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7 Inspiring Ways To Get Dressed When You Don’t Know What To Wear

7 Inspiring Ways To Get Dressed When You Don’t Know What To Wear

graphic image: 7 solutions for when you don't know what to wearGetting Dressed When Times are Tough

Raise your hand if you’ve ever struggled to get dressed because of your busy life, stress, illness, or just feeling uninspired?

The good news is that it’s very normal! When our minds aren’t clear (or even distracted) it can be hard to focus on something we enjoy, like getting dressed.

This post is very near and dear to me as I’ve dealt with a chronic illness for the last 13 years (that finally got diagnosed last month!) and for the last few years, brain fog has been one of my most debilitating symptoms.

Brain fog is essentially a lack of thinking clearly. My cognitive abilities drastically declined, my long and short term memory were shot, I was experiencing complete lapses in memory, and trying to focus on a task was pretty much impossible.

Suffice to say.. getting dressed was DIFFICULT!

Thankfully I’m a creative person with a love for organization and problem solving. In the past, I’d come up with shortcuts for getting dressed and utilized them to help me put together outfits faster.

I took a lot of those tips and re-worked them to apply them to my current situation. Getting dressed up has become manageable again!

I’m so happy to share what works for me and I hope that this post can help even one person who might be struggling. Just take it easy on yourself, go slow, and have fun!

Use Pinterest or Mood boards for Outfit Inspiration

Your first step when you’re feeling overwhelmed is to get some outfit inspiration.

I love browsing Pinterest but am also old school and cut up images from magazines and create my own collages.

We each process information differently so do what feels comfortable for you and your abilities!

notebooks with collages from fashion magazines on a pink background

Simplify Your Wardrobe & Edit Your Closet

I’ve always considered myself a style chameleon but as I’m entering my 30’s, I feel ready to settle down. Maybe it’s partly being pushed by my illness or I’m finally establishing my forever style, but I’m embracing it either way!

For this tip, I’d encourage you to weed through your closet and take out anything that doesn’t speak to you anymore. This could be a one day event or something you slowly tackle over the course of a few months.

Then start filling in your closet with pieces that can mix and match with what’s left! What takes shape is a closet full of no-fail pieces that make getting dressed a breeze.

I’m currently taking a capsule wardrobe approach but with a maximalist twist. I’m allowing myself to have as many pieces as I want, as long as they play nicely with what I already have. I’m shopping with a particular color story in mind and spoiler alert it’s a rainbow. Some people like neutrals (black, white, beige, etc) but that’s not just me. You do you though!

Get Fashion Advice From Others

You’re already completing this tip just by reading my blog! Be open to learning from others and absorbing their knowledge.

After getting countless ideas from reading fashion books and scrolling through stylish Instagram accounts, I gathered up the fundamentals of each outfit and compiled them as a list into a simple graphic that can either live on your phone or get printed out and hung in your closet. (Like mine!)

papers with charts and outlines of how to get dressed

Have a Go-To Look (or a few!)

Getting dressed should make you feel good, not freak out. On bad days, don’t try to force an outfit to happen. It’s a good idea to have a look on stand-by, something that takes no thought at all but will give you the confidence you need to rule the day.

This could be as simple as leggings and a tunic, or jeans with a graphic tee.

Carry a Notebook for Outfit Ideas

If life is tough, I always encourage journaling and writing your feelings down. But a notebook is none more important than when you’re having issues with your memory or retaining information!

I like to stash notebooks all over (my purse, my computer, my bedside) and write down or doodle outfit ideas. They seem to hit at random so it helps to be able to capture them quickly with a pen and paper.

This absolutely will work if you have a favorite note app on your phone or tablet!

stock image of fashion book, eyeglasses, lipstick, camera lens, and a winter hat

Create Your Own Systems

This is kind of embarrassing to admit but part of my **struggling to compute information** included the weather. I would look out the window or analyze the temperature and not know what direction to take my outfit in.

What layers do I need? What shoes are appropriate? Do I need a hat?!

It’s like I knew the answer but I couldn’t do anything with the information.

To combat this, I sketched out a simple outline of what pieces were appropriate for each type of weather. Then I would reference that whenever I felt stuck.

It seems so basic but it’s honestly really important to have around on bad days! Don’t be afraid of creating your own systems to help you out. Visualization is the key to combatting fuzzy thinking!

Go Get Dressed!

I know this was a lot to take in! You definitely don’t need to do everything on this list, but maybe one or two ideas can apply to whatever situation you’re currently in. What tip did you find most helpful? What would you add to the list?

If you found value in this post, please be sure to Pin it, share it, or bookmark it for later.

bold fashion quote image: get dressed, even when you're stressed


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