As I try to dress better for my new job, there has been much closet overhauling (and discovery of a new principle: Buy your new, pretty clothes first. Then box up the stuff for Goodwill. More on this below). But one of my closet issues is definitely morning disorganization.
Behold the Design-it-Yourself Week Planner! Mine now has daily temps and appointments I’ll forget when I’m standing there groggy.
Customize to your own style
Buy ANY frame you like. Write whatever you want, or nothing, on a white piece of paper (I just used the back of the fake-happy-family that came with the frame). Buy a “chalk ink” or dry-erase pen for writing on glass. Et voila!
Planning my clothes a day ahead should be easy, and subconsciously it’s a better start for the day. A little motivation to get out of bed and put on something you like… or at least it removes one subconscious barrier to getting out of bed. (I hate getting out of bed, you can tell.) But yeah, I don’t quite manage that level of planning. At least this way, I know if I’m supposed to be someplace!
My frame was $8 (and then another 25% off). The “chalk ink” pen was literally more expensive than making the whole board — I splurged on a favorite color: “green tea.” (You maybe knew, but I just learned, that this is how the smoothie and ice cream and coffee places draw up those colorful Daily Special boards. I hail from the era of actual chalk.)
Display rack for clip earrings
In case you happen to not have pierced ears, like me, you might also like to see the frame-hack I’m working on to hang next to the weekly planner: Take a $4 frame and a 1/8-inch wooden dowel (which costs pennies at a craft store) and you got yourself the makings of a clip earring rack. This is something I’ve been wanting, because I buy pretty earrings and then forget they’re in the drawer. So I thought I’d display some in the closet and maybe actually, y’know, wear ‘em.
“Buy the Good Stuff First”
Here’s the explanation I promised of my new closet principle. Many of us, I think, operate on the “Veggies first, dessert second” principle, and when applied to closet organization, that means we force ourselves to box up stuff and relegate it to Goodwill or the attic before we allow ourselves to go buy nice new stuff. Gotta make room for it first, right?
So here’s where this doesn’t help us when it comes to closets: Having the new stuff hanging next to the old stuff will make it easier to toss the clothes you really should toss. If you sort your closet first, you will see, let’s say, eight items: Two you hate, two that fit but you don’t like wearing them, three that are good enough, and one you really love. What do you box up? Maybe the two you hate. Because you need those ones that fit, right? For days when you’re out of laundry?
Now let’s do the same thing except first we go buy two things we actually like. Now you walk in the closet and see: Two new things you like, one thing you love, three things that are OK, two things you hate and two things you don’t like wearing. Did you box up four items for Goodwill this time? ‘Cause I sure did.
And now, when you step into your closet in the morning, you see: Two new items that you like, three that are good enough, and one you really love. Better, no?
Now: back up to the Week Planner.
— which has been one of the only constants in the various (mostly really ugly) versions of Sues-news.com. Luckily the Wayback Machine didn’t store any earlier images of the site — I was going to post some here so y’all could cringe.
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