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Oh, you don’t have a mom uniform?
I bet you do.
Think about it. If you are working from home full time either as a mother, or a mother with an office at home, you probably have a uniform.
Actually, if you are working outside the home you have one too.
Think about it what is in your closet. Now think about the same seven to ten outfits you probably wear over and over again. Think about all the other clothes which hang in your closet just staring you down every time you walk in there. They say things like, “Why did you even buy me if you aren’t going to wear me.”
Or, “So you think I am no longer comfortable enough for you.”
Then there is the “I know you spent too much money to get rid of me.”
Followed by the sassy, “You can’t even fit in me anymore can you?”
Give your closet an intervention. I don’t care if you KonMari it or what method you use, but quit letting it distract you, mom.
You have too much to do, and you are much too valuable to let the weight of a cluttered closet wear you down. Get rid of them and get you a real mom uniform.
What is a mom uniform? Well, it is a small collection of clothes which fit you well, make you feel better about yourself and most importantly serve the tasks you have to accomplish.
I am sorry but five pairs of yoga pants are not a mom uniform.
Travel down memory lane with me for a moment and remember how you felt as a young girl about how your mother dressed. Maybe your mom was dressed professionally all the time. Maybe your mom wore sweat pants everywhere she went. Maybe your mom sacrificed purchasing anything for herself in order for you to have nicer clothes. (Nobody appreciates the martyr) Maybe your mom hollered out the door as you ran to the bus showing everyone she was still in her robe.
All of these are okay, your mom was probably trying her best, whatever it was. How did her clothing make you feel? How did her clothing make her feel?
My point is not for you to spend a fortune or to worry endlessly about your clothes or how you look. No, my point is exactly the opposite. We do not need a closet full of clothes. We need decently made clothing which fits our bodies and jobs well and they should make us and our family feel good when we look at them.
Not an obsession. A uniform.
A purposeful, easy to grab in the morning, no brainer, uniform.
What does that look like? Well, for you it will be different than me but I will tell you what I have discovered. I always go back to black and white and jeans and comfort. Black and white and jewel tones complement my coloring. In the past couple of years, I have worked to move to a more minimalist closet. For me this means, my pants usually consist of two to three black pants of various styles and a couple of pairs of jeans. In the summer I use black and blue pants. My shirts are white, and black and jewel tones. In the summer I add in navy. This works for me and I can add color through a scarf or jacket if it is cool enough.
One of the things that helped me narrow down to fewer items was watching Jennifer L. Scott of the Daily Connoisseur manage her 10 item wardrobe. I won’t go into great detail here but it became a challenge to see what do I really need. I found I would be running to the laundry room throwing a load in to wash what I really wanted to wear while I still had a closet full of clothes. Why? Because I only really liked a few items. That is when I knew things had to change.
It also helped that I watched this video about women in India who process our used clothing.
While I no longer have little ones under my feet, I can see how having this as a young mom would have been helpful. I believe laundry partially gets out of hand in most homes because we simply have so much clothing we change clothes when we don’t need to and throw gently worn items in the laundry when they don’t need to be laundered. This leads to a waste of detergent and more importantly, water.
Don’t make yourself crazy over trying to get down to 33 pieces or 10 items or whatever but consider what might work better for you. If you buy less, you can often afford to buy better. Don’t overlook the value of a good apron. They have really nice aprons on the market but we sometimes think they are just for bakers or the barbecue. They can protect you from spit-up mom. I use aprons all the time in the kitchen but I also keep a plain white one which can be bleached and have worn it to clean bathrooms and to bathe the dog so my clothes didn’t have to be changed. You could also do the old Mr. Rogers routine of changing when you leave the home and come back but most moms don’t have time for this.
Clothing does not make the person, but it can set a tone. You tend to think like you are dressed. If you put on the old sweatshirt and sweatpants don’t be surprised if you suddenly feel like you should cuddle up on the couch with a good book. There is a time and place for this, but not everyday mom. You deserve to feel better than this and so do your children.
