A menu and shopping list for your wardrobe?

Have you ever heard the term “decision fatigue”? It’s a phrase used to describe the condition of a person after they’ve made a long series of decisions. After a whole day of deciding large and small things, we get tired. Our decisions become poorer. This is why we’re more likely to eat a whole bag of chips or a big bowl of ice cream in the evening, even when we’ve determined we’re going to eat healthy foods.

It also explains why we run through the drive thru instead of heading home to face what may or may not be in the pantry. Before we can cook, we have to decide what to make and often that’s one decision too many at the end of a long day.

I don’t like to shop, partly because of decision fatigue. Shopping involves too many decisions. Whether it’s for groceries or clothes, I just don’t care for it. Of course, it still needs to be done!

There are two ways to reduce decision fatigue in the area of shopping for clothes or food.  One is to eat and wear the same things.  Adopting a uniform or a rotating menu saves time and energy.

But sometimes you want to break out of the spaghetti, tacos, chicken casserole rut.  Both menus and wardrobes can use refreshing now and then.

I have learned that having meals all planned out and printing a grocery list ahead of time makes the whole process better. The shopping goes quicker. The decisions of what to fix at the end of a long day is taken care of. (For years I menu planned for my family so we could enjoy the benefits of it. Now I do it for you too.)

 

Like having a menu and grocery list – for your wardrobe!

I’m excited to tell you about a service I stumbled on last year. Through the rabbit trails of the internet, I found the website, Get Your Pretty On. My timing was great because Alison was just starting her very first Spring Fashion Challenge. I signed up and have since done her challenges for every season of the year, plus her Basic Wardrobe Challenge and the Men’s Challenge (great for having a list to shop for my husband).

Just like the Eat at Home Weekly Meal Plans has everything planned out so you can hit the store knowing exactly what you need, Alison gives you a printable shopping list for seasonal clothing.

And just like Weekly Meal Plans gives you main dishes and sides to go with them for each day, Alison gives you outfit ideas combining the items on her shopping list.

You end up with 21 days of outfits. I save the outfit ideas to my Evernote and refer back to them all the time. In fact, our weather warmed up last week and I pulled out the ideas from last year’s Spring challenge to wear again.

Registration for this year’s Spring Style Challenge opens today.  Early bird registration (with its lower price of $29 ends on April 2).  Click here to register.

Why is it important to reduce decision fatigue?

Using a pre-planned service for clothes shopping or grocery shopping frees up valuable energy. That means more mind power to focus on helping one of my kids work through an issue. Or having the energy to plan family time together. Or even just to be fully present at the dinner table.

And it’s fun to get new ideas and try things I might not track down on my own.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. I only share things with you that I truly love and that I think you will too.