It’s the time of year I dread. The time for me to transition from the lackadaisical days of summer break in jammies and lounge wear to a somewhat respectable-looking wardrobe of teacher outfits. This is always a struggle for me to jump back into. Therefore, I have created myself a printable wardrobe planner to take the daily what should I wear out of my mornings.
My outfit planner is one that I print and fill in manually. It is not connected to a wardrobe planner online, an outfit generator app like the Stylebook app, or any other type of pick my outfit tech resource. A few years ago, I did use the Stylebook app and it worked pretty well. That is, until I fell out of the habit of updating the photos with the new pieces I bring into my closet on a regular basis. Once I got behind on that, it was hard to keep my outfits fresh in the app.
A few years ago, I created a month-long meal planner that rotates after getting into a dinner rut. I created three of them so I technically have three months worth of meal ideas to use. That is where the idea for this rotating fashion planner came from. Instead of offering meal ideas, it is an outfit generator. We all know I like to plan teacher outfits anyway – as evidenced in my various posts on teacher outfits:
Back-to-School Teacher Outfits
School Spirit Wear Ideas for Teachers
Layering Clothes with Vests
Stripes Outfits
Why Use a Printable Wardrobe Planner?
To Help You Be an Intentional Outfit Creator
Although my printable wardrobe planner is not necessarily intended to be a capsule wardrobe planner, it certainly could be one. It is up to you to determine how many clothing items or how few clothing items you put into your outfit calendar. It is all simply a matter of how many things you actually have and how many times you prefer to rotate pieces within the six-week time frame. Personally, I don’t think I will ever be able to commit to a capsule wardrobe even though I think it would be awesome. Truly, I am a shopaholic. And this is one reason I created my outfit planning worksheet to begin with – so I can actually be intentional about wearing what I already own. Being intentional with a wardrobe planner template such as this one helps show you how to create outfits from your own closet – using the things you have already spent money on. It forces you to sit down and think about what is there and how you can mix things up in fresh ways.
To Get Out of an Outfit Rut
Last year, despite my best efforts, I felt like I was wearing the same clothes everyday. Meanwhile, lots of pieces went completely unused through the fall, winter, spring and summer seasons. With this wardrobe planner template, I can make sure I am using as many often forgotten pieces as possible. Likewise, the outfit calendar ensures I use my favorite pieces as many times as I want without getting into rut status. If I follow this fashion planner consistently, I am almost guaranteed to stay on a wardrobe track and not reuse the same exact outfit twice within my six-week time frame – unless I want to. There is nothing wrong with wearing the same outfit again and again if you love it. If I find an outfit I just love, I can put it in my outfit generator as many times as I want to.
To Get You Out the Door Faster Each Morning
Seriously, I can bet I will save at least 5-10 minutes each morning by using this wardrobe planner. My plan is to keep this one-sheet outfit calendar posted in my closet. Each morning, I will simply glance at the sheet to see what should I wear today and quickly pull those items. Mostly, my closet stays somewhat orderly. So finding the pieces is not usually my problem. My problem is the time it takes to pick my outfit. If you are someone who needs a little while to hunt things down, then pulling your pieces the night before is probably your best bet. Regardless, posting the outfit planning worksheet in your closet should help.
How to Fill In Your Outfit Calendar
This outfit calendar is basically an outfit planning worksheet all in one. By printing it and filling it in, you will create your own calendar of teacher outfits or general outfits (for those who are not teachers). Also, although I embrace technology, I am still a paper-and-pen gal by heart. I like to plan my personal life in the same way my school life is segmented – by quarters, nine-weeks, or semesters.
Use Colorful Erasable Pens to Color Code the Wardrobe Planner
To start, I highly recommend using colorful erasable pens to color code your wardrobe planner. This way, you can erase and move things around as you need. I can’t rave enough about my new erasable pens from Pilot. If you use a different color for each column, it helps your mind to focus on your options for that particular column theme. It also makes all the written in words on the calendar easier to pull out when using the calendar. You will have to write very small so this does help.
