I. THE PLANNING, Step 8:

Add the extras

Now that we have the basics covered, it's time to move on to occasion wear.

What constitutes an "occasion" is for you to determine. It might not be a wedding (if you never go to one) but perhaps a night out on the town.

Whatever the occasion, the extras are those pieces of clothing that you use on a less frequent basis, or only pull out for special occasions. They may also simply spruce up one of your basic outfits when required.

How to determine your wardrobe extras

Identify low frequency activities

A useful way to determine what those extras may be is to take another look at your activity pie chart. All activities that together make up less than 40% of your chart are special occasions.These are the activities that you engage in but on a lesser scale. For example, if you attend evening events once a month you will need a couple of evening dresses but these would certainly not form the backbone of your wardrobe.

Look into your wardrobe

Another way to determine your extras is by looking into your current wardrobe and identifying those items of clothing that you only wear sometimes, or even less than that. But not because you don't like them, or they're not comfortable, but because the right occasion to wear them does not come up that frequently.Note: I am not talking about those dream items that we buy because we will look fantastic in them once we have lost ten pounds. I am talking about those items that you do like and wear but that only fit certain occasions.


Adding the extras to your master plan

Once you have identified all the occasions or activities for which you will need clothing other than what is covered by your basics, you can add them to your wardrobe master plan.You can do this in the same manner that we used for our basics. Identify the number of items required, and add a description for each of them.Below is an example, where the "occasions" are around 5 evening events per year and a hiking tour once per month.


Add the Extras Master Plan Example - the concept wardrobe


For the evening events, I will need three evening dresses which are enough to cover all events for the year.

For the hiking tours, I have added two extra t-shirts, one jumper (for colder weather), and one extra pair of jeans that can get muddy. And since I already have two pairs of jeans included in my basics, one additional pair is more than enough.

Download the worksheet

Step 8: Add the extras worksheet

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