Prepping outfits is the best...
When I actually remember to pre-plan my outfit for work, it saves me so much time. If I'm unprepared, I will try on one or two outfits and end up choosing something quickly. Hastily choosen an outfits often result in a day of discomfort or feeling frumpy. It's like I'm too tired to make an intelligent decision in the morning. "Why did I wear this today?"

Also when you prep your outfits, you might realize that you actually need to wash a shirt that would look great with certain pants. This results in you doing a much needed load of laundry. The next day you feel grateful that you did, and you feel confident about what you're wearing, resulting in a better day. It's the little things, I swear!

I remember becoming totally frustrated by my little ones' (one three, one four years old - DECADES ago) refusal to wear anything I had picked out, so I sat them down one afternoon and the three of us wrote a note to the (and I translate freely from the Dutch "kleren-klaarleg-kabouters") "clothing-elves" asking them to lend us a helping hand. From then onwards, they woke up to garments and accessories all laid out at the foot of their beds and they never ever protested again.
Because the elves had chosen.

I am a big fan of planning my outfits in advance; it really does save me a tremendous amount of time in the mornings, and prevents me from indulging in my nasty habit of indecisiveness!

If I'm headed to the gym in the wee hours before work I find that laying out my workout outfit is essential and helps motivate me to get out of bed and to the gym!

Every time I plan outfits the night before, I wake up the next morning, look at it and think, "No way am I wearing that today."

*lynn*, the clothing elves idea is genius!

Prepping my outfit the night before saves me TONS of time in the morning. If I don't have my clothes ready it takes me maybe 15 minutes to get dressed, but if they're already set out I somehow end up with an extra half hour. It's magical!

I always lay out whatever I will be wearing the next day, including shoes, accessories, underwear, all of it. I can't imagine standing in front of the closet trying to decide every morning. I even do this for weekends; saves a lot of time and headaches.

Twelve years of wearing a uniform to school spared me from all of this growing up. Very boring, but I never had to think for a moment about what I was going to wear Monday through Friday.

I really need to do this, or rather, have them bagged and ready to go since I go to the gym first thing and change there. I'm just very rarely that "with it".

I have to do this as well. Trying to make a decision while un-caffeinated is impossible for me. The night before, I will make the decision, have time to dig up the right shoes and accessories, check the weather, etc.; but if I wait until morning I will end up wearing a black travel dress, black flats, and a cardigan EVERY SINGLE TIME.

I can't imagine not setting up my outfits the night before; if I didn't, I would probably wind up teaching in my pajamas as I have never been much of a morning person.

I can't think in the morning enough to decide what to wear. Any decision like that I know will be better if made the night before.

I definitely agree with all the previous comments especially when it comes to gym clothes. It's like having my very own cheering section in the morning. "Go to the gym, we're all ready to go, all you have to do is put us on!" Also, making my gym outfit as cute as possible (coordinating colors perhaps) is helpful because you'll never know who you'll meet while getting a sweat on.

haha wow, you guys are so on top of it! i thought for sure that the comments on this post were going to be more of the "yeah right!" variety because I didn't realize anyone did this! I just started setting the coffee maker the night before for the morning, so maybe laying out the clothes is on the horizon :)

Oh gosh, I write down all of my outfits in a list with the day's name next to it, and then just "cycle" through the list. In between seasons is very difficult for me since I have to "change over"/create new outfits. I started doing this about 8 years ago, and now it's a compulsion. Without my list I'd be lost. My husband wants to hide it from me, but then again he wears khakis to work 3-4 times a week. If I didn't use a list, I'd wear the same 3 outfits 80% of the time.

A coworker of mine uses a very simple formula: clean shirts from the cleaners are placed on the right side of his closet, and he picks from the left.

i *have* to do this. i'm not a morning person at all. i get up three hours before i have to be at work - plenty of time to drink two cups of coffee, shower, listen to music, etc... i need *time* in the morning. it takes less than five minutes to pick out an outfit before i go to bed at night, but if i try to do it in the morning, i have a hard time making a decision and end up frustrated. and late.

I've done this for years. By including underwear, tights and accessories, I know if the tights for that outfit are in the wash before I get completely dressed. If your boots need some care, it's good to know the night before instead of as you're ready to walk out the door.

Also, when I taught, I prepped my lesson plans and other materials the night before and loaded them into my bag.

On the other hand, I used to live with a guy who always wore the same outfit: pullover sweater and jeans. I'd tease him every morning. "So what's it going to be? The blue, the gray or the black sweater?" He never had to think about his clothes in advance.

@colibri - You put your tights on last?

This would be helpful on workdays. On the weekend, I always wear jeans, my chuck taylors, and a long sleeve shirt. So no need to prepare.

If I haven't decided what I'm going to wear by the time I wake up, I stay in bed "thinking" about what to wear. I tell myself I'm "visualizing" my closet, which absolutely requires me to shut my eyes again. :)

What if you feel good the night before and then wake up having a fat day?

OK, on the last suggestion in the original post--who has THIRTY outfits, complete with accessories?!

I so badly need to get more organized the night before work. Many days I try on at least three outfits before settling on one that works. That is why I love dresses when the weather is above 40 degrees or so. There are no decisions to make--just pull one on and you have a complete outfit!

