HOW TO ALWAYS HAVE WHAT TO WEAR

A lot of us have a wardrobe full of clothes, yet we don’t always have what to wear. For this reason, we shop till we drop and still, we end up not having what to wear, again. To beat the I don’t have what to wear blues all the time, here are a few things to do:

1, STOP buying anything.

This makes things worse because you add on these new piles to the pile you can’t figure out how to wear/style

2, It is time to PURGE.

Purging means to get rid of unwanted feeling, memory or condition. If you have ever been constipated, you take laxatives to remove all impurities from your body. When it comes to your wardrobe/closet, there comes a time when you need to purge too. Then, it is time to remove all clutter, unwanted stuff / clothes you do not need any more from your wardrobe. This leaves room for what you truly need in your closet /wardrobe.

Here’s how to do it: if you don’t need it, get rid of it. If you haven’t worn it for years, get rid of it. If you are keeping it for just keeping sake, get rid of it. It is time to let go.

Someone somewhere need those clothes. Give them to a charity of choice or to a younger sibling or to your domestic staff or to that mentee or sell them.

3, It is time to REARRANGE your closet

Portion your closet into 3 groups: Work (formal or semi-formal), Play (casuals) and Occasions (going out clothes).

Start dropping things you think you can wear to the above mentioned in their groups.
For example, drop your best jeans in the casual group, drop your best pencil skirt in the formal group and drop your best dress in the occasion group.
Continue building on your closet like that till you are happy with what you have.

4, Make a list of what you NEED, not want

A need is something you would use. Let’s call your needs important and urgent. A want is something you want because you want it. Let’s call your wants important or okay to have but not urgent.

For example, if you work in the corporate world, a blazer is important and urgent to be able to dress professionally.

So, draw a budget / make a list. For example,

1, a little black dress (LBD) @ $40.00

2, a kitten heel pair of shoes in navy @ $49.99

and on and on….

When you finish, cap your list. This means don’t include anything again.

5, It’s SHOPPING Time

Every woman love this bit BUT this is where we fall short. This is why step number 4 above is very important. Stick with your plan. It saves you lots of money.
When you go shopping, go with your list and stick with your budget. Remember having nice stuff/clothes is great but it is more important to not go out of your way to get stuff / clothes. And guess what? You can never save too much money.

6, Learn the Art of MAXIMISING

This is simply the ability to mix and match things in your closet. Learn to mix formal pieces with casual pieces and so on.

“The Rule of 3” or “The Rule of 5”.

It is the ability to effectively maximise your closet. It is simply the art of maximising or mixing and matching pieces in your closet to enable your wear what you have without having to buy new things.

Let’s check this out the Almighty Jeans!

Jeans is considered “casual” in a closet/wardrobe. So, when you think of taking junior to the park or go on a walk with Johnny in the park, you wear jeans right? If you work in an organisation where you can dress down, you can also wear those jeans and if you work in an organisation where you are allowed casual Fridays, you can also wear those jeans too. Right?

You may or may not have noticed in the last paragraph BUT I have mentioned 3 places or 3 how’s to wear jeans. From the options above, you can wear jeans:

1, For play (taking your child to the park) or for running errands or for a walk in the park with Johnny or Ruth.

2, For Dress down kind of work or Casual Fridays

Other Ways or Places You Can Wear Jeans to:

3, For a Date Night with Bae; you can pair your jeans with a gorgeous top/blouse and a structured and well cut blazer. Finish your look with fancy heels, it would work fine.

4, You can also wear jeans to college, lectures or presentation if you are in an image business like myself.

5, You can also wear jeans at home, meet up with friends, to shopping or to the market, on a laid-back day or on a day when you don’t want to bother too much.

From the above description, I have covered the Rule of 3 or the Rule of 5 if you like. You can apply the same rule to your favourite dresses, skirts and all things in your closet so you can shop less and wear more.

7, Don’t CLUTTER again

This is not the end. Now that you have a wardrobe you think you like and you have an idea on maximizing, don’t clutter or scatter it again. Don’t buy what you don’t need and always let go of what you don’t need. This makes a lot of difference in your spending pattern, sanity and your looks. A Psychology research shows that; a cluttered free space helps us to maximize our space and be productive.

You do not have to buy more to wear more. You only need to wear what you have the right way. Have fun shopping from your own closet and wearing what you have in there.

I wrote this blog originally for Smart Stewards. It was published in their maiden edition of the Smart Steward Magazine. There were so many other topics covered in the magazine. Please see list below:

18 things you should do before 2018  |  The Next Big Thing |  Work life balance |  Overcoming Infertility  |   Emergence in the Legal sense |  The Power of Vision Boards  | The Time to Act is now  |  Communication and Trust in Finances in Marriage

If you are in Lagos Nigeria, please contact Sola via the Smart Stewards or on WhatsApp to get yours on 09090175053 for just N1.000

Thank you my friends for reading and for going on this amazing journey with me.

Much Love, Mojisola