Curating an Efficient Wardrobe

We all love closet organization, but very rarely do we realize how much keeping an organized closet has to do with defining your personal style! Having a clear-cut style will minimize the clutter in your closet and save you time every morning!

There was a time in my life when getting dressed literally took hours. I had so many clothes that I wasted a lot of time just trying to decide what style I wanted to wear: “Am I feeling Boho Chic or New England Preppy today?”

Fashion is constantly changing, but your style should always have the same vibe. I spent much of my Christmas break really trying to hone in on two things: Creating a personal “style profile” and paring down my closet to reflect that style.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by your closet, and would like to take a more minimalist approach (without losing your personal style), read on to find out how I did it!

What’s Your Style?

The challenging thing about style is that, even though it’s hard for us to put into words, we know what we like when we see it. If it’s hard for you to label exactly what kind of style it is that you’re drawn to, check out your Pinterest boards!

Not only will you start to notice patterns and recurring items, but Pinterest also shows you search terms within your own boards! Take a minute to scroll through those and see what types of things you’ve pinned/repined a lot of!

QUIZ: Who What Wear | Which Style Icon Are You? 

What's Your Body Type?

I’m all for everyone loving their body exactly as it is… but it’s also important to know what is flattering on your body and what is not. Beyoncé would never walk around in something that didn’t make her curves look #flawless, and neither should we! 

It’s also important to remember that every trend cannot look good on every body. Know what cuts and styles work best for you and stick to them! If you need help, check out this post on 5 Rules for Simplified Style!

Who What Wear | The Foolproof Way to Find Out Your Body Type

What’s Your Coloring?

Did you ever notice how you may hate the way you look in photographs when you’re wearing one certain dress? Or some days you come home and just look totally wiped out? It may not be the dress or the busy day that’s to blame, it may be the color(s) you’re wearing!

“But Kirsten, it’s not the dress, it really is the stress!”, then check out this post: 5 Quick Ways to Deal with Stress

Season Coloring Analysis is a great theory that can help you find the colors that look best on you and which ones to avoid. For example, I’m “Deep Autumn”, which means that bold colors look best on me, while I should avoid pastels. Check out the link below to find yours!

Cardigan Empire | How to Choose Color for Your Complexion

Once you’ve completed all three steps, you should have a pretty good idea of what clothes make you look good and feel good! Next, clean out your closet and eliminate the things that don’t fit it (or just don’t fit)! Now, you’re ready for the fun part: SHOPPING! :) 



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What tips do you have for finding your personal style? Did you take any of the quizzes above? What were your results?! 

FlyLady App Review

Have you heard of FlyLady? She has some crazy good ideas about how to keep your house clean.

College Kirsten: “But what loser cares that much about keeping their house clean?”

Grown-Up Kirsten: *slowly raises hand*

I really love her advice because she creates little daily routines, and I love few things more than a good routine! However, the only problem I ever had with her system was that keeping up with it was a little difficult.

I tried to write it all in my planners. I tried to add it all to my phone reminders. Most recently, I tried to print it in Word documents as checklists. And then, I found it (ha-llelujah!): The FlyLady App! What’s so great about it? I’ll show you!

Free

First of all, it’s free. I hate it when you’re trying out a new app, that you don’t know whether or not it will work for you, and you have to PAY to find out! Since this is free, you’re free to download it, try it, and discard it if it doesn’t fit your needs!

Closet Organization Solutions

Routines

By far, my favorite section! This is what the FlyLady system is all about: making cleaning part of your daily routine, instead of a big dreadful chore. She has three daily routines already set out for you: Morning, Afternoon, and After Dinner.

Then there is a routine for the Weekly Home Blessing Hour, which are just chores that you need to get done weekly (vacuuming, cleaning windows, etc.). You can do this one all at once, or knock out these tasks throughout the week.

You can also delete these routines and add your own!

Zones

The “Zones” are another idea that’s strictly FlyLady. She divides every home into five zones: Entrance & Dining, Kitchen, Bathroom & Guest Room & Office, Master Bedroom & Bathroom, Living Room/Den.

Obviously, you can change your house into whatever five zones work best for you! And again, under the Zones, you can still add/delete checklists as needed. The idea is to hit each of these areas about once a month with a full-on cleaning!

See also: Dorm Room Organization

Agenda & Timer

Aside from the Routines & Zones, I don’t really use the app for much else. The Agenda and Timer features are just like the stock Calendar and Clock apps on your phone. I do like the way the timer shows you how much time you have left.

The Agenda features imports whatever is already in your calendar, so it can be handy to have it all in one place!

How the Reminders App Can Organize Your Whole Life

Because I can’t seem to clean my house unless there’s an elaborate checklist involved, FlyLady and her “bite-sized” cleaning ways are perfect for me!