Deciding Which Themes You Want to Use in Your Wardrobe Planner Template
For my calendar, I planned my daily themes like this: church dress outfits on Sunday, miscellaneous outfits on Monday (filled in next to last as it was a lot of leftover outfits), skirts on Tuesdays, pants on Wednesdays, easy dress outfits on Thursdays, jeans outfits on Fridays, and comfy/lounge clothes on Saturdays. You do not have use the same themes as me (although the next three sub-sections follow my own themes). You could maybe do a Tuesday Shoesday or a Mellow Monday or a Wacky Wednesday – if you want to have more flexibility and challenge yourself to add some fun to your themes. For me, it is easier to narrow down my outfits in my mind by piece (like pants) and go from there. If not, my brain becomes overwhelmed – like it is going down the rabbit hole of endless outfit options.
Fill in One Day of the Week for Jeans/Casual Wear
If your school admin allow jeans/casual wear on Fridays or any other particular day of the week, it might be easiest to fill in your outfit choices for that day first. The calendar has space for six weeks. Go ahead and plan out six teacher outfits with jeans for all six Fridays (or whatever day you are using). Write one basic piece for top, bottom, shoes, and accessories. (Note: I don’t fill in jewelry or small accessories on my calendar. I am pretty good about selecting those small pieces quickly and on a whim. Under accessories on my calendar, I add things like scarves or layering pieces like vests. But you add real accessories if you wish on your calendar.) For example, in one box, you could write Hudson bell bottoms, white knotted t-shirt, and pink slides.
Fill in One Column for Your Next Most Basic Piece (Pants, Skirts, or Dresses)
I am a dress gal so my second column to fill in includes one dress for every Thursday. Once I write in which dress I want on each day, then I brainstorm the tops, shoes, and layering pieces.
Continue Filling in all 7 Columns
Take one theme idea for each column and run through your mind all the fun outfit ideas you could come up with. For my teacher outfits of the day, I like to consider shoes as my second piece to each outfit. Since I stand on my feet nearly the entire day, shoe choice is very important. So in my mind, I think of bottom piece, shoes, top, and layering pieces (in that order). If you have a big collection of blazers, maybe that is one column theme for you and you brainstorm six outfits for your blazers.
To finish, I enter in the Saturday outfits last. Let’s be honest. I spend many Saturdays in my jammies. But I went ahead and put in some lounge clothes just in case I need to run errands or take kids to a birthday party. If we have something fancier going on, then I will just pick an outfit on the fly for that.
How Often to Update Your Outfit Generator
How often you will need to update your outfit calendar is all relative to the temperatures of where you live. I live in the south – in Arkansas. We don’t get cool temps until late October or early November. We have celebrated Thanksgiving with 80 degree temps before. Therefore, I should be able to use my “back to school” outfit planner through two full rotations (or very close to it).
By my calculations, my first six-week window will end in mid September. My second rotation of this calendar will end in the first week of November. This should work out perfectly. Before early November, I will create a new fashion planner with fall/winter clothes. From analyzing a calendar, my winter fashion planner should allow for three rotations. These rotations will take me from early November to early March. By early March, I will create another outfit generator with spring outfits. That outfit calendar will take me through the end of the school year.
Basically, for a full school year, I need three separate outfit calendars. One will be for back-to-school/early fall season, one for fall/winter season, and one for spring/end-of-school season. If I want, I can create one for summer months, too. Although, that would almost be a joke since I live in jammies and lounge gear in the summer!
How to Add New Wardrobe Pieces to Your Wardrobe Planner
If I do buy some new wardrobe items that I want to add to my calendar, I can simply erase something(s) off my calendar and pop in the new items. It is that easy!
Where to Display Your Outfit Calendar
As I mentioned, my plan is to keep mine displayed in my closet. The back of my shoe shelf is a perfect spot for it.
But you don’t have to frame it. You could just tape it up on a closet wall or the back of your closet door. Maybe if you do a lot of your outfit dealings in the laundry room, you should post it there. Some people do a lot of laundry sorting and ironing in their laundry area. That could be a good place for an outfit reminder for you. I get ready in my closet so that is where my wardrobe planner needs to be. If the daily outfit generator is right before my eyes as I stand in my closet, I really shouldn’t have much excuse not to abide by it. If for some reason, I don’t feel like wearing what is listed, I can switch up days as I want. But the main thing will be the scramble to come up with an idea will not exist.
Get your own teacher outfits fashion planner here or find the general outfit planner (for those who are not teachers). Be sure to print in normal letter size and not with a wonky setting. The versions are both in color, but you can choose to print in black-and-white as I did with mine.
No more what should I wear today? for us! Have fun with your new outfit creator tool!
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