Seeking Knowledge: Picking out your clothes each day.
 

The night sky grows blue. Birds chirp. Squirrels frolic in the grass. The mid-sized yellow star called Sol peeks over the horizon.

Your eyelids flutter. Your breathing quickens. Via a process not yet understood, your brain waves initiate a new pattern and a spark of consciousness lights within your sleeping brain. Your eyes pop open, and a new day awakens.

Groggy, you look at the ceiling, think about Jessica Alba, [censored], and then after that you get out of bed and head to your closet.

What to wear, what to wear...you reach into your closet and....


So this is the question. How do you decide what to wear on a typical morning? The poll will ask whether you have a strong system, moderate system, weak system, or no system for pre-determining your clothes, according to the following definitions. However, feel fee to explain your methods.

The poll will ask if you have a...

Strong system - you have a habit, system, or plan in place so that you're choosing from no more than a few options each day. 10 percent of your wardrobe or less is eligible to be worn (or considered to be worn) on any given day.

Moderate system - you have a system, but it's pretty broad. 11 to 40 percent of your wardrobe is eligible to be worn or is considered on any given day.

Mild system - some items are not eligible, but your search is broad. 41 to 60 percent of your wardrobe is eligible to be worn or is considered on any given day.

Weak system - you look broadly. On any morning, you're pondering and choosing from 61 to 90 percent of your entire wardrobe.

No system - pretty much random. Less than 10 percent of your wardrobe is not eligible.


Consider only clothing that is in season, so we know that you don't consider shorts in winter or your parka in summer.


As for me, I've got a strong system in place. Clothing is hung up on the far right side of my closet, and every morning I pick clothing from the far left end. There are three or four pants and shirts that are eligible, and I pick the pair that matches best. If there's no match, I may go farther afield, but it's always on a left to right basis.

Sock follow the same pattern, and in fact are stored on the closet shelf, so they move right to left with the clothes.

Same with sweaters and t-shirts, which have a rotational pattern within my dresser. T-shirts go in on the bottom left and work their way up two drawers until they show up as the topmost right t-shirt. Sweaters work their way down from top left to bottom right. I don't know why I ended up with opposite systems, but it works. Underwear moves back to front in the top drawer.

Shoes have no pattern, though. I always pick out the best shoes for the outfit, but with one rule: I never wear the same shoes on two consecutive days.

What's your system?

Are we meeting with clients today, or just going to quietly get some stuff done at the office?

I grab a pair of pants and flip through until I find an appropriate shirt for the days' schedule.

I spend 30 seconds picking cloths for the day, including a stroll to the dresser for boxer-brief-boulder holders and Socks. Presentation or meeting days...maybe 2 minutes, including belt and shoes.

The percentage of viable selections varies by weather/season. I'm not wearing a polo in Feb.

If half my clothes are mostly for work and half are mostly for non work, I guess I have a moderate system.

Is that a question you ask yourself? What do you do next?

No system. But your definition doesn't fit me.

"Consider only clothing that is in season, so we know that you don't consider shorts in winter or your parka in summer."

While I wouldn't own a parka in the summer, nor do I actually own a parka, there's a very good chance I'd wear shorts in the winter. Even in freezing temps. I went out in flip flops in 35 degree weather a week ago.

Socks and underwear are the first pair I grab, often from the clean, but unfolded laundry basket.

If it is a client day, then I pick a suit from the bottom rack with appropriate shirt and tie from the top rack. If it's a day working by myself at the office, then it's slacks from the bottom rack and shirt from the top rack, or sport shirt from the dresser depending on the season. If there is no chance of having to interact with anyone, then it's jeans from the dresser (or more likely, draped over the chair).

There's so much that factors in. Weather, mood, weekend or weekday, game day, etc. According to your definitions though, I would have to say mild/moderate. I'm voting for mild.

As an aside, I have one shirt that's a nice shirt, but it doesn't go with anything. When it hits the far left, it usually stays there quite a while until I can find a pair of pants for it. I don't know why it's so hard; it's a patterned shirt with small black, green, and tan diamonds all over it. It's this really slick material, so the pattern doesn't work with a lot of my pants and the material doesn't work with other pants.

My system relies heavily on how dirty the jeans I had on the day before are.:D As for a shirt it depends on what I have planned. Bumming around - tshirt. Running errands - tshirt. Any type of mechanical work-dickies........tshirt:D. And if money's been tight I'll usually put on some polyester pants, a cheap old polo shirt, slap on some Lucky Tiger Cologne gggrrrrrrrrrrrrr, and head down to the nursing home when the SS cks come in. I really really really hate having to whore myself out like that. Espcially when old Maudeline Friederbecht gets her quarterly interest check. Her damn roommate always watches. She NEVER puts her teeth in, leaves them on the nightstand in a glass and her fricken prosthetic leg keeps falling off. I finally got tired of that crap one night and just grabbed her leg stump and started using it like a 4 speed gear shift. Feel bad about breaking her hip but WTH she ask for it rough. Anyways, enough complaining I'm sure a lot of you guys have it a lot rougher than I do.

Going to court-suit.

No system.

When I travel for work, I can obviously only bring so much, so there's not a lot to it. When I'm not on the road, I work from home... and it doesn't matter if I have to go into the office, because it's casual.

It mostly depends on what's clean, but I'll wear certain things to certain places... and I try to remember to grab a roll of duct tape when I go out.

Outfit? Did you say outfit? Tell me you didn't say outfit.

I wear a white t-shirt and white Dickies every day so the choice is pretty damn easy. The only real decision is if I want to grab a flannel or not.

I usually wonder what's clean enough.