let it dry, but then the question is…are you happy with the way it looks that way. I wish my hair were ‘wash and go,’ but even with all the fancy products available these days, without a little intervention, my hair just turns to frizz. It’s part of the reason I keep the style I have – much shorter in the back – because maintaining it is easier this way and I’m generally happy with the outcome.
7. Create a Signature Accessory Style
When you get dressed do you lose momentum when it comes to adding accessories like jewelry or a scarf? I know that accessories are often easy to skip when you’re in a rush. But accessories are also the easiest way to add a little personality and spark to an otherwise simple outfit.
I’m not talking about anything over the top or fussy. I’m referring to adding a fun pair of earrings or a lovely scarf tied simply around your neck. But if just the thought of this makes your eyes glaze over or you think about endless collection of boxes of jewelry in your jewelry organizer, it’s understandable that this step is overlooked.
The key is finding a ‘signature’ accessory style. This is something that will go with a lot of outfits so you don’t always have to wear a different accessory. Maybe it’s a simple silver pendant. Maybe it’s a pair of slightly dangly gold earrings that sparkle when the light hits them. When you wear simple but beautiful accessories it will add uniqueness and interest to an outfit while also making it easy to get dressed.
Chances are good that you are already doing some of the steps above. But even if you aren’t, simply choose one place to start. With each step you add, you’ll get closer to your goal: getting dressed quickly and feeling great in what you are wearing!
GINGER BURR
I’m Ginger Burr, founder of Total Image Consultants (www.totalimageconsultants.com), with a passion for empowering women to feel amazing about how they look! After more than 30 years of working with women and experiencing my own transformation prior to that (read more about this on my website (with pictures!), I’m well-acquainted both with the frustration that accompanies having a wardrobe you don’t love and the delight that comes with recognizing and embracing your own personal style.
If every morning you think, “I hope people will forget what I’m wearing,” it’s time for a change. In the beginning I couldn’t do it alone and you do not have to either. As one client said to me, “I’m tired of expending mental energy trying to figure out what to wear. It’s exhausting.” I can help you redirect that energy to create a wardrobe that makes your heart sing.
It’s a different journey for each person. That’s why I have many ways of supporting you from my book, ‘That’s So You! Create a Look You Love with Beauty, Style & Grace’ to my signature live online class, ‘Create Your Personal Style in 6 Weeks’ to working privately one-on-one with me. In each case, the basic elements are the same and you learn to dress with confidence without shedding pounds, sacrificing comfort or compromising who you are.
I am a graduate of Mount Holyoke College and a speaker and leader in the field of fashion and style. My experience and understanding of beauty trends and fashion has been celebrated by Allure Magazine, Fox TV News, The Boston Globe, MORE Magazine.com, cnn.com, Bloomberg Business Week, Forbes Magazine, and Worth Magazine and I have presented corporate seminars for some of the world’s most prestigious organizations including Harvard Business School, the U.S. Army and Unilever.
Above all, I have a heartfelt belief that whether you are 25 or 85, you deserve to feel radiant and pulled-together every time you get dressed. No matter where you live, what your lifestyle is like or how old you are, I delight in working with women who long to connect with their inner essence to create a wardrobe they love.
