Simple Tip To Help Adults & Kids Get Ready In The Morning Faster & Easier
Here is a simple tip that will help both kids and adults get ready in the morning more quickly and easily, so you can get out the door for work and school without losing your mind.
The tip is to lay out your clothes, or your children's clothes, either the night before for the next day, or for the whole week, to make getting dressed in the morning easy for everyone in the family. In fact, this is such a great habit to get into I've actually made it one of the Declutter 365 missions!
That's why today's mission is to get in the habit of laying out your clothes and your kids' clothes ahead of time, either the night before, or for the whole week at a time.
This mission is designed to be done while we're working through the Create A Morning & Evening Routine Challenge here on the site, since this is a habit that can help both adults and kids get out the door and ready for the day more easily. However, you can adopt this habit whenever it works best for you.
I've found that if you don't have a lot of trouble getting yourself or your kids ready in the morning right now, perhaps because you already have a good morning routine in place, or have a lot of time to spare, then this mission won't make a huge impact on your life.
On the other hand, if you currently dread the task of choosing your clothes in the morning, or your kids can't seem to decide what outfit to wear to the point it's making you late or close to late each morning, adopting this habit can be a real game changer that transforms your morning from a simple task the night before.
How To Lay Out Your Clothes For Later
Laying out your clothes for later is pretty simple, it just takes forethought. The night before, or perhaps Sunday evening before the week begins, you go ahead and choose the outfits you or your child will wear in the future, and gather up all the parts, such as the top, bottom, and any accessories you want to go with it.
Make sure to designate a space for the clothes you've laid out, such as on top of the dresser if you're wearing it the next day, or in a hanging closet organizer with multiple shelves such as the ones shown to the right, if you want to lay out multiple outfits at once.
This photo on the right was sent in by a reader, Marina. She said, "This is how I organize my son's clothes in his closet." Notice how she's got various cubbies for separate days of the week. That way she or her son can group clothes as outfits and have one ready to grab each day of the week instead of having to match an outfit during the morning rush.
Advantages Of Adopting This Habit
When you lay out your clothes ahead of time you have one less thing to do in the morning, and the advantages you'll find of doing this each evening or weekly include:
- Time to think about your outfit, so you look more put together
- No searching in the morning, while running out of time, for missing pieces of clothing or the perfect accessory
- More time to make sure the clothes match each other, are OK for the weather and appropriate for the day (this can be especially helpful for kids who don't always choose matching or weather appropriate outfits)
- Allows you time to prepare clothing item further, if needed, such as getting a uniform washed, a stain treated, or a tear or lost button mended
Recommended Organizer Products For Laying Out Clothes For Each Day
The simplest way to organize multiple days of clothing at once is to use a hanging closet shelf organizer. These come with between 5-7 different "shelves" so you can plan outfits for just weekdays, or for the entire week. Here are some available ones:
Hanging Closet Shelf Organizer {Referral Links}
I find seeing ideas put into action by others helpful, to help me visualize how I would do it for myself. If you're the same way you'll want to check out these photos below, because this has been a pretty popular suggested habit as part of the missions, and several readers have sent in their photos showing how it is working for them.
As always, I encourage you to tweak the ideas to work for you, so some people have chosen to lay out their clothes for a whole week, while others just for the next day, and even additional variations. That's what you'll see below.
Examples When Get Ready For Whole Week
The photo above is from a reader, Stephanie. She said, "My daughters school things labelled."
Similarly, here's another photo below, from another reader, Angie, who also decided to do this. She said, "This year we bought 6 hanging shelves from Target. Each day has clothes, socks, and accessories. They put their stuff in it Sunday night for the entire week. No more hunting and rushing before school. Working awesome for us!"
Examples When Get Ready For Next Day
If getting a whole week's worth of clothes ready at one time seems like too much, because of lack of space or other reasons, why not try just doing one day at a time? It can still work well. Here are some example pics from readers:
The photo above is from a reader, Beth. She said, "My children wear uniform to school - we live in Britain. I put two Command hooks on the back of their door; each night at bath time I sort out their uniform for the next day. They each have an underwear drawer; it's a simple matter to get dressed in the morning.
Similarly, another reader, Sunny, shared the photo below. She explained, "My three year old is very particular about her outfits. She lays her clothes out every day, all by herself." I love that she lets her daughter do this for herself, plus can you imagine how much more patient you can be the night before as your child chooses their outfit, instead of in the morning while you're running late?
This also shows that Sunny and her daughter have decided to gather all parts of the outfit together, including underclothes and socks. You can just do the main part of the outfit, or be more inclusive, including choosing accessories as well if you want!
Alternative: Grouping Outfits Without Designating The Day To Wear Them
There are also alternatives to this idea that are designed to help you or your kids more easily group outfits together, even if you don't completely choose the outfit ahead of time.
For example, a reader, Hayley, sent in these photos below of how she helped her daughter have paired outfits ready to wear, but without having a specific outfit designated for each day. This could work well for kids who want to choose what they're wearing based on how they're feeling that particular day, for example.
Hayley said, "I did this for my daughter's clothes so that she has an easier time pairing outfits. It's also low enough so she can reach everything on her own. I put her "nicer" clothes (so she has to ask to wear them) and longer dresses up top. The little clips are from WalMart and hang perfectly on the hangers!
(I've also added a referral link to similar clips, in case you want to do this too!)
Hanger Clips {Referral Links}
Another idea that can help with mornings, but allows your kids to pick their own clothes, is to clearly label dresser or other clothes drawers. Then, your child can just grab one item from each drawer to get himself or herself ready for the day.
Here's a photo example of this, sent in by a reader, Betsy. She said, "We do something similar but I also use pictures so my little kiddos can be more independent. Everything is at their height so they can get all of their own clothes in the morning (and put laundry away)!!" You can check out my entire article on labeling dresser drawers here for more details on this idea.
Want To Do More Decluttering Missions? Get Started With Declutter 365 Today!
Once you declutter one type of item in your home I bet you'll want to declutter some more. After all, decluttering gives you a great reward for even a small investment of time and energy.
The Declutter 365 system is designed to help you declutter, over the course of a year, your entire house, with just 15 minutes of decluttering each day!
Hundreds of thousands of people use this proven system to get rid of their clutter, and bring peace and calm back to their homes.
Declutter 365 works to guide you to clear the clutter without overwhelm, focusing on just one small area at a time, and without making a huge mess in the process, so you see consistent forward progress without all that "messy middle" that makes it even harder to function in your home than before you started.
In addition to building a daily decluttering habit, the Declutter 365 program, along with the accompanying 52 Week Organized Home Challenge, teaches you the skills, habits, routines, and mindsets necessary to maintain the clutter free and organized state of your home from now on, so it'll never be as messy and cluttered as it is right now, ever again.
If you haven't already, make sure to get your copy of this year's Declutter 365 annual calendar here (it's FREE!), find today's date, and do 15 minutes of decluttering on the day's mission. Then, repeat again tomorrow, and again and again. Over the course of the next year, if you do this 15 minutes per day, you'll declutter your whole house!
In addition, here's an article with 5 tips to help kids get ready for school in the morning!
Top image courtesy of Amazon.com, showing the Rubbermaid Closet Jumbo Shelf Organizer
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