Admit it: since you started your working life there have been occasions when you’ve started the day behind schedule because of some kind of wardrobe crisis. Unless you are slipping into a uniform, dressing for work can be tricky and needlessly time-consuming.
Deciding what to wear only when you get out of bed can cause all kinds of problems – you may find your shirt needs ironing, the skirt you wanted to wear has lost a button, or the jumper that would really finish off your outfit turns out to be at the bottom of the laundry pile.
The answer to all this early-morning chaos isn’t exactly rocket science – either get up earlier, and give yourself time to choose or find whatever you want to wear, or just be organised and plan (and iron) what you’re going to wear the night before. Simple, yes, but how many of us get around to it?
Camelia Frederick, a London-based image consultant, says she has “a number of clients who are time pressed and always in a rush to get their outfits right before they head out to work”.
“It would be great to plan one’s outfits a week in advance,” she says. And if you were ultra-organised you would set aside some time on a Sunday to check your diary and decide what would be appropriate work wear for each of the next five days. You could then check what needed washing or ironing, and get those jobs done in time to have the right items ready on the right day. Great in theory, but it could be a problem if the weather changes half-way through the week, or you suddenly find you have an important meeting on a day when you’d planned to be scruffy.