mornings

I hate the mad scramble to get ready in the morning.  I'd much rather wake up whenever my body feels like it, laze in bed reading for a while, actually cook breakfast and sit down at the table to eat it.  But my mornings are never like that.  Instead I snooze for too long and then jolt out of bed, rush through my bathroom routine and then stand paralized at my closet trying to decide what to wear.

Did I already wear that yellow top this week?  I can't remember!  Okay, I'll throw on my giraffe print dress because I know I haven't worn it in over a month.  But now I can't remember - do I wear a cami with this dress or do I pin it?  Gah - no time to pin. There's a cream cami on the floor, going with that.  What earrings should I wear?  Necklace or no necklace?  If a necklace, which one?  Can't decide, going without.  Gotta get out of the house.

I am happy to report that my new shoe system is working out nicely.  I have actually been putting my shoes back in their cubby each night and I wore a pair of closed-toe shoes the other day because I knew they were easily accessible in the bin under my bed.  Yay!  So at least finding shoes this morning was easy.

It's political season and the brain cells that I use to get dressed in the morning have been commandeered for use on work subjects.  I wake up and am immediately thinking about the schedule for the day.  It's annoying and frustrating, but a way of life for someone who works with campaigns.

What I've done before is to schedule my outfits.  I'll take inventory of my closet and come up with various outfits, figuring out everything from jewelry to undergarments to shoes.  Then I'll put it all on a calendar and tape it to the inside of my closet.  When I wake up, all I have to do is look at the calendar and pull out the correct items for that day.  It's actually great because otherwise I would just wear a t-shirt and jeans everyday - not exactly a professional look.  And I definitely work better when I'm wearing a professional outfit.  I'm less likely to procrastinate and I find it's easier to stay organized.

I also do this when I travel.  I figure out what types of outfits I'll need, how that works with what I own, if I need to fill any gaps.  Then I'll come up with the outfits - again, jewelry to shoes - and assign them to each day of my trip.  It's great for making a packing list - I do it all in Excel and then can sort and delete the duplicates.  Easiest packing list ever.

I've tried to do this when it isn't crunch-time but it doesn't work.  When I have spare brain cells, I like to use them to figure out my outfits, to be a little creative.  While I work in a creative industry, my actual job is much more Excel spreadsheets, online forms and schedules so my wardrobe and my home are my outlets.  But from Labor Day to Election Day?  I'm all about being uncreative and just powering through.

Think I'm going to spend this weekend taking inventory of my closet...