Saving Special Outfits for the Ordinary Days

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Saving Special Outfits for the Ordinary Days | Duluth Moms Blog

I am in the process of trying to rewire my brain when it comes to my belongings. A lazy, slow path via Marie Kondo. I’ve been trying to buy with more intention and less for volume, especially with kids and all their stuff. I feel like I’m drowning in it!

One afternoon, when I was ignoring the laundry pile, I saw an interesting opinion on Instagram. The gist of it was “Don’t save the special outfits for tomorrow.” (Disclaimer, she didn’t mean wedding dresses or other Very Special, Intentional Event Clothing)

Interesting. I always have a small stack of nicer quality, special outfits for everyone. But the kids grow so fast, sometimes they don’t even wear them. What holds us back? I do believe there’s something fun in the special outings and outfits, but babies don’t keep, and neither do their clothes. Would I rather have a memory of them wearing special outfits all their rollie-pollie goodness, or just another pile to move around and get rid of? Well, the answer seemed pretty obvious to me when I thought about it that way.

But then, this story teller on Insta did something I hadn’t ever considered: she included us mamas, too. Don’t save your nice clothes for JUST special outings. Sure, maybe you have date night clothes and important meeting clothes, but if you have something you love that’s “too dressy” for every day, but you really want to wear it? WHO CARES. Wear it! You’ll likely feel amazing, and no ones who thinks differently actually matters. Well, their opinion doesn’t. They might even envy your confidence.

Truthfully, what good does it do to have a closet brimming full of clothes? Nothing. Wear them or pare down. But maybe try dressing by mood, and see where it leads you! I know I am feeling all sorts of permission to do this with my kids. I now find myself pulling out the fancier dresses and bows, and the so-cute bow ties for the baby. Of course, I still have a pile of new clothes to donate because I thought the baby would fit into them by Easter. Instead, he outgrew everything before the holiday so I never put him in his special outfits. I feel a little bit of a shame about it, but I also have great places for these clothes to go, so I’m not facing complete wastefulness. 

Saving Special Outfits for the Ordinary Days | Duluth Moms Blog

So the next time you feel like the yoga pants need to go in the wash, sift through your closet and pick something because you love it, and not because it fits the idea of what think you should be wearing. And if it’s second pair of yoga pants that you put on, hopefully it’s because it makes you happy. Or because they are clean. But not because you don’t deserve to feel confident. 

I know tomorrow I’ll see if I can convince the toddler to wear something before she outgrows it (we are in a current phase of not wanting to wear weather-appropriate clothing. Threenagers are fun!) But the baby can’t decide yet, so he will be wearing allllll the ridiculously cute baby plaid he owns. I won’t save it for later. I will literally save it for tomorrow. I’ll gift myself that three minutes of cute before someone spits up or rubs peanut butter all over our picture perfect outfits.