I have to prep my clothes the night before as I get up when it's still dark and don't wish to disturb my husband by having to turn on the bedroom lights and fumble around for clothes and shoes to wear. This also helps me if I need to iron anything, which I hate doing generally, but I especially hate doing at six in the morning.

OK, I take it to the extreme :-) I wish I was this compulsive in the rest of my life.

1. I pull images from magazines and put them in a binder as inspiration, as in "hey, I can make that outfit from my closet".
2. I put the images in a binder, sorted by casual/dressy/summer/winter
3. When I come up with an outfit I like, I write it down in the binder, sorted by season "Fall 2009" or "Summer 2008". It's kind of a fun way to remember what your style used to be like without keeping a bunch of old clothes in the closet.
4. The night before, I look at the binder.

Wow, I am so surprised by the amount of commenters who do this. I certainly don't. But I agree with sally305 - dresses are great for their simplicity. I pretty much know that I will either wear a dress with a cardigan and flats, a skirt and top with a cardigan and flats, or jeans and a shirt. When it is cold I add a jacket, scarf, and tights -- but I live in LA, so it's never below 40 or so. I keep accessories to a minimum. I just limit myself to what I know I like wearing. If you get rid of everything that you don't wear frequently, you will not face such indecision.

I totally need clothing elves!!

My BF and I are freelance television camera/sound folks, so when we have really different schedules, I always pick out my work clothes the night before and put them by the heater in the bathroom for the morning. Hearing someone else rummage around at 4:30am in the dark is no fun!

I'm not as compulsive as when I taught middle school. Then, to make sure I rotated my ties and didn't wear the same blue shirt three days out of five, I kept a list of what I wore, on which days of the week, with which jackets and shoes. No one ever accused me of always looking the same!

I iron all of my clothes Sunday night, and mentally make out my wardrobe list for the week. I set out not only what I am going to wear to work, but my exercise clothes, too. When I get home from work I don't start "relaxing" until I have my outfit for the next day ready to roll. This drives my husband nuts, but gives me one less thing to think about in the morning. He on the other hand doesn't think about his wardrobe ahead of time ever.

wow. am i really in the minority here? i don't find choosing an outfit time-consuming.

i grab a clean pair of jeans, then choose whatever shirt strikes my fancy. then i grab whichever blazer matches that shirt. and i wear the same shoes every day. takes about 30 seconds and i don't think i'm poorly dressed.

in general i weed out my closet every few months to make sure that pretty much EVERYTHING matches in some way, so most arbitrary combinations work.

When I was single, I used to make complete outfit combinations on weekends (laundry day), and thus saved myself loads of time on workday mornings (I need time for desicions...). I don't do it now that I'm married and staying at home expecting our second child, but I do it still on weekends for my daughter's outfits.

I always choose my outfits the night before... I started doing this because the hinges for my closet door creak and I didn't want to disturb my sleeping husband, but now it's just a good habit. :)

I plan a week's worth of outfits in my head on Sunday night. I think about what is clean, what I have to do each day, and the weather. A sudden rain storm can shake things a little, but I have a rainy weather outfit that I wear (it gets annoying when we have a week of rain like this past month).

My weekends are the times when I stand and ponder what I want to wear that day and can be spontaneous. Last weekend I had to attend a dance and I didn't choose the clothes until a half hour before I walked out the door.

I've recently started doing this since I have a longer commute to work. Waking up earlier AND trying to figure out what to wear before the sun even rises is way too much to ask! Now if only I can get it together and plan a week's worth of outfits!

I also ALWAYS do this, and now I'm thinking, "yeah, I should TOTALLY plan all my outfits a week in advance."

Hey, those are my 30 outfits on your blog! Sweet!

I'm so bad at planning my clothes the night before, so that's why I set aside one night a quarter to just put together 30 at a time. And usually it ends up lasting me for at least 2 months (which, by Chicago standards, is an entire season.) :)

When I lived in SF, it was easier to put this off since I wasn't forced to change my wardrobe with the seasons. Oh well. You win some, you lose some.

On the kids side of prepping outfits, why not just put together seven outfits and let them choose which outfit for what day? Thats why my mom used to do...she got to make sure I was wearing appropriate clothes when I was little and I still felt like I had a choice.

I used to have to do this when I went to the gym or I had no chance of making it to class on time, and now when I cycle to work I do the same and it feels great not to have to think! When I drive, I don't bother, and I end up standing in front of my wardrobe just pondering and then I run late! I should start doing this everyday, it would make life a lot easier.

*lynn*

That is sweet and adorable. Good for you!

You're way off-topic with that comment, Ladymantle. This isn't about your address book.

I organise my clothes, the contents of my 'work bag(s)' and my lunchbag the night before. It's not that I'm particularly organised, just that I like to enjoy my breakfast without bolting it down and I'm too lazy to get up any earlier than I have to...

Thanks so much for featuring my days of the week tags!!! I'm so excited to see them here:-) Great ideas... I do that for my kid, why not myself?

Thanks for including a pic from my blog :)
It's something I've learned to do as in the morning, I'll try on everything I own and then declare the usual "I have nothing to wear!". This way - I have one less thing to think about in the morning. I also prepare lunch ahead of time and put my work bag by the entryway. Mornings are get-up, get ready and go. I never have extra time in the morning.

Liking the system of molly h - with her getting up three hours before having to be at work. May hve to try that.