Maybe they’ll be perfect for you, too! J

Have you ever tried FlyLady before? What did you think: easy or hard? Are there any cleaning systems or apps you can’t live without? 

How to Make Your Perfect Summer Schedule

Summer’s here! Yay! But summer also comes along with a lot of free time and a lack of desire to do anything productive. Boo! 

Some people live for the summer months, when work or school (or both) slow down and get a little relaxed. Even in college, the summer classes were (usually) WAY easier than the fall and spring courses. 

Side note: My secret trick was to take the classes I knew would be the hardest in the summer (so, basically all of the math). 

Even as an adult, summer can be challenging for me. I love routine. I love structure. I love busy days where my planner looks like it couldn’t possibly handle one more thing! 

However, in the summer, I’m lucky if my planner even has one thing. 

So, I’m working on a summer schedule. A way to keep myself as productive as possible while school is out! 

STEP 1 | Decide what you want to accomplish this summer

What do you want to have done by the end of the summer months? What would help you to have in place by fall? What are some projects you would love to complete, but are always too busy for? This is the time for those things! J

Set a timer for one minute and jot down everything you would like to have done by the end of summer. Then rate them by importance. Can you start that one that’s most important to you? Is it feasible to do over the summer? Why or why not? What needs to be done to make it doable?

STEP 2 | Set weekly checkpoints

It’s important to remember that summer is a fleeting season; In fact, probably the most fleeting season of the year. So don’t give yourself an ENORMOUS project that you don’t have the time/resources to complete in the next two months.

How many weeks do you have between here and the end of summer? 8? 10? Set up a weekly progress track to help keep you on pace. Tiny little milestones to work towards each week will make your goal feel more achievable and will keep you on target!

STEP 3 | Block out your time

This is the thing that’s so hard about summer: there’s no restrictive schedule! Days and time are more fluid… that’s why you need to make yourself a little schedule! Nothing crazy hard, just a little time map of your day that tells you what to do and when to do it.

Remember to block out a realistic amount of time for your projects!

STEP 4 | Get started

Of course, the most important step: getting started! Beginning a new project can be overwhelming, so just remember to work toward your weekly checkpoints and they will lead you to your big goal!

How I Learned to Let Go of Perfectionism

Do your work and school life slow down in the summer? What projects do you have planned? 

Summer Goals 2017

I love fresh, new beginnings… like the first day of school, starting a new month, or getting a new planner! Today is the (unofficial) “first” day of summer and, to me, that counts as a chance to have a fresh new beginning!

What do I want my summer to look like? What do I want to achieve by the end of it? How do I want to spend my time?

Those are the big questions I’m answering today.

Summer Goal #1

My first goal for summer is to spend less time on my phone. I have this really cool (and free!) app called Moment that tracks my phone use over time. It shows me my phone use in neat and organized graphs… which I absolutely adore! 

Because Moment is constantly running in the background, I know how many hours I spend on it each day, the average time I pick it up in the morning and when I put it down for the last time at night.

Like all apps these days, it has a premium feature that will even show you how much time you spend on Facebook, Instagram, etc. But my husband already thinks it’s ridiculous that I pay for Pandora (“Babe, commercials kill my vibe"), so I’m at my limit on purchased apps!

Summer Goal #2

My second goal is to get our house ready for our biggest and most exciting project yet. We are having a baby (boy) in October! And while I am super excited, I know that I have a LOT to do to get ready for his arrival! 

Since I have literally no idea how to get ready for a baby, or what to even expect, I’m relying heavily on a small library of apps, books, and the checklists from those apps and books! Ovia and The Bump have been my faves so far.

(I like Ovia because it tells me I’m a “Data Queen”. I know, girl. I know.)

Summer Goal #3

My third goal for the summer is a tie between having the most organized and efficient home in the world or having the most organized and efficient classroom in the world… Maybe there will be time to achieve both?

With the baby arriving in October, that gives me a little over 4 months to get my home life in order. Everything will be messier: the kitchen, the laundry, the house itself. I want to get everything as decluttered and streamlined as possible!

On the other end of that spectrum, a baby in October (middle of the first semester) means that I’ll miss 3 months of school. 3 months! Since I started teaching in my own classroom, I haven’t even missed a day... To say I’m anxious would be an understatement!

Summer Vignettes

I love this time of year because there are blooming hydrangeas EVERYWHERE! :) 

I know nothing is perfect and that I will feel ready for everything when it comes. But for now, I can at least make myself feel better by making elaborate checklists and spreadsheets, right? J

What are some of your goals this summer? What are some plans or steps you can take over the summer to achieve them? Teachers, any advice for a new mom?

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