One of the things that changed after having my son was my working mom wardrobe. Not only was my body different and carrying a different amount of weight than pre-pregnancy, but I was also breastfeeding. I needed a streamlined and simplified stylish mom wardrobe that was forgiving and gentle to my new mom body.
Rethink your working mom wardrobe
My clothing staples when I returned to work consisted of forgiving elastic waistband dress pants, a layered top (you know, like a cardigan on a cami), and a comfy wedge. I mostly lived in clothes that looked like this:
This outfit made pumping easier, just pull up the under cami (I was already wearing a pumping/nursing bra), it didn’t put any pressure on my still healing tummy, and the shoes provided good support to my plantar fasciitis.
Most importantly, these clothes are easy to care for. All were washing machine friendly. Line dry or flat dry at most.
A note about work pants – if you’re like me and have a huge struggle finding pants that fit right and comfortably, check out Measure and Made – they recognize that no two women have the exact same body, but we do have a shared frustration trying to find clothes that fit.
Take their Fitlogic Fit Quiz and get your perfect fitting pants in just 60 seconds!
How to organize your stylish working mom wardrobe
Survey your work clothes:
- Are they all easy-care?
- If not, how many have to be dry-cleaned?
- How many have to be ironed?
Estimate how much time per week you spend going to the dry cleaners and ironing your clothes. You can have that time back if you switch to all easy-care work clothing.
Unless you’re blessed with the body and metabolism of a model, you probably don’t quite fit into your old clothes again. Bodies change, even if you lose the pregnancy weight quickly. Hips expand. My shoe size went up 1/2 a size. Annoying.
Steps for organizing your clothes:
- Gather your work clothes together and hang them in the same area of your closet.
- Sort them by clothing type (pants, shirts, tees, skirts, dresses, and blazers).
- Arrange your work clothes within each clothing type by color.
These bits of initial organization help you find what you need quickly. And there’s little upkeep as long as you hang things back where they were.
Organize your shoes.
Throw out or donate pairs of shoes you don’t wear anymore, like those that don’t fit or hurt your feet. Place the rest on a rack, in plastic holders on the back of your closet or in a shoe organizer. If you always return your shoes to their proper place, you won’t spend time looking for them.
How do you organize your working mom wardrobe?
This post is part of the 31 Tips for Working Moms series. See the rest of the posts here:
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