Set up Your Post-Baby Wardrobe in 7 Easy Steps
Wardrobes are difficult to organize on any given day. But if you have gained 25 pounds in the last 14 months and aim to lose about 15 pounds in the next 10 months, your wardrobe can be quite a big challenge.
Pregnancy is a trying phase; you have a terrible time trying to make out what to wear and what not to. Most of us spent the first two trimesters in our pre-pregnancy clothes. But soon you are forced to hit the maternity stores to accommodate the full-on bump. As the days go by your wardrobe grows and before you know, it’s bursting at the seams with clothes of all sizes.
So how do you deal with this massive mess, with clothes ranging from a size 0 to 8 or maybe even 12. We normally don’t quite realize when our ‘normal’ clothes get phased out and are replaced by the maternity ones. The out- of-use clothes get relegated to the backmost corners of the closet or they lose themselves in the growing mess that the wardrobe tends to be. A total recovery and revamp of the wardrobe is practically possible only after your bundle of joy has arrived.
So what can a new mom do to organize a sane, functional and satisfactory wardrobe?
Some tips for a brand-new post-baby wardrobe
A post-baby wardrobe is full of clothes that you like but don’t fit, clothes you like and fits, and clothes you don’t like but fits you fine. So how to go about editing and purging this wardrobe which actually seems to belong to very many different ‘yous’?
1) Empty your wardrobe. Get all your clothes out, the visible, the hidden and the forgotten ones out on your bed. You can easily make a separate pile of the ones you are currently wearing. And now you are left with the rest to deal with
2) Check if they fit. Two months after delivering, you begin to lose weight. Six months down the line you have lost quite a lot. So it’s important that you wear all that you have and see if they fit to your liking. You would be surprised to see that quite a few of your tops and blouses from your pre-pregnancy days do fit you, beautifully. So make a pile of the well-fitting ones.
3) The ‘I’m getting there’ ones. You suck in your breath, hold it there and yes, you have buttoned and zipped up that favorite jeans. But how long can you keep the air sucked in? Give these a skip for now; in a few weeks you should be able to wear them. So pile up that ‘wearable-in-future’ lot separately. But don’t be over-ambitious. You don’t want your skinny jeans staring at you every day for months to come, reminding how big you still are.
4) ‘No way’ by a long shot. There are the really small sizes which you may not be able to fit into for quite some time. They were kind-of tight during your skinny days and now they look like corset tops. So don’t shed tears. They have to go. Donate them, sell them or give them to your lucky pal.
5) Assess what you have. No, not the maternity wear. They are not counted as normal clothes. They are a specialty and god knows when you may have to wiggle into them again. They are for keeps. That is if you don’t absolutely hate them. If all of them are way too big to wear, box them and keep them away.
6) Make sure you like them and they are in good shape. Are you sure you really like that yellow skirt? Don’t keep clothes which deep down you know you’ll never wear. Donate them and don’t waste space in your closet. Also check whether the clothes are in good condition. You can separate the lot you want to give for alterations, repair or dry-cleaning.
7) What you like and can wear gets the first priority. Get some nice hangers from onlyhangers.com and hang up all your chosen clothes in the closet. Keep the wearable-in-near future lot neatly folded in the drawers. Do make it a point to check on them time-to-time and transfer the made-the-cut ones onto the hangers. You will get much pleasure seeing all your favorite clothes appearing on the hangers.
As time flies by, with a baby keeping you super-busy, you will fail to notice how soon you have lost all the baby fat and are back to your pre-pregnancy size. Okay, that does not happen most of the time, but you are ‘nearly’ the pre-pregnancy size and weight. But never ever regret what you so ruthlessly purged. Use this opportunity to go shopping. If you’re lucky enough to have someone at home to take care of the baby, indulge yourself happily in some retail therapy. You are in a new phase of life, so why not get some new, fresh clothes as well?
Conclusion
Wardrobes require to be organized every year or 6 months ideally. With a changed body and needs, you need to be quite careful of what you put back in your closet after your baby. Make sure they make you feel good, free and beautiful. And make sure you enjoy yourself until the stick turns pink again!
